Journal #6766

Posted 13 years ago2010-09-09 09:04:19 UTC
Tetsu0 Tetsu0Positive Chaos
Hello all!
First off i would like to thank every one of you who wished me good luck! The surgery went VERY well and i was off the table and in the recovery room quicker than the predicted minimum operating time. (4-6 hours) I had ZERO incisions made (unless you consider an IV an incision, which you shouldnt) But they took 2 IV's and went in thru my groin, and fixed everything from there.
The IV's are located right about where the middle of your thighs meet the pelvic area.
So i came out of heart surgery with 2 pieces of gauze taped to me :)

Here's all the details if you would like;

Woke up at 5:00 to leave my house at 5:30. Picked up my dad at his place around 5:45, and got to the hospital around 6:20. We checked in and i was immediatley instructed to put on that silly gown thingy and these REALLY uncomfortable socks with rubber sticky pads on the bottom (and top, for those who can't wear socks properly?) Anyway, they take my vitals, put me on an EKG, take blood pressure, the whole 9 yards, and then they prepared my gurney (rolling hospital bed) for the journey down to the O.R.
So i get into the O.R. and what i see was fascinating.
User posted image
That was not the lab, but that picture is almost exactly what i saw in the lab. A table with multiple monitors on it, and some other equipment floating around in the lab.
They put these special stickypads on me as to make a 3-d picture of my heart (i think) and of course, the automatic blood pressure thingy, and all the other stickys for the EKG and stuff.
While they were preparing me they asked me what type of music i liked; i responded with classic rock, and within 30 seconds, they had "The Dark Side of The Moon" playing throughout the SURROUND SOUND SPEAKER SYSTEM.
So i'm getting nice and comfy on the bed, checking out my 3-d heart beat (it was really freaking cool) when the anesthesiologist team came in and started to prepare me for going under.

this was BY FAR the worse part (and the part i remember most) -

It was a team of 2, a younger looking guy (presumabley straight out of med school) and an older, more experienced / less nervous looking fellow. So first they prepare the inside of my elbow for IV insertion. (This IV is for the fluids, and so called 'happy juice') the older doc told the younger one not to do it there, because then my arm can't bend. So they un-did the tournaquette, and flipped my arm over and proceded to find a vein on my forearm about 2 inches above thumb-side of my wrist. So they re-apply the tournaquette lower on my arm and start slapping my arm to find a vein.
Mr. New guy is prodding me with an Iv for about a minute trying to find that damn vein. Well he cant find it, so they move on to my hand.
He trys again on my hand, slapping away - at this point i'm not looking because i'm REALLY anxious and IV's just freak me the hell out.. Anyway, i feel the pinch, and a certain degree of relieif comes over me until he hits some type of nerve and a very sharp pain shoots up my arm, into my neck and down my right side all at once....

To which i responded..

"Ohhhhhhh... what was that..."

Mr new guy said, "oh i'm sorry that was my fault", withdrew the IV, and handed the reins over to mr. experience.

Who got the iv in first shot, btw.

So i'm almost twitching out of my skin at this point, just Irked by what just happened.. and then mr.experience screws a little syrange into my IV line and says.. "Ok now just relax while we give you some "happy juice""
So about 5 seconds after that... i didnt give a shit about anything really.
my hand and arm still felt odd and incomfortable, and i felt the burn of the 3 IV holes.. but still.. didnt care..

I sat like that for about a minute before i got tired, and decided to fall asleep.

I awake from my dream in a haze, very tired, and wanting to go back to sleep. I see a doctor above me, talking, but i have no idea what he's saying. I'm wheeled back to the waiting room, transferred to my bed, and in walks my family: Mom, Dad, G/F, and Aunt. Along with a few nurses.

I felt like i was out for 20 minutes... turns out it was almost 3.5 hours, and the surgery just went extrememly well. From what was told to me, i had a pretty basic case of SVT, and when they were in my heart, the abnormal heartbeat was easy to cause.
They cauterized the area with the extra circuit, and couldnt cause the abnormal heartbeat to happen again.

Long story short they made me chill at the hospital for another 2 hours.. i just watched discovery channel, and had some lunch (some sort of meat with mashed potatoes and green beans - which was surprisingly good, and definitly satisfying seeing as how i didnt eat since the night before)

So all in all i can't lift anything over 10lbs for 3 days, really can't shower until tomorrow[friday] (ugh fucking gross), and then i can't jog or bike or do anything too strenuous for another 2-3 weeks after that.

I'm essentially back to normal! yay

As for recovery, Yesterday my GF and i did some..re-arranging of my bedroom.
We took the nightstand next to my bed and put it at the foot of my bed. I stole my mom's wireless mouse, (traded with my G9 - which she loves and i'm afraid im not gonna get it back) and i moved my computer into the middle of my room. I put my 23" widescreen on the nightstand and with my new copy of netflix i can stream any movie i'd ever want straight to my CPU monitor.
Plus with windows 7 magnifier and on screen keyboard all i had to do was navigate with the mouse and have almost full control of my computer.
Yesterday my girl and i watched the first 7 episodes of SG:SG1 before passing out at like 10:30 lol.
I'm typing this from my mom's laptop in the kitchen right now.

I can walk and stuff, but the IV locations are pretty tender. Kinda wierd to sit and stand from sitting, however.

17 Comments

Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 09:14:48 UTC Comment #49129
I don't really like surgery's or reading about them for that matter... but I'm happy that you didn't die it went well.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 09:16:22 UTC Comment #49130
Nice to see your well. Hope the recovery goes okey too.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 09:43:29 UTC Comment #49128
Awesome. Glad it went well. Now make us a map. :D
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 10:20:36 UTC Comment #49132
I'm happy it all went well! (=)), I was just going to play a League of Legends match and I wanted to say to you "GJ" =)) ).
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 10:26:07 UTC Comment #49122
anesthetics are fucked up man. when i got my wisdom teeth taken out, they put in the IV, started talking to me about university and i don't even remember finishing my god damn sentence. next thing i know i wake up with a swollen as fuck mouth. it's trippy as... literally no time passes.

glad to hear you're all good though man.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 11:43:06 UTC Comment #49121
Welcome back, im glad you made it though. :)
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 11:47:24 UTC Comment #49125
:) thanks guys
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 13:29:22 UTC Comment #49120
Glad it went well.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 13:37:30 UTC Comment #49124
Good to hear that you're all right :)
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 14:00:38 UTC Comment #49131
i didn't see your initial post but i'm glad you're doing good now! Enjoy the SG!!

)

Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 17:01:53 UTC Comment #49134
Glad you're well.

It was a bit disappointing that the picture wasn't an actual picture of you in the operation room, though :P
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 17:44:57 UTC Comment #49133
Good to see ya made it!
Hope the recovery process is speedy and you're back to feeling 110% again soon.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 18:08:01 UTC Comment #49135
Gordon! You're alive! Thank GOD for that Hazard Suit!
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 20:08:57 UTC Comment #49126
Yeah i agree that i should have been in some photos, but photos weren't taken - that i know of.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 20:24:53 UTC Comment #49136
Some? There's only one.

Good to have you back, i forgot about your ferrari though. (You need to constantly remind me else i'll forget.) :/
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-09 20:33:18 UTC Comment #49127
? Ferrari? what?
And that picture is just some random google pic i found.
Commented 13 years ago2010-09-10 17:34:22 UTC Comment #49123
My GF was just in the hospital going through something that poked her full of holes. Though I've never been there, I can relate.

(this is Rimrook's GF) I just had the Exact same thing done, same machine and everything. Mine was an angiogram and went to the brain, but same holes in the same places, I have 2 more procedures to go through, one in the same way, the other, well yeah. Glad it went well for you, and that you are doing better :)

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