Well Monday rolled around quickly, and Donna and I took Claire to daycare early in the morning before driving to Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. We checked in around 7:30AM, paid my 20%, and eventually got called back to pre-op. The nurse asked all the normal questions, had me strip down to my boxers, and had me put all my belongings away. Even though the signs all said no mobile phones, I still hung onto mind to tweet ’til the last minute. After I was all set up and had my IV, they let Donna come back.

After a bit Dr Orozco (ENT) & Dr Whooley (anesthesiologist) came in to answer questions. Donna and I wrote them all down and took a couple last minute photos before the nurse wheeled me down to the operating room. (Donna was to wait in the waiting room until I was done). As they wheeled me into the OR, I had this sense of overwhelming dread at the last second. It was the anxious feeling of passing the point of no return. As soon as they got me on the table, Whooley administered Versed, which is a relaxing drug they’ve used on me before. While he did that, he told the nurse to get a nasal intubation tube. I know enough about medical procedures to know I did NOT want to be awake when they intubated me!

Well, guess what? The next thing I knew was hearing Donna’s voice. She said something about the nasal tube, and then I opened my eyes. Right when I opened my eyes, I watched the RN swiftly pull what looked like a 6″ curved, bloody tube from my right nostril. Donna gasped because she didn’t realize how far into my body that tube would go. I did. It hurt a little but not really that much since I was still completely out of it. By this point, Donna has later told me that I’d been out of surgery for 90 minutes.

Once a bed opened, they moved me upstairs. There are holes throughout my afternoon that she could probably fill in, but as I said before, I am writing this for people who will have these surgeries more for me. Through out the afternoon I was surprised at how sore I wasn’t. Yes, not that sore. The ENT had said I would feel like I have the worse sore throat ever, but that’s not true for me. I’ve had a sore throat where I felt like I was swallowing glass all the time. This isn’t that bad. But you know what they didn’t tell me that has bothered me? The gook. Now, I haven’t seen any blood but have you ever had a mouth full of really thick spit that you just needed to get out of your throat? Well, that’s what I’ve been feeling completely for 24 hours now. I’ve been either spitting into tissues and tossing them or trying to swallow. It takes 2-3 times for me to swallow when trying, and most of the time i don’t completely succeed. The ENT said all of this is normal for now.

The evening after surgery I was in and out of consciousness all night long. One time I woke up to a meal sitting in front of me. It was all liquid sort of food, and one thing there was chicken soup that was pureed. I decided to try it, and some of it was going back up my nose, which was sort of scary because I sure don’t want that to permanent part of my eating abilities from now on. I gave up on soup and then had some pudding. It was lemon flavored and he said no citrus but it felt ok to me.

By 2AM Donna reminded me that I had my noise cancellation headphones with me, and since my roommate was way too loud, I popped those on, and fell asleep for 4-5 hours. Tuesday morning was a lot of waiting around to be released. Over night I realized the nurse had been giving me double doses of my painkillers, which was good news for me. After the nurse split the dose to the correct dosage, it still was doing it’s job just fine.

As for talking, it sure isn’t something I want to be doing but I’ve had to talk a little here and there and it’s been ok. It doesn’t really hurt, but I am just not that interested in talking too much. Of course, Claire doesn’t quite understand but she will be ok.

By about 1PM I was allowed to go home. Donna drove me home and I’ve been mostly on the couch since. I’ve slept a bit and watched TV, and the only reason I can post this is because I am 3 1/2 hours out from painkillers so I am relatively lucid right now.

I am sort of surprised by my lack of appetite. I thought I would be terribly hungry and my family even had a great dinner here near me, but so far it’s not bothered me at all. I’ve been sipping on a Gatorade all day and forced down a chocolate pudding. I know what my weight was pre-surgery, so I can more about that after this journey. As for the bathroom, I know I need to be urinating. When you have something like this and don’t urinate then it’s definitely an issue, which could lead to dehydration and fluids in the ER. Yuck. So I am keeping track of my toilet habits, too. As for bowel movements, if it don’t go in, then it won’t come out. ’nuff said. ok, moving on…

I think bed tonight will be a new test.