Couple of years ago I gave myself absolutely the best Christmas present I've ever had. I gave myself a new life!! The present keeps on giving, too!!!
We live about 75 miles from the hospital in Minneapolis, which in late December introduces a certain uncertainty to travel plans. There is a Sheraton 5 blocks from the hospital, though, and they have a) a super discount for patients and b) an indoor tunnel/skywalk system and a shuttle from the hotel to the hospital. Both are very important!!
Two years ago today, we left home and headed up the road to the hotel so we could check in and Peanut could get a bite to eat while I started my prep. I enjoyed a nice magnesium citrate cocktail and settled in to wait, and I was not disappointed! Several hours later, as the aftershocks died away, I had my shower and got everything else ready.
Five o'clock next morning found me sneaking out of the room while Peanut slept on blissfully. Wasn't any big deal to get up early, I hadn't really slept anyway. So with my ditty bag in hand and my CPAP over my shoulder, I walked the 5 blocks, looking occasionally out the windows at the early morning snow falling enthusiastically and thinking of what that would be doing to traffic!! We would have had to leave home at 3:00, with no guarantee of arriving before 7:00 if there were an accident anywhere en route.
I got to the hospital and they banded me, then sent me downstairs to the OR prep area. The nurses loved the decorations on my cast! (I'd fallen a few weeks earlier on an icy parking lot and busted up my right wrist, so the girls at church had done a heck of a job with Christmas themes. I'd gotten a bright lime-green cast to give them a good background!) As my right arm was kinda hard to get to, they had to stick everything in my left, but they found room!!
About 6:30, there was a minor kerfluffle when a nurse came in and told me they were missing a critical test result. They couldn't continue without it! So I had a couple of choices: 1) we could reschedule my surgery for another time when we had the records or 2) they could put me on hold for a few hours while they waited for my PCP's office to open at 9:30. I didn't like either of these, so I made a counter proposal - how about looking in the side pocket of my bag sitting on that chair over there and seeing if I have it in the copies of all my medical records? Two minutes later, she had made a photocopy of the needed paperwork and put it all back in my bag, and we were cleared to go.
NOTE TO NEWBIES!! Take a copy of everything with you when you report for surgery!!!
Just after seven, the surgeon came in with a clipboard and explained to me that the ultrasound had showed a gravel pit in my gall bladder. It wasn't a matter of
if I had it out, it was more a question of how much pain did I want to go through before I did. Would I sign here to give him permission to pull it? Uhhh, yeah, I'll sign!!
A few minutes later they wheeled me down the hall and into the OR. They didn't knock me out in prep in order to have me help them with the transfer to the table (I was a pretty big guy, remember?) As one nurse was putting toasty warm blankets on my feet and legs, another asked me to say good ni...
Next thing I knew I was drifting in and out of consciousness ... must have been in recovery ...
Next thing I knew, I was in my room with the CPAP hooked up and the mask on sideways!
Sometime later, I found the "MORE" button on the pump on my IV stand ...
I think I have some vague fleeting memories of Peanut in there somewhere about that time, too, but I couldn't testify to it in court!
I got more alert and conscious through the day, and by nightfall when Peanut went back to the hotel, I was wide awake! I passed a sleepless night, mostly walking around the floor pushing my IV tree, but I did go back at times to try to sleep or pee, and ended up getting cathed a couple of times. (Now
THAT was a new experience for me!!!
) She got about 24 ounces each time she tapped me, so I guess I needed it! The walking, though, was good therapy, and I never had the pain from the inflation gases so many complain of.
Doctor came by the next morning, checked my drain tube, found it dry , so he yanked it out (
literally!!)
I was released that afternoon, and we went back to the hotel and spent the night there. Next morning, after rush hour, we got in the car and headed home. The good part - I took the best drugs they'd given me about a half hour before we left. The bad part - I hadn't thought about bringing a pillow to hang onto to hold my aching guts in. So I held onto my belly, which was sorta like a pillow ...
Got home and I don't remember a whole lot for the next few days. Followed doctor's orders, obeyed the rules, and two years later, this is where it got me!!
All health indicators have moved in the direction of med-free long life and health. I've lost somewhere around 120 pounds, 16" in the waist, 3" in the neck, and have gone from a XXXL shirt to a size S.
Life is good!! No regrets. It would have been nice to have done it years earlier, but it wasn't my time. It would have been even better to have lived so I never needed it in the first place, but that's past history. I love where I am and who I am now.
Peanut wasn't impressed with the whole idea until she saw the results, then she started the process and is close to 10 months post-op herself, with similar results.
So that was my best Christmas present
ever, a day I can't even really remember, but one that transformed my life!!
Merry Christmas, all, and good luck to all those who are getting ready for a rebirth of your own!!!
CT
Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy Surgiversary to me!!! 
So long as you are putting your best foot forward, then, 
Make a difference!
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