My surgery date was all set for April 23rd and was ready for it. I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and get on with my life as soon I could. I knew that this wouldn't be the end of the process but it was a huge step forward to get to where I needed to go.
The surgery was scheduled for 1PM but I needed to get over to NYU Hospital by 11:30AM to sign the required paperwork, etc. I packed up all of my things the night before since I would probably be a little nervous in the morning and probably forget something. Luckily it was a bright and sunny morning for my trek over to the hospital. As I left my apartment and walked on over to the subway, I knew that I would be different (and having one less gland in my body) the next time I walked back into my apartment the next day. I arrived at the hospital at about 11:15 and saw that my parents were already waiting in the waiting room on the ground floor. We chatted a bit since we were a little early and then headed to the elevator at 11:30AM to take us to the Day Surgery Unit on the 10th. Now it was starting to hit me a little bit that I was going to have surgery on a significant gland of the body. I only needed to fill out a few forms and then all I had to do was wait until I was called. I was happy to see the abundance of text messages and emails that I got throughout the morning from friends and family wishing me luck on the surgery and eagerly awaiting a message from me after the surgery that it went well. There was nothing to do but wait. I was in the waiting room for about 45 minutes before I got called, but this was merely another small holding room to sit in. I was told that my anesthesiologist and surgeon would be coming in to talk to me but I had no idea when that was going to be. I was in the holding room for about 15-20 minutes until they finally told my parents to come in and wait with me. We were already waiting there for about an hour (it was almost 1:00PM by this point) so I obviously knew that my surgery was not going to start on time. A man was hovering outside the door and we didn't know who he was (hoping it was a doctor to speak with us) but it was only a chaplain. I'm thinking to myself - I don't need a chaplain to speak to before surgery. Aren't they only for people on their way out? At the very least, he is supposed to be comforting and offer some sort of spiritual advice, but he didn't really offer any of that. He was fine but I just wanted to speak with the doctors already. Finally at about 1:30PM or so, the anesthesiologist walked in. She was about my age and had a very chipper and bubbly personality and she immediately began to put me at ease. She was extremely thorough and took me through every single thing that I could expect during surgery and what medications she was going to give me. She asked me all sorts of questions regarding my medical history, etc. and made sure that I was comfortable and understood everything that she had said. She was great. I told her that the biggest thing that I was worried about was how I would react to the anesthesia after the surgery. I had bad experiences before and I wanted to make sure that all precautions necessary were taken to lessen the "hangover" effect as much as possible. She planned on giving me some medication to help alleviate post surgery symptoms as much as possible. She even shared a locker with one friend who is also an anesthesiologist at the hospital. I knew that I was in good hands with her - small world I guess. It never hurts to give the doctor a personal stake in the surgery with the hope that she'll give me a little extra personal care. After speaking with her for about 15-20 minutes, my surgeon came in to explain the procedure again. We've already spoken several times before and I did an enormous amount of reading about the surgery, so I felt that I was ready. After my surgeon, then a couple of the surgical nurses asked me a few more questions. I have to admit, up until this point, I was very impressed with the thoroughness of the doctors and nurses and their "bedside manner." Nothing was rushed and they took the time to make sure that you understood everything that was going on. At this point there was nothing left to do except take me to the OR. I gave my parents a hug and kiss and then I was on my way.
The harder part for me was after the surgery. Right after I woke up in the recovery room, I can already start to feel the pain in my throat and the “hangover” effect of the anesthesia. I was never one to react well to the anesthesia and I knew that there was really nothing that I could do about it. I just had to suck it up and weather the side effects for as long as they took to subside. Luckily, it would only be about a day or so.
After the recovery room, I was wheeled into my semi private room with another patient. I was definitely groggy and in a bit of a haze, and worse was my sore throat and difficulty swallowing. I was told to expect the sore throat due to the breathing tube during surgery. However, the swallowing was quite labored. I had to tell myself to swallow – it was that uncomfortable. I found out that I had a drainage tube down my throat that was hindering my swallowing. It was a nuisance, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had to wait until the next morning for the interns/resident to remove it. At this point, I was hoping to get some rest, but that was not going to happen, between the grogginess and the drainage tube, I was not getting more than only 10 minutes of rest at a time, which exacerbates the dizziness a bit – constantly opening and closing your eyes. The nurse gave me Percosets throughout the night but they did nothing except give me a headache and an uncomfortable warm/flush feeling. Nothing makes the night go slower than being uncomfortable while having nothing to do but stare at the clock minute by minute throughout the night. I couldn’t wait until the morning. My drainage tube was removed at around 6AM and that eased my swallowing a little bit. The sun was bright in the morning and I was ready to leave the hospital. Before I left, Dr. Heller came down to see me and give me some last instructions. I was put on 125 micrograms of Synthroid to start to taking right away, some Vicodin for the pain, and the instructions to take 1000 milligrams of calcium, 3x per day until he says otherwise, in case my parathyroids were damaged during surgery.
Once I got home to my apartment later that morning, this was the toughest day after the surgery. I definitely was not feeling well. I had a headache, I felt hot, I couldn’t focus on anything for more than a minute or two, thus no television, computer, or talking to others. Any sound would give me a headache. I walked several times around the block hoping the fresh air would do some good. Unfortunately, it did very little. In addition, my throat was still very sore and it was hard for me to talk and eat. My throat would get very hoarse even after only a few minutes of speaking so I did not try to speak with relatives/friends over the phone for several hours. My parents who were with me were getting restless since there was no TV or computer to use in my apartment, and I was getting frustrated when they asked me questions since I had a huge headache and was not able to focus on talking. The one thing I needed to force myself to do was eat and drink as much as possible to help the drugs pass out of my system. I felt like I had a huge hangover that would not go away. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about. As nice as my parents were trying to be, I needed them to leave. The best thing for me was to be alone and let me do my own thing as the discomfort slowly passed.
Luckily, by Friday I was feeling much, much better. My head was nearly clear and I was the anesthesia felt like it was gone for the most part. Now, I just needed to take it easy and rest while I was off from work. I planned to go back on Tuesday, but I felt good enough to go back on Monday. I wanted to take ample time to recover, but I didn’t want to use unnecessary days that I will probably need later on in treatment. Everyone I knew was great in sending me flowers, cards, emails and well wishes after my surgery. The fine folks at Bicycling even sent me a Sony PSP – what a wonderful and generous gift!
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