Going Under the Knife

I arrived at Guy's at 9am and reported for duty. I was feeling surprisingly calm, unbelievably hungry and in dire need of a cup of tea!! But I had to be nil by mouth from midnight!! Sad face.

I was told that surgery would be at 12pm. A young doctor came to see me, had me fill in the various forms and put a cannula in my hand, so that he could take some blood samples and it would be where the anesthetic would be administered later on. I changed into my sexy backless gown, disposable knickers and even sexier DVT socks.

 

Then one of the surgeons came to see me to explain the surgery, which was called a left hand assisted laproscopic nephrectomy. He then showed me where they would make their incisions and asked to draw on me.

 

Not what I had expected, I'll be honest! I thought my abdomen was going to look like a dot to dot, not just a single arrrow!! I was a little disappointed! It was now about 11:30am. My brother was on the male part of the ward, so I popped round to see him, he'd been taken for a quick round of dialysis as his potassium levels were high. I was then told that there was a delay as they were waiting for the blood results as soon as the Doctors have them, we can get started. My parents turned up at about 12pm, so we just sat and chilled out best we could waiting for news. 

The consultant anesthetist, also came to see me, to explain his role in the surgery. He asked when I had last eaten or drunk anything, I said about 10pm last night. He looked surprised, he then proceeded to tell me that as my surgery was an afternoon surgery, they usually recommend that the patient be nil by mouth for 6 hours prior to the surgery!! Basically meaning that I could have had a huge fry up and a bucket of tea before 6am!! I was gutted to say the least!! He promised me a big tea when I woke up!!   

Then at 2:45pm the nurse came to tell me it was go time. I said my goodbyes to my family and was wheeled down to theatre and into the anesthesia room. The nurse was really nice, I was asked to confirm my name and date of birth, at this point I felt very overwhelmed and started crying. The nurse was great, she calmed me down and told me that they are going to put me under in a minute and that everything was going to be ok and that I was very brave. My surgeon came to see me one last time, to make sure I was ok and was still good to continue, I agreed I was. 

The anesthetist, came over and explained that he was now going to put me under but first he was going to inject an anti-biotic. Then he said "so you make drinks for a living do you?" I said "I haven't for a while but yes".

 He asked if I make the best one for myself. I said yes, I make mine stronger. At this point I started to feel woozy and a bit drowsy, he asked if my drinks made me feel like this... At that point I had no choice but to close my eyes, they felt like they had bricks on them.

This is what my surgery would have looked like. I was laid on my side for 3 hours, with a gut full of gas, so that they could manipulate their instruments easier.

The next think I remember is coming to in the recovery room. Which, to me looked similar to the anesthesia room, so I began to freak out a little and asked why they had woken me, I'm supposed to be giving a kidney, you have to take me to surgery! The nice nurse, informed me that the surgery had been completed and I was in recovery, I still didn't believe her, so she lifted my sheet and showed me the wounds.

I was like "Oh!!" I looked at the clock and it was 7:30pm. I immediately asked about my brother and was told that he was still in surgery but would be out soon. I now had a catheter fitted, a patient controlled morphine drip, IV fluids and a wound drain, which you can see in the picture above. I was back on the ward for about 8:15pm. 

I wasn't in a great deal of pain, the morphine saw to that! I was just sore and a little uncomfortable. Once on the ward I was in and out of consciousness, thanks to the anesthesia and the morphine. The nurses would wake me every hour to take my blood pressure and my temperature, so it was difficult to get any real rest. I was told that my brother was now in recovery and doing well. (He later told me that when he came round in recovery, he demanded a vodka and orange and shouted for everyone to shut up, cos it was too noisy!! Clearly he had no idea where he was!!)   Once Jon was compos mentus, which we think was about 11pm, he was taken for a chest X-ray, a scan and an ECG, standard procedure so I'm told. He was eventually brought back to the ward at about 12:45am. They wheeled him into see me. He looked completely spaced out, bless him. We said a quick hi, etc. Then I'm pretty sure we both passed out!!