“I’m Awake, Where am I? And My What is Dead?”
Just for the record, drug induced sleeps are the best!
“Aime it’s time to wake up! Time to go pee!” A very happy and excited nurse flicked the lights on in my room upstairs in he room where I was jolted out of my drug induced sleep to bright lights and this overly happy nurse telling me to go pee.
“I don’t need too.” The clock on the cream coloured walls was exactly at six. In my foggy and confused state without my glasses I was looking for the voice, I had just heard. A short oriental woman with glasses and short black hair came up to me. She was in light blue scrubs and had her stethoscope around her neck. “Aime, you are going for surgery, you need to go pee. It’s to empty your bladder.”
This nurse must have not read my chart I thought. “I don’t need to go, and I’ve not eaten or had anything to drink since sometime on the weekend. But I’ll try.” Nope! Nadah! Noth’n! I was not able to go pee. Even after running the water in the skink. I painstakingly shuffled back to my hospital bed.
The nurse transport team came into the room. “Aime are you ready for surgery?” I took a big breath and let it out slowly. As I was being wheeled down the hallways all I could see was the lights on the ceiling. Thinking I hurt, and why don’t hospitals put stuff on hallway ceilings?
Being brought into the OR room it was freezing! Or at least I felt colder in the room. It was all sterile and many pieces of equipment. Shiny silver and cold. Beeps and other sounds were also auditable to me. A big man with large arms came over to me. He was not the doctor I remember from the night before. “Hi Aime, I’m going to be putting the drugs in you so you go fast to sleep.” “My veins roll.” Remembering from yesterday that the nurses had trouble poking me yesterday. “Do not worry, I am pretty sure we got this covered.” The tech smiled at me.
“Okay, are we ready?” Dr. Seel turned towards me with his kind eyes and gentle smile. “For the record I need to go over what we’re doing and what could happen. Then I’ll get an initial from you. So the first option was use a scope and take a look at what is going on, give you meds send you home. Second, use the scope, drain what ever we see give you meds and send you home. Third scope you, cut you open take out what ever we feel needs to come out. Fourth, you wake up and you’re at the Tom Baker Cancer Center Clinic. Do you remember that?”
Tired, in pain, wearily and shivering because I was cold I nodded my head “Yes.” “I need you to sign with your initials here.” Dr. Seel handed me a clip board and a pen. I initialed as best I could.
“How are you feeling Aime?” Dr. Seel was up by my head smiling at me.
“Cold, and in pain.” I stammered at him. With a caring look in his eyes and smile he said “I’ll take good care of you, and when you wake it will be gone.”
**********************
“I’m going to puke!” I was disorientated, and coming out of the drugs from being under. I was shot with a syringe of Gravol into my upper arm. Closing my eyes again I fell back asleep. Time passed again and I could hear nurses talking. Slowly the room began to come into focus as I was opening my eyes. Without my glasses I was taking a bit longer to focus on my surroundings.
There were beeps and other sounds going on over the voice of the nurse’s chatter. The nurses in the recovery room ere in pale pink and were busily moving from patient to patient. One nurse came over to where I was. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears. “Where am I?” The nurse looked at me almost puzzled and replied “Peter Lougheed Hospital”. The tears streamed from my eyes, like big drops of relief pouring form my eyes. “Oh, it’s okay honey. You’ll be out of here soon. Back upstairs to your room.”
Being in pain still yet with morphine on board “I cry coming of anaesthetic. I’m okay.” Trying to pull it together taking deep breathes, and closing my eyes I sighed. Dr. Seel must have been in the recovery room checking in on his patients. Opening my eyes again I see him across the room from my bed. Fuzzy focussing on the pea green soup coloured scrubs he casually walked over to me by my bed side. Tears again were leaking from my eyes. With his calming eyes and compassionate smile Dr. Seel asked “Are you okay?”
Taking a big breath I replied “I cry coming out of anaesthetic. I’m okay.”
“Good, I want you to be okay. I heard the nurses telling you that you’re still in the Peter Lougheed Hospital. So that’s a good thing. Now what we found when we scoped you was indeed a large mass. This mass was a cyst. The cyst was 13cm in diameter, so it was the size of a large grapefruit! We could tell this was not good so we cut you open to get a better look. What we saw was that he cyst had twisted it’s self around your left fallopian tube, it was black and dead. Your left ovary was enlarged to the size of a walnut, when it’s normally the size of a pea. Because of those two parts being dead we took them out. Your uterus and right side ovary/fallopian tube were happy and pink, so that’s a good sign.”
Tears fall again from my eyes. My brain was digesting what the doctor had just said. I didn’t realize that parts of me inside my body can die. “You’re going to be okay. You are going to stay with us at the hospital for about a week, then you’ll go home.”
I don’t think my brain was fully getting it, or it was on a different track “What about work?”
“Don’t worry to much about that right now. You will be off though for a few months. Your job right now is to heal, get your strength back and rest. You just had pretty major surgery and your body needs time to heal.”
Nodding yes my head on the pillow, tears appeared and fell softly on my pillow again. “You’re going to be okay Aime. Myself, or my student will be in to see you tomorrow morning. You focus on healing.”
The porter had arrived to wheel me upstairs again. It was time to sleep, I was still groggy and sleepy. My brain was trying to figure out all what had just happened.