October 26, 2016
5:30 to 6:30 - I went to my daughters soccer practice for the last time that season as her coach.
7:00 - I stopped eating and drinking anything . My mother in law brought over my "last meal" and we all sat on the deck eating our pounds and pounds of pasta!
7:00 to 11 I packed my bags, packed the girls bags for their sleep overs and packed an overnight bag for my husband.
11:00 I showered and I had my husband help sterilize me using the hospital issued wipes, put on some pajamas and claimed into my bed with it's freshly cleaned sheets.
I honestly didn't think I would sleep that night, similar to the night before leaving for a trip - I thought I would be up all night double checking my brain to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything (kids schedules, packed bag, medical documents, etc.). HA - I was wrong, maybe the knowledge of knowing that surgery day was finally here gave me a sense of peace that calmed me enough to relax and get a wonderful nights sleep. I only woke up one time to find out kitten had claimed up in our bed, I thought our door was shut, I mean I was sterilized and he is not so therefore he was not supposed to be by me...I kinda freaked out and shoved him away as best as I could but not before he dug his claws in me leaving me with deep painful scratches. It wasn't his fault he is used to sleeping next to me, the poor guy was just trying to hold on LOL.
October 27, 2016
4:30 am - Wake up time. My husband showered and then sterilized me once again I put on my nice clean clothes and my positive attitude shirt, my husband packed the car up and I gave my girls kisses good by and told my animals good bye too.
5:00 am - We arrived half an hour early to the hospital and headed to the third floor (Radiology) to do the last of the checking in process. They didn't make us wait, they got started right away matter of fact I only sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes before the nurse came to retrieve me for pre op prep. I was a little bummed that my husband had to wait in the waiting room because I wanted him by my side the entire time right up until they wheeled me back but that just wasn't an option.
To start off I got a groovy yellow plaid gown and some awesome duck socks. I of course had no jewelry on except a yellow string on my right wrist, it was a bracelet my daughter made me. I knew they would cut it off anyway so figured I would wear it as long as possible.
The nurse now had to put an IV into my dehydrated veins and lets just say it wasn't easy...needles don't bother me at all so when he said he would get it on the first try and couldn't it didn't worry me any, I knew it would be an issue because I had not had anything to drink since 7pm the night before. They were having a hard time finding a good vein and used this awesome machine that illuminated my veins to help them locate the best one. Once my IV's (yes two) were put in they brought my husband back. About 5 minutes after he got back there they wheeled me off to get a pre op MRI, when leaving the MRI my neurosurgeon came and had a chat with me (apparently he had been trying to hunt me down so we could talk before surgery) he explained he wouldn't be in the room for the first hour or so while the neurologist began opening up my skull as he was headed to a meeting, he asked if my "nurse advocate" friend was going to be around today (I will tell that story later) and I said yes she would be..he smiled and said I look forward to seeing her, then he said I will see you later on he squeezed my hand and off he went! Headed back to my room and meet the anethisiologist who was amazing (I really lucked out). I didn't spend too much time back in pre op with my husband and I really don't remember even kissing him goodbye because of the "relaxation" medicine they gave me.
Fast Forward - not sure what went down for the next 8ish hours but apparently they opened my skull removed most of my tumor and stitched me up.
POST OP
As the doctors told my husband I woke up talking and cracking jokes and didn't shut up for almost 2 hours in the post op recovery area. I did great with the anesthesia and had no issues, I remember talking with the nurse in charge of watching me while I came to fully and he and I chatted and I was good, felt happy was smiling and even (hate to admit I did this) laughing because the guy across from me thought he was going to pee his pants not realizing he had a catheter...I said to the nurse "man what did that guy do just have a baby" the nurse said hope not he is a dude. I think he realized then I wasn't fully "back to normal". BOOM all of sudden I got really upset, I realized my husband wasn't there and I start begging my nurse to go get my husband...the poor guy is doing his best to tell me he can't come back yet but I just won't let up. The nurse tells me to give him a minute and he manages to bring my husband in for about 5 minutes before I was taken back for a CT scan. When they rolled me into the CT scan they said I need to move to the table, well my entire left arm was completely dead, not matter how hard I tried I just could not move it.....based on the looks of some faces in the room this was a bit of a concern (stroke is a possible side effect and I was experiencing a symptom) They were able to move me with no help of mine to the table and back off.
I headed to ICU and a few hours later my arm was just fine, they narrowed it down to positioning during surgery. Patricia was of my first nurses and she set the bar high...it never got lowered!!!
So now I begin to process of recovery......my hospital stay would go on to last 7 days more of those details in my next blog.
