Success!
The surgery went very well. I survived, as you can tell.*
I’ll probably put together a video about it when I get back to my apartment (where I left my firewire cable) tomorrow night. I’ll keep you posted.
The calmness actually continued all the way into the OR (which I remember, strangely enough, though I don’t remember much of what happened earlier). The first time I had surgery under general anesthesia (also minor and outpatient), I was okay until I got to the prep room, at which point I FLIPPED OUT. They gave me valium, I think, and brought in a chaplain to pray over me. The experience itself wasn’t bad at all (those beds are comfy!), but I was upset because I didn’t know what to expect and feared the worst (a horrible reaction to the anesthetic).
This time, thank goodness, I didn’t embarrass myself one bit (that I remember). I did tear up a tiny bit when the nurse brought my mom back to see me after starting my IV, but overall I could easily have been mistaken for a grown-up.
Right now I feel fine, albeit a little tired and sore. The wound itself looks relatively small and clean, though I’m sure it’ll blossom into a lovely bruise over the next few days. The local anesthetic has almost worn off, but I downed some preemptive codeine a few hours ago, so I only feel a dull ache.
I go back to the doctor a week from now to get ONE stitch removed—the rest are the dissolving kind. Weird, huh?
Anyway, thank you for all the happy wishes, and sorry for the excessive drama of the previous few weeks—OH! I almost forgot the most important part!
We’ve been wondering what Larry is for six weeks now, and it would be mean (see below) to build up all that tension and leave it unresolved. Larry turned out to be two lymph nodes and some fatty tissue, all normal in appearance except for their size. Full biopsy results will come back in a week, but the chances of Larry’s being secretly malignant are teeny-weeny. Phew!
Alrighty, it’s past time for bed. Not as bad a day as I’d feared, huzzah!
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* Wouldn’t it be mean if I scheduled this post to appear now, but were really dead or still in the hospital? Good thing I’m made of sugar and spice and all things nice.
Tags: Larry the Lump
January 11th, 2007 at 1:47 am
“Wouldn’t it be mean if I scheduled this post to appear now, but were really dead or still in the hospital? Good thing I’m made of sugar and spice and all things nice. ”
Who says things like this? Hell, who THINKS things like this?
Glad to hear you’re recovering nicely. So, two lymph nodes and a lump of fatty tissue, eh? Sounds like some obscure medical student joke.
I’m sorry to hear that it wasn’t esophogeal mites. Maybe next time.
If I had had more time, I would have rehashed an old series of themed riddles that I put together once as a challenge for a friend. Now that I think of it, I can do something challenging like that in video form on Ya’Tube.
Oh well, get some rest and enjoy the codeine…
January 11th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Glad everything is okay