(no subject)

[08jbmccr]

Well, my mom picked me up around 12:30 at work and we headed off to the hospital. Aside from her seriously not understanding directions, and being a terrible, no TERRIBLE driver, we made it there on time and without any problems, lol. We sat in the waiting room for a short time and they eventually brought me into another room to change into those god-aweful, rather exposing, hospital gowns, and terrible little sock/slippers that ended up rubbing my heels a little raw, but after changing, laying down for vital checks, having my IV put in and meeting all of my nurses/doctors we headed into surgery around 2pm (amazingly fast, I couldn't believe it). One of the nurses pulled out some CDs and asked me if I liked Coldplay, one of the other nurses had been listening to country so I was definately happy they were letting me choose something new, so the soundtrack for surgery ended up being A Rush of Blood to the Head (how convenient eh?). Well, they got me all hooked up to a thousand or so machines, shaved me in a couple places, and proceeding to check out all of my vitals even further and look at my heart with some machines, then after laying there for 30-60 min. I was given some drugs. One was just a high strength pain med, and the other was kind of unusual, at first I only noticed a very light high, barely even noticeable, that is until I looked at the ceiling. The metal parts holding the panels in the ceiling all appeared to be conveyor belt like, and moving really quickly. It actually took a long time to convince myself that they weren't really moving, but at the same time I didn't care because everything was starting to feel more fun than when I first went in (I was pretty excited from the get go :P). Eventually the doctor came and told me that the circuit was really close to my nodes, and there was a one in twenty chance that I'd end up on a pacemaker. He asked me if I wanted to continue and I told him that I did, I was already hooked up and just wanted to get on with it by then, so he told me that he was going to ask my mom because I was sedated. The whole time I was thinking, I just heard everything you all said, I know the risk, I understand and answered to what you just told me, what's the problem? But I suppose most people aren't as sound of mind as I am when it comes to being doped up so better to be safe than sorry, lol. He came back a while later and said that they were going to go ahead with the procedure. After that I was fully conscience but time moved very quickly so I don't know exactly what happened,I know from having it explained to me just before the surgery that they went through my groin into an artery that travels straight to my heart with a long wire. I felt a defibrillator speeding up my heart over and over again (aided by some other medicine,) that was a little uncomfortable but not bad. Then I felt some unusual pressure from the Ablation wire next to my heart, once again uncomfortable, but not too bad. Eventually things became a little painful, so several times throughout the surgery they drugged me again. Then, they found out that things were going to be much more difficult than they thought(there were several extra circuits,) and the drugs started wearing off and things got really, really painful. They had run another wire through my neck, plus several on either side of my groin, plus the pain in my chest, and being as they thought I wouldn't be in there much longer they didn't give me anymore drugs. I was almost in tears by the time they finally decided that it was going to take quite a while longer, being as the location was so difficult and dangerous to get at, and they doped me up again with a double dose. Finally, after five hours they finished up and wheeled me to my room for the night, after I got there they started pulling the wires out, and once again I was in tears because of the pain, but after almost 45 min. of pulling out wired and applying pressure to the wounds, they finished and brought me some pain killers, medicine for nausea (I can't lay on my back without getting sick and I had to lay that way for 6 hours). After that things just kinda sucked, my mom read The Count of Monte Cristo for a while, I eventually fell asleep for a while, and after an hour or so woke up needing to use the bathroom. This was probably the worst part, I had over a liter of urine and I can't use the bathroom in even semi-public areas if there are people near-by, in this case I had some old guy as a roommate who had pneumonia and kept coughing, and three old people outside of my room who kept fighting to get out of bed and setting of their alarms, damn people, I forgive them though. The nurse told me that he might have to use a cathadore if I didn't go soon, so I had him shut my curtain, and I tried again, yet still to no avail. Finally I had a great idea, give me my iPod, hell yeah. That worked great, and I then got back to sleep until around 5am when my roommate had some problems. I fell back asleep when all of that was finished and woke again at 7:30 when my cardiologist who diagnosed me came in to make sure his partner did a good job and to tell me I could leave as soon as his nurse gave me my discharge orders. We waited for an hour and a half for the nurse to come in just so she could tell me that I couldn't lift anything heavy but I was good to go. OMG, that sucked. Oh well, on the way back we went grocery shopping, I stocked up on TONS of food for when I get back home tomorrow, and then we went to Burger King. I was so happy to have food again :) We got back here around 11:30, and everything seems to be fine.

Well, after a somewhat unpleasant, but significantly alright surgery, I'm here, alive, and doing well. I'll be a little sore for a few days, won't be able to lift anything, but other than that I'm pretty much recovered. The ablation seems to have been successful, and assuming no further circuits are found and I don't develope anymore, I'm good to go.

Thanks to all my doctors and nurses, especially Matt, who took care of me after the surgery and waited for me to pee.

Anywho, I miss all of you and I'll see you soon. Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts.