ear operation
WOOOO SURGERY!!!
So, as many of you know, I had an operation on my ear yesterday (wednesday) morning. It was classified as a major op, took about 4ish hours, and lots of anesthesia. I'm gonna try to be as descriptive and detailed as possible, because i tend to get a lot of questions after these kind of things.
So I get to Mass Eye and Ear around 9ish, chill in my room for an hour and then get brought down to the holding room. At this point i'm wearing glasses (no contacts allowed) and wicked hawt scrubs. I get down there, they show me around where i'll be waking up and whatnot, get me down on the bed and start some pre-op work. First, the nerve monitoring guy, who I swear I remember from the previous time, puts some... things on me. They're like what you'd see in a sci-fi flick being used for reading minds or something... i dont know how to describe them. But they did their job, because my facial nerve is in tact. The facial nerve being hit was one of the bigger risks of the operation- if they touched and damaged the nerve, the right side of my face would be paralyzed. Not fun. So after that, the nurse comes over and hooks me up with the IV. She ends up talking about colleges with my mom while doing all that junk. By the way, if you ever get an IV, its not bad at all. They make it out to be worse than it is- "Do you want numbing cream?" blah blah blah. Gosh. So then they give me a pre-anesthesia drug, which makes me drowsy, laughy, and apparently tell the truth. I have an odd blank period between after getting the drug and laughing, and when they wheeled me to "the room." So hopefully I didn't spill beans on your secret to my mom... or hopefully you didn't tell me anything important recently. So, they wheel me into the room, which is a closed room with HUGE lights right above my head. These things are monsters... i swear they'd literally blind me if i was awake. However, I did remember the lights from the last surgery (this is my 3rd ear operation, 2nd at mass eye and ear), so it was something like a deja-vu dream at 4 in the morning, if you know what i mean. One big thing i didn't remember from last time was that they put extra blankets on me, and strapped me in with industrial-sized... straps. I'm a big claustrophobic, so it was a little freaky. Then they put the anesthesia in the IV, threw on the oxy gas, and I woke up the second after I fell asleep. Thats how it feels when they give you the anesthesia... you don't remember being alseep at all. So i wake up, still have the gas on... see people around me but dont have enough energy to ask questions. As expected, dry itchy throat, tired eyes, and to make it worse I dont have my glasses on this entire time. I can't make anything out, which makes me feel like i'm super-drugged. Shitty feeling. So i just decide to sleep for awhile. When i have enough energy to force some words out, i ask whoever was there if they cut. It was the madre, and she said they didn't. Then Dr Poe (the doc) came over, gave me a pat and said "your face is still functional, we're still at the 100% sucess rate." Now, this might be boring, but the guy has NEVER hit the facial nerve when operating. Its like saying that you've never let in a goal in hocky, after 400 shots. But then again... there is no hockey. Whoops. Anyways, thats all he cared about, and i was drowsy and sleepy so I dont remember much. They eventually wheeled me back to my room, had me get on the different bed, and then i fell asleep again. Now, the whole sleeping thing was okay, except that a.) i had to piss a lot because of the IV and b.) i still couldn't eat or drink anything. Over the course of the day / night, they gave me a few things, which I threw up a few minutes after eating. 12 pukes total i believe, and 8 of them were dry-pukes. Only air... ouch on the throat. My mom wanted to get out of the hospital instead of sleeping over, but I would have none of that. No dehydration and dying thanks. Because if i can't drink water without puking it up, how am i going to stay hydrated without an IV? Yeah, thats the deal with that.
So, nighttime approaches, and i'm feeling less and less tired. At this time, which is around 10-ish, the hospital is kind of shutting down. The nighttime nurse is there, so they can't send me home or anything, and i'm feeling the anesthesia wear off. So... its night... i'm supposed to sleep... and i have no drugs to sleep. FUCK! I end up just laying / sitting in the bed all night, grimicing in back pain because the fucking hopsital bed was uncomfortable. 6 in the morn rolls around and i get some ginger ale, drink it, hold it down, thank god, then get my IV taken out. One of Dr Poe's associates comes in, takes off my big ear-cup thing which is *skip to the next paragraph if you're easily grossed out* filled with blood, antibiotics, and puss. Ugh, I almost puked at the sight of it.
So, I finally get to go home, after a shitty day and a half. Right now, I have a cotton ball in my ear which is holding back all the blood and antibiotics. I cannot hear anything out of my op-ear, but that will clear up in a few days. I have the cotton ball for another 2-ish days, and then i just do ear drops at night for 3 weeks or so. Sleeping on only one side sucks if you're a restless sleeper... just try it. The good news is that I feel pretty good now, despite random pains and various aches and whatnot. But thats expected. My ear feels good- its only clogged. In fact, its amazing how painless the surgery was- they demoted me from codine to regular tylenol. Thats a huge step, so my recovery was nothing short of amazing. I can't do anything streneous for a few weeks, and can't get any water in my ear for 3 weeks (shower with vasoline and cotton ball).
Funny sidenote- i discovered that I'm missing a huge section of hair on my upper leg. It feels like razor burn, and i have no idea what caused it. Anyways, here is a sketch that Dr Poe drew for me and my mom, showing what he did. I've seen legit pictures of the inside of... ears, and its absolutly amazing what this guy does.
lovekyle
So, as many of you know, I had an operation on my ear yesterday (wednesday) morning. It was classified as a major op, took about 4ish hours, and lots of anesthesia. I'm gonna try to be as descriptive and detailed as possible, because i tend to get a lot of questions after these kind of things.
So I get to Mass Eye and Ear around 9ish, chill in my room for an hour and then get brought down to the holding room. At this point i'm wearing glasses (no contacts allowed) and wicked hawt scrubs. I get down there, they show me around where i'll be waking up and whatnot, get me down on the bed and start some pre-op work. First, the nerve monitoring guy, who I swear I remember from the previous time, puts some... things on me. They're like what you'd see in a sci-fi flick being used for reading minds or something... i dont know how to describe them. But they did their job, because my facial nerve is in tact. The facial nerve being hit was one of the bigger risks of the operation- if they touched and damaged the nerve, the right side of my face would be paralyzed. Not fun. So after that, the nurse comes over and hooks me up with the IV. She ends up talking about colleges with my mom while doing all that junk. By the way, if you ever get an IV, its not bad at all. They make it out to be worse than it is- "Do you want numbing cream?" blah blah blah. Gosh. So then they give me a pre-anesthesia drug, which makes me drowsy, laughy, and apparently tell the truth. I have an odd blank period between after getting the drug and laughing, and when they wheeled me to "the room." So hopefully I didn't spill beans on your secret to my mom... or hopefully you didn't tell me anything important recently. So, they wheel me into the room, which is a closed room with HUGE lights right above my head. These things are monsters... i swear they'd literally blind me if i was awake. However, I did remember the lights from the last surgery (this is my 3rd ear operation, 2nd at mass eye and ear), so it was something like a deja-vu dream at 4 in the morning, if you know what i mean. One big thing i didn't remember from last time was that they put extra blankets on me, and strapped me in with industrial-sized... straps. I'm a big claustrophobic, so it was a little freaky. Then they put the anesthesia in the IV, threw on the oxy gas, and I woke up the second after I fell asleep. Thats how it feels when they give you the anesthesia... you don't remember being alseep at all. So i wake up, still have the gas on... see people around me but dont have enough energy to ask questions. As expected, dry itchy throat, tired eyes, and to make it worse I dont have my glasses on this entire time. I can't make anything out, which makes me feel like i'm super-drugged. Shitty feeling. So i just decide to sleep for awhile. When i have enough energy to force some words out, i ask whoever was there if they cut. It was the madre, and she said they didn't. Then Dr Poe (the doc) came over, gave me a pat and said "your face is still functional, we're still at the 100% sucess rate." Now, this might be boring, but the guy has NEVER hit the facial nerve when operating. Its like saying that you've never let in a goal in hocky, after 400 shots. But then again... there is no hockey. Whoops. Anyways, thats all he cared about, and i was drowsy and sleepy so I dont remember much. They eventually wheeled me back to my room, had me get on the different bed, and then i fell asleep again. Now, the whole sleeping thing was okay, except that a.) i had to piss a lot because of the IV and b.) i still couldn't eat or drink anything. Over the course of the day / night, they gave me a few things, which I threw up a few minutes after eating. 12 pukes total i believe, and 8 of them were dry-pukes. Only air... ouch on the throat. My mom wanted to get out of the hospital instead of sleeping over, but I would have none of that. No dehydration and dying thanks. Because if i can't drink water without puking it up, how am i going to stay hydrated without an IV? Yeah, thats the deal with that.
So, nighttime approaches, and i'm feeling less and less tired. At this time, which is around 10-ish, the hospital is kind of shutting down. The nighttime nurse is there, so they can't send me home or anything, and i'm feeling the anesthesia wear off. So... its night... i'm supposed to sleep... and i have no drugs to sleep. FUCK! I end up just laying / sitting in the bed all night, grimicing in back pain because the fucking hopsital bed was uncomfortable. 6 in the morn rolls around and i get some ginger ale, drink it, hold it down, thank god, then get my IV taken out. One of Dr Poe's associates comes in, takes off my big ear-cup thing which is *skip to the next paragraph if you're easily grossed out* filled with blood, antibiotics, and puss. Ugh, I almost puked at the sight of it.
So, I finally get to go home, after a shitty day and a half. Right now, I have a cotton ball in my ear which is holding back all the blood and antibiotics. I cannot hear anything out of my op-ear, but that will clear up in a few days. I have the cotton ball for another 2-ish days, and then i just do ear drops at night for 3 weeks or so. Sleeping on only one side sucks if you're a restless sleeper... just try it. The good news is that I feel pretty good now, despite random pains and various aches and whatnot. But thats expected. My ear feels good- its only clogged. In fact, its amazing how painless the surgery was- they demoted me from codine to regular tylenol. Thats a huge step, so my recovery was nothing short of amazing. I can't do anything streneous for a few weeks, and can't get any water in my ear for 3 weeks (shower with vasoline and cotton ball).
Funny sidenote- i discovered that I'm missing a huge section of hair on my upper leg. It feels like razor burn, and i have no idea what caused it. Anyways, here is a sketch that Dr Poe drew for me and my mom, showing what he did. I've seen legit pictures of the inside of... ears, and its absolutly amazing what this guy does.
lovekyle