On Monday, I was notified of my hernia surgery time. It started as an arrival time of 11:30 am. About 30 minutes later, it was changed to 9:00 as the arrival time. I set my alarm to 4:30 am, and went to bed at around 10:30 pm.
The alarm woke me at 4:30, and I ran the snoozes out. I was out of bed a little before 5:00, checked the radar, and saw the tropical storm had strengthened a little. The new track was showing a bullseye on where I was having surgery, and would be coming ashore at somewhere around 2:00 in the afternoon. Theoretically, that would be somewhere around the time I would be arriving home.
My wife, and I, arrived at the hospital early, and the check-in was complete at 9:00 am. There was no long wait before they took me to be prepped, which gave me the hope the surgery would be started as soon as the one ahead of me was finished.
Prep involved the usual questions, putting in an IV, taking off everything, putting on a gown, and something I didn't expect: shaving the lower stomach and groin. Some questions to the nurse revealed this was sometimes done in the surgery room, but since it expedited the surgery, some doctors preferred it being complete before the patient was wheeled in for surgery. The nurse explained some doctor preferred to shave the patients. I'm guessing that ensured not having to increase an area to be shaved, or extra time to finish a shave they find incomplete. The nurse had me pull up my gown, and went to work. I told my wife this will make it appear as though I have crabs when the hair starts growing back. The nurse smiled, and I thought of how past experiences of shaving my beard left some days where the itch of the hair growing back could be maddening.
The surgeon came in a few minutes later, explained the procedure, marked where the surgery would be performed on my groin, and signed the marking. He also explained his surgery room had some type of A/C problem, which was delaying my surgery. My wife asked how long should the surgery take. He answered it would probably take about an hour and a half after the A/C is repaired.
After the doctor left, another nurse came in and told me the delay could be extended if the warmer temperature caused the instruments to condensate. If that happened, they would have to replace all of them, which would further the delay. She, also, told me to go pee. I told her I didn't think I had any in me, but she said to try anyway. This made me think the delay could be long.
After squeezing out some pee, I returned to the prep room and told my wife she could leave if she wanted. At this point in any surgery, it's a waiting game. They would call when I was in recovery, and she already had my wallet. The nurse told her my clothes would follow me to recovery, so it gave my wife a break from basically just watching me wait. She would be more comfortable downstairs where there was a coffee/bakery shop, and plenty of comfortable seats. My wife asked the nurse if she had any idea how long the surgery would be delayed. The nurse guessed at least thirty minutes, so my wife decided to leave. I told her she had time to run some errands if she wanted, and she could get something to eat. The nurse told my wife I would be placed in an initial recovery room on the second floor. After they felt I was stable, they would transfer me to a ground floor room to prepare me for leaving. They would come for her at that time for final instructions, and from there I would be wheeled out to an adjacent drive where outpatient surgery patients are picked up.
It wasn't long before they came for me. They wheeled me down some corridors, and I knew we were close to the surgery room by the cooler air. When the door was opened, a blast of cold air let me know my surgery would soon start. I heard the anesthetist state it was 11:30.
They shifted me out of the gurney onto the table, hooked up my IV, put a mask over my face, and gave me the "I don't care" injection. After that, I don't remember much, except some pretty severe pain in the downstairs recovery room and the nurse giving some more morphine. After that, I don't remember getting dressed, but I do remember the nurse getting rained on putting me in the car. It was 2:00 pm, and tropical storm Edouard was officially coming ashore about 50 miles to the southeast. The first rain bands were arriving.
We drove out of the rain before reaching home. We stopped for some potato soup at Schlotzsky's. I wasn't really hungry, but would be later. It was a few hours before the heavy rain arrived, but it didn't take long for the rain to start. I was feeling drowsy, so I went to lay down for a short nap. I napped for a few minutes before the first torrential blast of rain arrived. The sound of it on the side of the house woke me, so I got up to watch the weather. I made a cup of coffee. I remarked to my wife how it was one of the best cups of coffee I've ever had. Within minutes, it came back up while I was in the kitchen. Needless to say, in my condition, I wasn't much help in cleaning the mess. My apologies seemed hollow with such an occurrence. It was too soon to eat.
It rained for at least an hour, and didn't let up. The wind was probably a steady 35 mph, with gusts to 50 mph. After the heavy rain stopped, we had hours of light rain, and windy conditions. The rain finally ended at around dusk, but radar showed a band on the southeast side of the storm approaching. It arrived after dark, and the thunderstorms trained around the storm, which had stopped moving. I don't know how much rain we received in the second batch, but it was at least as much as the first round of rain, and my rain gauge was full the next morning. Just north of us received up to 20 inches, but judging from the water around my house, we were somewhere around 10 inches of rain.
Somewhere during the first rain band, I tried a small helping of Jell-O, with some potato soup. It stayed down, but the hiccups started. My wife decided to go to bed. I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up to watch the weather, and to deal with the hiccups. They would stop for awhile, but soon start again if I so much as sipped water. To add insult to injury, the electricity would blip every few hours. I'd wait a few minutes to see if it would stay on, turn the television back on, and reset the clocks.
Eventually, at around daybreak, the pain became more than I wanted to deal with, so I took a Tramadol. It stayed down, and it wasn't long before the hiccups stopped. The rain bands had moved north, and it didn't appear they would spiral back into our area. I finally went to bed, and slept until about 11:00 am.
I'd forgotten the pain after my gallbladder was removed. Quick moves are a no-no, and sitting is more of a sliding into a chair motion. It's there, off and on, and will be there for days. After a week is should ease off enough to remind me I'm far from healed. Attempts at pulling, or lifting, will give me harsh reminders to not get into too much of a hurry. I'll return for a checkup in two weeks. As it appears right now, it will be good. I have no bruising, the three cuts for the instruments are showing no signs of infection, and I know I won't miss the hernia. Hopefully, I'll never have another.
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