What a day … Murphy’s law was in full effect! This second surgery was a very different experience from the first one. The good news was that I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to get to the hospital. My surgery was scheduled for 1pm so I arrived to check in at 11am, as directed. I thought I might be hungry already since I couldn’t eat or drink anything this morning, but it wasn’t that bad.
So I arrive and give them my name … and the receptionist can’t find me on the list for today’s surgeries. Not under my social security number either. I go sit down while she does deep research but she called me back up about 5 minutes later and said she can’t find me. Then she calls the OR scheduler and finds out they actually do have an operating room scheduled for me. She told me that meant they would get me in. I ended up waiting until after 12 for her to gather the various paperwork that should have been prepared and waiting for my arrival.
Eventually a nurse called my name to take me into the interview room. Oh, but wait. Turns out she didn’t have everything she needed either, including the approvals for the drops she was supposed to give me. So another half hour goes by before I finally finish the pre-op interview portion. The nurse then takes me to the next “waiting room.” This is where I change clothes, get to lie in a warm bed, get the pre-anesthesia IV, and wait for an orderly to take me to the pre-op room. Oh, my mistake, that’s what it was like LAST time. This time the regular entry was blocked off due to water damage, the changing rooms were full and I changed in the bathroom, and the bed (yes, there was only one) was already occupied so I got to sit in a chair in the corner with a warm blanket. A little while later a fresh bed replaced the occupied one and I got moved to the bed. By now, it’s after 1pm (my scheduled surgical time).
About 10 minutes later the orderly appears and rolls me down the hall to the pre-op room. There’s construction going on here so some temporary walls had been erected to block off the work area. So I get rolled through the double doors and directly opposite the doors is a little “temp” alcove for my bed. I’m looking to a couple of feet to my right at the double doors to the electrical closet, my head is near the back wall, and the other wall is just a couple of feet to my left. A few minutes later a nurse comes over to put in my IV needle/tube. Instead of using the top of my hand like last time, she’s a fan of the inside elbow. Of course, she had to use my legs as her tabletop since there wasn’t any spare space around my bed. After 2 attempts, she gave up on using my inside elbow. My veins are fairly prominent but she couldn’t get the little flexible needle thing to successfully go into my vein. I suggested she try my hand. Yes, it went in on the first try!
It’s now 1:30pm and I see Dr. Opth pacing around. We’re already a half hour late, which probably would play havoc with his schedule for the rest of the day. He wrote above my eye to signify where/what was being operated on and then brought over another doctor to check out my eye. The other guy mentioned fair hair and eyes but I haven’t found anything that really points to a predominance of this type of melanoma based on hair/eye color. Who knows.
Finally we get into the operating room and, thank goodness, this is one place that hasn’t changed since last time. Still freezing cold. It’s a wonder all the surgeons’ hands don’t get stiff from the cold while operating. The anesthesia was started but this anesthesiologist must have used something different or less of it than the previous one because it didn’t knock me out for more than a few minutes. Just long enough to administer the local anesthesia in the eye.
When I became aware of my surroundings Dr. Opth was taking biopsy samples. I think it was 2-3 above and below the iris. This I think the procedure started to remove the healed-over area from the previous surgery, plus a little more. Then the cryotherapy (freezing). Now, that was a strange thing. I was awake but, visually, everything is pretty much black and white and a total blur. But I could see this thing coming at me that looked like a big circle with a black dot in the middle. Once it got real close to my eye, the other ring appeared vibrate. Kind of a sci-fi moment. Then it was repeated.
During the last surgery I woke up just as Dr. Opth was putting the patch on my eye. This time I got the pleasant experience of his pulling the face guard off me … think pulling duct tape off your face. Okay, maybe not quite the same thing but definitely wince-worthy. Dr. Opth put my patch on with a whole lot of tape. Then we were finished.
I must of spaced for a few moments because I suddenly realized I was quite nauseous. At the same time, Dr. Opth asked me if I was going to be sick. I got it under control and they moved me to a completely new room. I was dizzy and had broken out in a sweat … a sure sign that I’ll pass out if I try to get up. Since my ride had arrived around 2:15pm, as scheduled, she had been waiting around for quite awhile because it was now nearly 3pm. They brought her into the room while we waited until I felt like I could sit/stand up without passing out. They took my blood pressure and, no surprise, it was a little low (90/70). After about 15 minutes I was able to get up and dress so we could leave.
This surgery was more aggressive than the last one but I think it was the combination of the surgery and no food since 10pm the night before that caused the nausea and dizziness. I got home about 3:30pm and ate and was fine after that.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful but, this time, I took a Vicadin prior to going to bed so I wouldn’t wake up in pain in the middle of the night.