Recovery Day 1

Everything went fine with the surgery yesterday. The urologist went out to talk to Sue and once again mentioned the cure rate for this type cancer is 95%. Big time yippee! for that. Probably the most stressful thing about the surgery was the anticipation (i.e. abject fear) of getting the spinal anesthesia and being sliced into.  Fortunately the anesthetist came in a talked to me before hand and I went over my concerns. The anesthetist was able to look up the sedation they used for my past procedures.  They ended up doing sedation with the spinal.  The last thing I remember is them sitting me up for the spinal. Have I mentioned that one of my favorite things about anesthesia is the amnesia effect?  There are many things in life that would benefit from that.   

Anyway back to the surgery. Being a frequent visitor to the outpatient surgery unit (17 times and counting) over the last few years I was familiar with the process. That actually helped out. Prior to getting there I was a bit stressed out about the surgery but once they walked me back to the prep area that all seemed to disappear. At that point I was in a process that I had been through before and was pretty familiar with. A nurse that knew me from my prior visits came out and got me from the waiting area and got me situated.  Nothing like being known by your first name when you go in for surgery. 

Because of the spinal it took longer to recover from surgery than before. Basically it numbs you from the waist on down. One odd thing about that was they asked if I could start to move my toes and I did but I mentioned that my calves felt like every now and then there was something like a blood pressure cuff on them. Sure enough they had these contraptions on my calves that looked like shin pads that would inflate every few minutes. They were there to help with circulation.  

One of the other differences from the other procedures I had before is that I was able to eat right afterwards.  With the procedures on my throat I wasn’t able to eat much at  and my throat was very sore.  Not so this time.  When the nurse offered a cup of custard I of course said yes… three times… along with 3 coffees as well. J  Nothing like coffee and custard to help with the anesthesia hangover.  

Probably the most notable thing about the surgery so far has been that I have been able to get up and around without any pain.  I did take two of the prescribed pain killers yesterday but after that I have just taken ibuprofen.   In some ways it’s like the fistula repair I had after the PEG tube was removed.  I can feel where the surgery was and need to be cautious but there isn’t any pain.  It’s definitely not what I expected.  I thought it would be a lot worse. I can also get around the house pretty well. 

As for the cancer stuff I won’t know any more about that until the end of the week.  Two more blood tests came back that look for markers for Testicular cancer and they were both in the normal range.  They send out the testicle they removed for testing and I won’t know the results of that or the last blood test until later in the week.  After that they turn me over to the oncologist for more tests to see if any follow up treatment is needed.