TRIGGER WARNING: surgery details, blood, fear of dying
Hi, all. Big big scare last night. I drove myself to the ER at 4:30 AM. The vessels on the top/back of my head were swollen, hard as rocks and painful as hell. I'm on blood thinner injections as a blood clot precaution and I worried that something might burst and I'd bleed out, have a clot, aneurysm or something. There was blood dribbling down the back of my throat. That's why I woke up, because my throat was burning. I figured my drain tube was clogged and there was massive pressure built up. I was scared to death.
Hours of waiting in the hospital, with fear of imminent death was rough. They were unwilling to look at me until all of the bureaucratic boxes were checked and there was a "room" ready. After 3 hours, a really awesome doctor came into my room and saw me. I told her that they didn't peel the scalp back there and even though it felt like drain tube, I don't see how/why they would have put something there when all of the work was done from the forehead down. She agreed. She called my surgeon's team. Took about 35-40 minutes but she came back and verified that it was indeed a 12" plus tube that was installed for drainage. Looks like I wasn't going to die. On the way out the door, another person from my surgeon's office called me (they were paged when I called the number in the wee hours but didn't call me until 4 hours later.
And the blood in my throat is likely sinus bone drainage that was exacerbated by the first blood thinner injection last night.
The drain is likely not running because there's very little left there. The swelling is receding and the nerves are waking up, which is also why it hurt like hell last night.
All this after three days of sleeplessness, hunger, pain, drugs and swelling.
And I didn't meet with my surgeon before the surgery. I think his first patient ran over. I didn't see him after, probably for the same reason. No mention was made of the tube anywhere! I'm going to express my disappointment during my Tuesday follow-up and also in a letter.
It was the perfect storm of converging symptoms, painful swollen lines on the back of my head, and a lack of critical information. I should have been informed that this relatively huge tube was placed there. I don't even know how they got it there and I have to imagine having it removed will be painful.
The upshot is that they should (I hope) remove the confounded tube on Tuesday, along with a pile of staples. That will be heavenly.
While in the ER, sobbing, I made a video, documenting the situation, including the long wait and my fear of dying. I apologized and said goodbye to my wife. It felt that dire.
I'm still uncomfortable and very much afraid of what's to come but I'm filled with gratitude, especially to be alive.
