Okay, I tipped my hand in the last episode. But let's do the details, shall we?
I haven't yet had amnesia around the time of general anesthesia. Maybe I'm weird. I remember coming to in the OR, and coming back to consciousness in the OR.
Dr. Meltzer said I was okay, he had had no trouble 'opening me up', and had done the labiaplasty. Dr. Best said I was going to be okay, and then with a final wave they were out of there.
I was still having a bit of trouble seeing. I was wheeled to station #5 in the recovery room. Someone slipped an oxygen mask on me and I started 'huffing' it, trying to shake off the fog. Someone brought my glasses, and I tried to make out the time -- it had just tripped over to 5 pm. The tech put a blood-oxygen sensor on my fingertip -- the alarm kept going off. I told him I had fake nails, and he said that might be the problem. They brought me a cup of shaved ice and a spoon, and I started hydrating my parched and intubated throat. It felt good, as my throat had been scratchy and I had wanted to cough. The fog kept lifting.
Eventually my room was ready. The wheeled me to the elevator, and we went to the second floor, then down a corridor past the nurses' station, made a left turn at the far end then a right into Room 14. The team parked the bed, plugged it in, checked everything, set up the pain-med pump and the antibiotic drip, asked if I needed anything, and left. I was left with the DVT 'shin guards' alternately squeezing each leg. The med tech came from the kitchen to take my dinner order, and I got a ham sandwich, hot tea (decaf), cranberry juice and chocolate ice cream for dinner.
The pain meds and the residual anasthesia made me sleepy, and the various auto monitors kept beeping, booping and squeezing. I slept like an infant that night, out for 45 minutes, awake for an hour and a half.
The next morning, I looked at the incision for the skin graft. It was about 5 inches on either side of my belly button. Dr. Meltzer had said he needed about 1 inch longer to make sure the graft overlapped properly with the lining I already had. Okay, that's a clue.
In the afternoon, he came around and repeated that it had gone well, he'd had no trouble opening me up and getting adequate depth. He also said I'd be released today, and that on Monday I'd see him and have the packing out. He's expecting I'll have at least 5" of usable depth.
Until then, I have the catheter in. During the day, the hose is plugged, and I can go out if I want, and uncork when I need to urinate. (It's weird, but because of where the hose is taped, I can sort of urinate standing up, if I'm right over the bowl.) At night, I hook the bag back up.
The nurse got me out of the bed at 10. I had no problems with 'bambi legs', and made one circuit of the hall and back to my room. After lunch, I put on my street clothes and made a second circuit.
Robin came and picked me up at 1 PM. My frozen dinners remained frozen, and with a little experimentation, the anemic microwave finally warmed the Swedish Meatballs to edible temperature. The hotel has a hot breakfast in the morning.
So, until Monday, that's where I am.
Karen
