It was a Thursday morning. I was supposed to be to the hospital to check in by 11. I had been instructed not to eat anything after 11:30pm, so I had eaten a bowl of cereal at 11:25. I also couldn’t have anything to drink, not even water, past 7 am, so I got up at 6:55 to wet my whistle one more time. I tried to go back to sleep, but that didn’t last long. My wife took the kids to school and ran some last minute errands, while I showered and just tried to keep myself calm. I ended up sitting on the bathroom floor taking deep breaths and petting the dog.
I had spent the beginning of the week trying to get work wrapped up as much as possible. Wednesday I got a haircut to minimize the difference where they would have to shave for the surgery. We had tried to get everything ready before hand. The kids were all going with family after school, and Aprille had things to do while she waited.
I wore my most comfortable sweats, and put on my bravest face. I had never had surgery before, and I was a lot more nervous than I like to admit. Have you ever heard stories of people saying they were awake for their entire surgery, and felt everything, but were paralyzed by the general anesthesia so they couldn’t do anything to let the doctor know? I had never paid much attention to them, but that morning it was all I could think about. I trust my surgeon whole heartedly, but it was still hard to think about someone cutting my head open, you know?
We got to the hospital and checked in. I’ve rarely wanted a cold Mountain Dew as much as I did whilst sitting in the waiting area. Fortunately, they had a TV with a livestream of a litter of puppies, presumably somewhere on the hospital grounds. That was more entertaining than any show they could have had on.
We finally went back. They checked all my vitals. My blood pressure was elevated, go figure. The nurse gave me a gown, socks, and a wicked pair of disposable boxers to put on. This is when my lovely wife decided to tell me I would probably have to have a catheter. No one had said anything about a catheter! It’s probably a good thing they took my blood pressure before that!
The pre-op nurse came back and placed my IV and got everything hooked up. The Surgeon came in to ask if I had any final questions. The anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself. The nurse talked about the intubation process, and told me I would be out for all of it, but my throat might hurt when I woke up. Finally they wrapped me in a warm blanket and we headed to the OR.
I’ve been in a few operating rooms back when I did maintenance on X Ray equipment. This was a very different experience. It looked familiar, but felt much more ominous.
I went in and laid down on the table. The anesthesiologist was talking about what he was putting in my IV, and how I should expect to feel. The last thing I really remember is someone helping me situate my head on the pillow (which was surprisingly comfortable) and vaguely wondering if I would still be awake when they put in the catheter.
