Saturday, August 6, 2011

Part 4....

July 5 finally arrived. We had to leave our house by 3:15 a.m. to make it to the hospital by the 5:30 a.m. check-in time. I was feeling nervously calm...does that make sense? I knew that my surgery was in God's hands, so I was calm....but nervous. :) We arrived at the hospital and did all the pre-surgery stuff....and was wheeled back to surgery right at 7:30 a.m.

I remember moving to the operating table. I remember seeing pictures of my scans on the wall and asking "Are those mine? See....I do have a brain...wait until I tell my brother!" :) A mask was put on my face....they said, "Just breath normally. You'll be going to sleep." I said, "Okay, I'll just close my eyes then." The next thing I remember is a moment in the recovery room....another moment in the recovery room....they told me they were taking me to my room....and my husband walked in. The meds really knocked me out...I was in and out of it for hours....mostly out. :)

When I finally woke up I was told that the tumor wasn't as bad as the scans had indicated...in fact, the tumor was NOT on my jugular bulb, but next to it. Now, I wonder WHO could have moved that tumor??? :) Because of the different location, my incision was 'only' behind my ear and not all the way down my neck. Originally I was going to be in ICU for a day, but went right to a regular room. Praise the Lord. I wasn't feeling horrible, but the first time I got up I did get sick....yuck. To hold protect the incision site and to keep my ear stable, I had to wear a 'muff' on my ear....I call it the "VISE OF DEATH".....it was sooooooooo tight. It strapped around my head - coming together on my forehead, and on my other ear. It was awful. I ended up with blisters on my forehead and on that ear. ouch. The doctors came in the next morning and told me I could go home! Really??? I had surgery less than 24 hours ago and now I am okay to leave??? We waited until later that afternoon before we finally decided that I was ready to go, and then at about 5 p.m.....off we went.
Home.
To my family.
To recover.
To marvel in the miracle that God had done for me.

I learned soooo much through this tumor trial - and I'll share that next. :)



2 comments:

Liz said...

Debbie,

Glad to hear that your journey with this tumour is going well. My life with this tumour started in Dec 2009 (well probably 2 years before this) and continues today. Doctors here (in London, Ontario) wouldn't operate due to size and location of tumour. So I had radiation to try to keep the tumour stable - so far it seems to be working. Face small challenges everyday - have learned to be flexible in what I do and move much slower than I did before diagnosis. But I am learning to live with it.

Amy Snow said...

Somehow I missed this post. So glad that you are over that hurdle!!!