Post 1 : Pre-Operation
Monday 17th December arrived quickly – 3 days earlier I had arrived home from work and found a letter in the mail asking me to check-in to the Auckland City Hospital on Monday, for surgery on Tuesday. Now Monday had come, and Amy and I were at the 8th floor door of Ward 83: Neuro-surgical. A policeman was at the door, holding a semi-automatic rifle. I asked him what was going on, “Oh... Nothing”, he said nonchalantly.
At the front desk we were greeted by Gary, who turned out to be an orderly sitting with the receptionist. The ward's beds were full, so we had to go to another ward. Gary was super-keen to take us there, and was halfway down the hall when we convinced him to wait and check with the receptionist. Turned out we needed to take my folder and details so it was good we reigned him in a bit. We found out later that Gary wasn't just any old orderly though, and it was good to have someone so enthusiastic around. I asked Gary about the armed guard on the doors but he wasn't allowed to say.
I was given a room in the Rakino ward, on the old side of the hospital. Much better than I would have got in the neuro-surgical area where you share with at least 3 others – this one was private with my own ensuite.
A nurse came in after a while, and put a line into my arm, and told us that I was 2nd on the list for my surgery – unless there were emergencies overnight, it should be in the morning. Soon after I was wheeled away on my bed to have a CT scan on my head to help guide the doctors as they operated.
Back in my room, the anesthetist visited me to talk about the next day. She explained the process – I would be under general anesthetic and, between leaving my room and back, it would take about 3 hrs – with the operation only taking about 9-11 minutes! The rest of the time is taken up by waiting in a pre-op room... moving to the operation room... receiving anesthetic... monitoring my reaction... putting in other lines and a pipe down my throat... and then probably countless other things.
The lines I loved from her were:
“We will be putting another line into a vein in your wrist. When you wake up there might be a numbness and inability to move your hand. This is usually only temporary. Are you left or right handed?”And:
“When people wake up, they aren't normally in excruciating pain.”Despite these caveats, she made me feel really safe and confident in how it was going to go.
The next visitors came bearing gifts! Sherlock Holmes and Asterix books, and one very cool remote controlled helicopter that Amy had enlisted them to buy!
I spent the afternoon playing with the helicopter, between visits from family. We worked out that the police were there because someone from Auckland prison had head injuries. At 8 o'clock visiting hours were over and everyone had to leave me to my books, and my looming operation. I read a couple of the Sherlock Holmes stories and spent the rest of the night thinking about not thinking about my operation! At 2AM I was visited by the nurses, and was instructed to stop eating.Tuesday, morning of my operation, I was kept busy by nurses coming in and asking questions, and took my last nasal decongestant to clear my nose. To get at my brain, the surgeon was going up through my nose, to the brain's underside, where the pituitary gland is.
At about 12PM, I was taken to the pre-op area and waited with Amy at my bedside. Amy was amazing and there were a few times where I would have lost it if she didn't look so confident that it would be OK.At this point, I should flash-back a month or so, to my meeting with my neuro-surgeon. When someone tells you that you need brain surgery, a lot of what they are saying gets lost in a mind-traffic-jam of thoughts. This is what I picked up then, and what I was thinking about in the lead-up to surgery:
“You need to have brain surgery... blah blah blah... tumour... in operation you have a 1 percent chance of dying... blah... blah... 1-2 percent chance of a stroke... blind... blah blah... up the nose... through bone... sphenoid sinus... cut... blah.. cut... gland... hormones... possible inability to have children afterwards... blah blah blah... wake up ... feel you've been punched in the face... blah... headache... panadol... 3-4 days... walking... blah blah... this is brain surgery... 3-4 weeks... blah. blah... any questions?”
As my bed was wheeled through the big swing doors and down the corridor to Operating Room #1, I focused on a few things:
Similarly, when they showed me the view out the window – over the city and out to Waiheke – all I could think of saying was: “That is a good view.”
The team of 4 or 5 introduced themselves to me, and joked around as I moved from my bed to the operating table. Once my body was in position, the anaesthetist said she'd give me something for my nerves. I watched her take the line in my right arm, and connect something (a syringe?) to it...
That's all I remember!
- I'd discovered my neuro-surgeon had operated on Keith Richards after his fall (I'm getting star-treatment from a surgeon to the stars);Lying on my bed, I was wheeled into the operating room. I met my neuro-surgeon for the second time. He smiled at me and said, “I told you we'd get you in as soon as possible.” I wanted to say something about the short notice, but was a bit pre-occupied with the surroundings and impending event that all I managed was a smile and, “Er... Yeah”.
- My neuro-surgeon was McDreamy (OK, he wasn't, but I pretended he was);
- I was in operating room Numero Uno (that's gotta count for something!);
- And I was going to be FINE!!!
Similarly, when they showed me the view out the window – over the city and out to Waiheke – all I could think of saying was: “That is a good view.”
The team of 4 or 5 introduced themselves to me, and joked around as I moved from my bed to the operating table. Once my body was in position, the anaesthetist said she'd give me something for my nerves. I watched her take the line in my right arm, and connect something (a syringe?) to it...
That's all I remember!
Will Damen survive the surgery? Will he wake up blind? Will they get the tumour?
Find out in the next thrilling installment of OPERATION DAMEN!
Find out in the next thrilling installment of OPERATION DAMEN!
