Surgery Day, Part 1

The short version:  He did great. He'll blog tomorrow.

The long version:

We arrived at 0700, checked in at the front desk, and then sat and waited in the lobby.  Then we registered and made a deposit on our bill, and were taken to the surgery waiting room, where we checked in again, and sat and waited.  Then we went back to the pre-surgery area into a room, and waited.  Then Brian went off to surgery…and Bill and I waited…for about 8 hours. 

As we were sitting in the first lobby, I remembered that the hospital had sent a pamphlet about a living will and medical power of attorney.  I gave it to Brian, who started reading it and said “Man, this is kind of heavy to drop on me NOW.”  I suggested he skip the living will part and just sign the medical power of attorney on the back so his dad and I could make decisions for him when he was unconscious.  He thought that was a great idea…and it turned to be very helpful later, but not in a bad way. 

While he was in pre-surgery, waiting, I asked if he had any thoughts, and he thought this photo summed up his feelings at that point in time. 

He did pose for a more cheerful photo, though.

Later on I gave him a chance to say anything he wanted on camera, but naturally, he couldn’t think of anything to say.  (Brian growls at me when I try to listen to the videos, so if necessary I'll do some captions tomorrow--I guess he wants to sleep right now)

A little later, wearing an attractive hat, and having a dose of Versed on board, he was feeling more verbose.  I missed the part where he went on at length explaining what a “fetch quest” was and how having this surgery was like a fetch quest.  That would have been GOLD.  But instead, we just got this short.   Mid-video, the nurse realized Brian had never signed the consent forms for surgery and anesthesia!  

Actually, the best video event never happened.  The nurse was going to give him his Versed, and the anesthesiologist asked her to wait until after he’d done his Afrin spray.  Now THAT would have been gold, if we’d had video of Brian, post-Versed, trying to use a nose spray!  But sadly for us, Brian did the nose spray first and then got the Versed.

So Brian was wheeled away to surgery, and Bill and I went to spend the day in the surgery waiting room.  Strangely enough, it wasn’t bad.  The waiting room is a long narrow room, broken into seating areas, some with recliners, some with TVs, etc., and they had a microwave, coffee, hot chocolate and tea.  The staff even came around once with a basket of warm cookies!  Just outside the waiting area was a Scooter’s, so I had a mocha and a scone.   Lounging on a sofa in a bright sunny room, drinking a mocha, eating scones and warm cookies, crocheting, sometimes reading…yeah, it was rough.   What really helped make it easy was the way the staff kept us in the loop.  When we first got there, they gave us a pager like restaurants use for waiting lists, and gave me a badge with Brian’s patient number on it.  Whenever they had info for us or it was time to go into preop or talk to the doctor, the pager would light up and vibrate.  Cool! 

About every 90 minutes, we’d be given an update.  We knew it would be at least a 4 hour surgery, so when they told us they’d gotten a late start due to some issues with getting him intubated (not a medical issue), that was good to know. 

While we waited, I finished crocheting this guy for Brian.  

He was a big hit in the waiting room.  He’s wearing the badge, making him Brian’s official waiting room contact. 

Around 2:30, we got a message that they had finished both jaws and were working on the tongue advancement.  About 20 minutes later, the surgeon showed up to fill us in.  He said everything had gone very well, and between the lower jaw advancement and the tongue advancement, they were able to move his tongue forward almost ½ an inch, which is huge in terms of airway! 

Instead of 1-1/2 to 2 hours in the recovery room, it was more like 3 hours, but again, because of the excellent communication, we knew that it was taking longer because the anesthesiologist was evaluating Brian to make the decision whether he’d be moved to ICU or a regular room for the night.  That decision would be based on how he was doing with the swelling, in combination with his existing sleep apnea, and how much monitoring they felt was necessary.  They assured us that Brian was doing great, was  awake and responding to questions.  In the end, they decided to have him go to ICU, which I was very happy about.  I wanted as much monitoring as possible! 

At that point (6:00 pm), I went home to change clothes and feed the dogs, and Bill went up to the ICU waiting room.  

Part 2 tomorrow...