3 lessons learned from surgery in the USA
It’s a week since my wrist surgery, I still have my cast on but it comes off on Thursday. I made it through:
- 1 day of vomiting from the anesthesia
- 3 days of keeping my wrist elevated above my heart
- and a week of left handed teeth brushing.
- but who’s counting..?
A few light-hearted observations from the operating room
- Get out your credit card.
The first order of business is always “How are you planning to pay?” We are lucky to have great coverage, but it was still about $200. - Know what surgery you are getting.
Again and again I was asked, “What procedure are you having today?” and “Could you please point to the body part you’re having the surgery on.”Trouble was, I honestly didn’t know what I was having other than that I was getting my wrist fixed. I guess I’m used to the doctor telling me what he did after the procedure.
I had an arthroscopic capsulectomy on my right wrist. Just ask me. (Oh and they wrote a big NO on my left wrist too in case they couldn’t find the ginormous bump on my right one.)
- Always, always, always kiss your baby goodbye.
Signing all of those legal releases stating that I “may not wake up” was no fun when I forgot to tell Jesse I loved him before I went in. Somehow that fender-bender we were arguing about on the way to the surgery didn’t matter anymore.
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- The nurse used permanent marker to make sure no one arthroscopically capsulected my left.
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- Parker's head works well for propping appendages.
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- A vicadin-induced state of elation between vomits.
Categorized as Life
I’m so glad you survived and are feeling better. Oh, and when I googled capsulectomy to see what exactly you had done, it had nothing to do with wrists :) so evidently those dictionaries need some tweaking!
@Tonja Haha! So funny! It’s all about breast implants actually. Maybe I did have the wrong surgery….
If you have a strong stomach this is the procedure.
I did like how you didn’t have to walk through a hospital to get to the place you were going to have your surgery. It was more like dentist’s office. Although, there was something off-putting about seeing people in open-backed hospital gowns outside of a hospital setting.
I wonder if we should have tipped the surgeon??? Maybe you wouldn’t have been throwing up if we’d tipped.
You’re so brave! Glad to hear you’re feeling better, hope nurse Parker is taking care of you ;)