Happy 10th Surgery

Friday I celebrated a ridiculous milestone; I was having my 10th surgery in 8.5 years. I am including my 3 C-sections, which were worth the incisions because I got to bring home a baby. The latest surgery was an umbilical hernia repair...the easiest surgery to date. Now I did not have this hernia before my May Hysterectomy, but did after. When I asked my OBGYN how I developed this hernia, she kindly said I didn't take it easy enough while recovering from the Hysterectomy. So looking back, the gardening, vacuuming, and grocery shopping I did right after my surgery in May wasn't a great idea. Apparently I should of listened more to Kyle when he obsessively told me to sit down and relax (damn it, I hate it when Kyle is right).

 So I found myself back in a pre-op bay getting hooked up to blood pressure and O2 monitors. Once again I am stripping and putting on the attractive hospital gown, booties, and hair net. Once again I am telling doctors and anesthesiologists my medication list and ALL the previous surgeries. It is all so familiar that I have no fear or anxiety. It is so familiar I have the same pre-op nurse I did for my May surgery. Judy, a 62 year old mother of 4. All her kids went to college but it took her fourth child 6 years to graduate from Missouri Valley. She recognizes me from my brain/VP shunt history. Luckily everything is running on time, and I am in the OR right at 9:00am. No 4 hour wait in a Jayhawk-infested hellhole this time! As I enter the OR I get a few more nurses mentioning  that I look familiar. Soon I am given oxygen, then the sleeping medicine.

I wake up in recovery, and my belly actually hurts. I tell them it is an 8 out 10 on the pain scale. I had really thought this would be an easy and near painless procedure, but my belly tells me different. After an hour, I am moved to a post op room to recover before heading home. The IV meds they were giving me were not working, so I ask for some oral painkillers. When the nurse, not Judy, goes to give me the pill she begins to freak out because there is a lake of blood on the ground. Meanwhile I begin to feel woozy. She is wrestling my with my sheets and IV to see what had happened. Kyle keeps calling my name and before they ask him to leave he insists to the now 3 nurses that I am going to pass out. Unfortunately, he is pretty good at recognizing the "pre-face out face."

Needless to say he was right, and I wake up to 3 nurses and a doctor shaking me and saying "April, you need to wake up." I guess a cap fell off a IV port and my IV was literally draining me of blood. I felt like some poor sap on True Blood. STAT blood tests showed them I didn't lose too much blood, and I was able to go home shortly after. Scared that this nurse's mistake would keep in the hospital over night, I jumped at the chance to go home.

I have no more surgeries on the horizon and that is such a relief. Now I have to figure out what to do in my surgical patient retirement. And United Health Care won't know what to do as I won't meet my deductible next year.

Cerebral Venogram: No stent for me.

Earlier in the post titled:

The 18th lumbar puncture gone wrong and the calm husband who turned ASSHOLE I talked about possibly being a candidate for an alternative treatment called a stent. Then we could remove the shunt and leave me less prone to infection and malfunctions. However, today an invasive test concluded that I was NOT a candidate for a stent. The test Dr. Abraham performed  today was a Cerebral Venogram. It was a very interesting test and yet another procedure that had to be the brain child on a 4-day drug and alcohol bender. After waiting four hours in a Jayhawk facility due to an emergency before me, it was my turn to go in "the room." This room resembled a training facility suited for NASA. Huge machines decorated the room and 20+ oversized monitors hung on the walls and the ceiling. In the middle of all the major technology was a tiny, cold table for me to lie on. Exactly how anyone would want to spend a beautiful Monday morning.   I was laid flat on the table underneath a 3 part x-ray machine. After all the technology was in place, Dr. A came into the room and began to saturate my groin with Lanacane. Don't worry, Kyle, that sounds way naughtier than it really was! After my groin was numb, Dr. A strung a very long catheter through my groin into my Venous Vein. This vein provided a pathway for the catheter to travel up my thigh, stomach, chest, neck and finally to my head where it spewed out contrast and measured the pressure in the major veins in my brain. The oversized monitors were aiding in the threading of the catheter.   Earlier Dr. A had seen some stenosis in two major vessels leading to my brain on a scan called an MRV. This alarmed him enough to proceed with the Venogram. However, his MRV findings raised my hopes for getting a stent and saying adios to the trouble making shunt.   Once the catheter hit the blood vessel in the right side of my head, pain radiated throughout my brain. As I mentioned this to a nurse she started pumping Fentanyl, a pain killer, through my IV. Also I could hear the catheter releasing the contrast...very eerie.   Next he had to take pictures. He had me close my eyes and mouth and breath in through my nose to take a picture of the vessel. Then the catheter was able to measure the pressure in my veins to see if the narrowing was causing increased pressure in my brain. After the right side he had to do the whole thing again on the left side. The left side was even more painful due to my naturally curvy veins. More Fentanyl was pumped into my IV though it was not helping the headache. Once contrast was released, measurements taken, and pictures obtained on the left side, Dr.A pulled that long catheter out of my groin and applied pressure to the puncture site for ten minutes.   In recovery I continue to battle a raging headache. After two more rounds of ineffective Fentanyl they decided to give me Oxycodone which helped my 8 out of 10 headache subside to a 4 out of 10. That is when Dr. A came into recovery to deliver the bad news that I was not a candidate for a stent. After he delivered the news, I was rushed off to a STAT C-SCAN because my blood pressure had dropped, one of my hands was freezing and the other was warm, and my smile was lopsided. Fear of a stroke, they got me to the CAT-SCAN room within 10 mins and the scan was read within 2mins. It was a clean scan and everyone could breath again.   On the way home, Kyle asked me how I felt about not being able to get the stent. All I could say was I 75% disappointed and 25% relieved. Relief from not having to endure any other brain surgeries and relief from knowing that the shunt IS the best treatment for me. I am glad I consulted with Dr. A and had the Venogram because it gave me peace with having a shunt