Ahh, I finally found the time and mood to summarize my recent, microscopic surgery on November 2, 1998 and the past few days. I was not expecting much from this one compared to the one on July 23, 1998.
I woke up at around 5:30 AM in an anxious mood. I did not feel hungry and tired. I got to the UCLA hospital at around 7:30 AM (darn traffics). I went to the waiting room and then to the admission room. I was surprised that there was no one in the admission room. My last surgery had a several patients in there, especially early in the morning (6 AM if I recall correctly).
I headed to another waiting room where I changed my cloth to those thin hospital cloth, received my IV, and put me out. Gosh, I didn't head to surgery until about 11 AM! I was so impatient and bored during those three hours. :( The good news was that the nurse got my nerve on my left hand in one shot. I was happy for that unlike like the last surgery with 13 friggin tries. The surgery plan was altered in deciding where to cut near my right ear. It would be more involved with the neck. Ouchie. The surgeons would use my existing, working nerves and connect to the dead/broken ones (sounds like the Internet/networks -- TCP/IP -- reroute my brain signals). A couple of doctors took pictures on my right head before they make some cuts. Before 11 AM, I got my drug to knock me out. I said "I'm outtie" to myself. BAM! I was gone!
Someone woke me up at around 7:00 PM (yeah 7:00 PM, man... what happened?). Hehehe, I was crazy enough to ask what time it was. The doctor asked me to move open my eyes and move my face a little. Well, I found out that my last eye was BUSTED! It felt like having an eye lash in there. My right eye was okay. The doctor didn't find anything. I felt like urinating, but couldn't. My penis was umm not in a good mood. :( I passed out again and woke up at around 9 PM. Damn. What's wrong with my body? :(. Again, my left eye was still busted. My body was way too tired. Throughout the night, I kept waking up every two hours to urinate. Gosh! My penis gave me a lot of pain. It burned everytime I urinate. Ugh! Imagine going to pee every 2-3 hours! :(
I finally woke up for a new day at about 6:30 AM. Yeah, an early ant :). My left eye was STILL JACKED UP! Ugh. The doctors said it could be irritated and will have an ophthalmologist check it out. Later in the day, my left eye healed itself slowly. Cool. I guess God heard me complaining. Thanks God! :)
The doctors came in to check out my scars, swellings, etc. They said things looked good. I noticed that I have a tube with a container at the end (looks like a stop watch) connected to my upper neck where the swelling is. Blood drains out through it. Eww. :) And it hurts my neck when I try to move around. Another thing I noticed was that I was wearing an oxygen mask on my tracheostomy. The doctors said I wasn't breathing enough. Sheesh, the oxygen was cold and made my body cold! The funny is that with all these things on my head. I look like a Borg from Star Trek. Heheh. "You will assimilated." --A Borg Ant. A friend from Passing On Mission came to visit and record some video footage for a story on me.
The doctors said I could go home that day. They said that my damaged nerves should come back within three or four months. Dang, that's a long time. I ate and drank breakfast (scrambled eggs) and lunch (mash potato and cherry jello). It was difficult at first, but I managed to get something in my stomach. Slowly, time flew by, my IV on my left hand and tubes connected to my neck were removed. The doctors and nurses checked me out to see if I was really ready to go home. Yes, I am! I think I will die in here if I stayed longer [grin]. :)
Finally at around 2:30 PM, I left for home! I noticed that my butt was hurting a lot. The pain must be from all that sitting and lying down too long. It sucked. I also got neck stiffs and aches. My left hand sored from the IV. Pain, pain, and pain! My parents were with me the whole time. My mother went home at night, but my father stayed overnight to assist me during my suffering.
When I finally got home (4:00 PM -- traffics again!), I turned on my computer to check e-mails and stuff. I had trouble getting used to my computer (e.g. I couldn't even type my password correctly!). I went to greet everyone on zImage's IRC server (zimage.com). They were happy to see me. I surfed a little, read/replied to e-mails (22 total!), rested, ate, drank, etc. Since I didn't want to see my face with scars and swellings, I accidently saw my swollen right ear on my monitor as a reflection (DOH!). It looked scary and ugly. My ear lobe was swollen that it looked like a bag of gold. My neck is swollen like a horse's neck. These two things grossed me out. I still haven't seen my scars as of this writing. I bet they look ugly! I will eventually. I am just being a chicken (bok bok). Good thing I didn't have a digital camera to show you these things. I might have some little fun :). Sleeping at home was not easy. I still had to wake up every 2-3 hours to urinate in pain. [sigh]
Days went on and on. I got better, but I still had pain in my neck and head. I took a nice hot bath last night. I could not wash my hair due to the fresh scars. Good thing, I got my head shaved. I can't imagine what my head would smell like, hehe! I tried to wear my hearing aid, but it gave me headaches. I tried using Therabite and it was not too bad. My mouth and muscles felt funny, but no pain (Thank God!). I am still able to open my mouth. I found out that GeoCities was no longer interested in hiring me as a Chat Manager Assistant position for an employment. I was bummed about that news. :(
Earlier today, I received an interesting e-mail from someone who works at Therabite Corporation:
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On Thu, 5 Nov 1998, Bob Horst wrote:
Hi Ant: I was checking my referrer logs, and found that you placed a few links to the Therabite site. I found your description of your surgery and recovery to be quite interesting. I also like your web site... It contains a lot of great stuff. I am pleased to see that the Therabite does help you, and am sorry about the cost. As you might imagine, the majority of the expense is not in the product, per se, but the research and marketing that goes into making and delivering it to you. We are completely updating the web site within the next few days, and you might like to give us your professional opinion, both as a user of the device, as well as an experienced web geek. You also might enjoy an online journal for oral surgeons, www.omfs.org (Seems to be down). It's free, and contains a bunch of articles about different types of surgery. I will pray for your continued improvement. |
Cool beans on that e-mail. Hopefully, I will recover more and quickly. Next week, I will visit the doctors for a check-up. Dang, I have been writing this for a couple of hours and I am tired! Please continue praying for me. Thanks! :)