Surgery Update...It Went Well!

[Guest guest]

Hi Jan,

Good to hear your surgery went well despite the level of care. Unfortunately,

this is a common complaint due to nursing shortages and cost constraints in

health care. Have a speedy recovery, Elaine

[Guest guest]

Hi Jan,

Good to hear your surgery went well despite the level of care. Unfortunately,

this is a common complaint due to nursing shortages and cost constraints in

health care. Have a speedy recovery, Elaine

[Guest guest]

What a relief that it's over-- I can hardly believe that I actually went

through with it. We had to wait for the surgeon to arrive so we

started an hour late, at 3:30, but the operation only took an hour

and a half. They checked the lobe and nodule tissue and it

preliminarily looked all right, so they left the right lobe in, but I'll

know for sure next week. My parathyroids were untouched and

my vocal cords unharmed. No bad reaction to the anesthesia - I

woke up a half-hour later in recovery, sitting up and with the

worst sore throat from the tube and thirst. My Dad was allowed in

briefly and I was in my room by 8:00 - pretty fast, I think. I woke up

with a breathing mask piping in Atrovent and later some oxygen

for my asthma, but was fine after that. Ice chips and water soon

followed, happily, no nausea but I could not sleep sitting up, so I

rested and watched TV and when I needed it, got morpine. I had

some visitors which they let stay late.

I was at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC, which had the most

disorganized and under-staffed nursing staff (outside of recovery

and OR) that I could imagine. It was truly shocking. The on-call

ENT was actually elsewhere for the night and took 4 hours to

return my page. I was not able to speak to a doctor who was

actually present at my surgery until this morning. I had a fever,

my heart rate went up & down and I was attached to the bed with

squeezers for my legs to prevent clots; there were no mobile IV

stands on my floor so my bag was attached to the ceiling, and

when I finally had to go to the bathroom. I had my finger on the

call button for 15 minutes (true!) and had to call the hospital

phone operator twice before I could get someone to let me

loose. I could of course not yell for anyone. The attitude was thick

and my roommate (who also coughed all night) and I had to call

repeatedly for whatever we needed, which took an hour. If I got a

morphine shot, the band-aids were in another room. All in all, it

was a dismal night, and my endo hadn't shown up as promised

so I paged her for the hell of it and she arrived as my b.f. and I

were walking out the door. I heard another doctor tell my roomate

that compared to other NYC hospitals, Lenox Hill was a " palace " .

Since they considered me " stable " , they dumped me in an area

that was low-maintenance, which was not what I expected as

explained to me when I arrived. Apparently, there was nothing

between where I was and a critical care unit, which I find absurd,

so I wore out the call button whenever I needed attention. In the

future, I would, to be on the safe side, hire a private - duty nurse.

It turned out OK in the end - I'm at home now and I feel fine, but I

would have had a much less stressful stay had I had a bit more

attention. Nothing was placed where I could reach it - it was like

explaining to a child.

I have pain from the tube and expect to for a few more days, and

now definitely feel the outside wound even more, which is

swollen. I can move my neck well enough from side-to-side, but

up and down is painful. They gave me a scrip for Tylenol with

codeine and while it doen't completely eradicate the pain it's

bearable and it will get better every day. I see the surgeon again

on Friday. I feel pretty good; exhaustion hasn't set in yet and they

advised me not to lie around all day - move about to prevent

blood clots. I'm taking Calcium, my supplements again and

plenty of Ester-C to help with the inflammation and healing.

I really can't believe it's over! I have to see the endo in 2 weeks to

have a thyroid function test to see where I am after all of this.

Can't wait to find out!

Happy Holidays to all!

Jan