5 April 2013
Recovering from a Rough Ride
Well, I'm back; alive and mostly well. The surgery wasn't quite as smooth as planned because my right side DBS unit had caused internal bleeding and was difficult to extract. So the surgeon opted to reinstall only that side to prevent possibility of infection - meaning I'll be back here at St. Anne's in a month for the same procedure on the left side :-/
The ride was rough because they used a local anasthetic for the procedure with a mild inhalation sedative, neither of which were particularly effective. The surgery site was not fully numbed, giving me quite a few grimacing moments. In addition, the gas made me nauseus, resulting in a plea to "turn it off!" midway through the event. My mother always coached me to "pant like a dog" when I wanted to avoid vomiting; forturnately that worked at least until they had me sewed up :-/
So then it was a long night wrestling with the nausea, internal bleeding through a tube stuck in my chest, and lots of new stitches hilding me together. Not much sleep, but I figured complaining wouldn't help, especially because none of the nurses here speaks english anyway...
But, enough of the whining. Today is a new day, and I'm feeling much better: stomach is returned to normal, I actually ate something for the first time in 36 hours, and recovery is underway! Fact is I've got one new DBS installed and I'm recovering nicely in my luxurious top floor private room complete with bathroom and a great view of Brno :-)
Now, did I mention the food?
So good news from here as now I only need to sit around for another 5 days waiting to get released. Maybe I could study for my PhD? Good idea :-)
Ciao for now!
Hank
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