Donna in Hollywoodland

Post-Op

I wake up, staring straight ahead at a clock. There is an awful oxygen mask on my face.
I just lay there.
This is a worse feeling than the sedative before the anesthesia.

I had read numerous books on Breast Cancer and Having an Operation and Being in the Hospital .
I just did a search on Amazon.com .
Then I requested the best sellers via The Library
I managed to get some information on the anesthesia from some of the books with a holistic approach.
Now, I'm not a doctor ... but I read in a couple books to not eat vegetables in the Nightshade family a few days before your surgery. These are tomatoes, potatoes, all peppers including bell peppers. Something to do with the nightshade in the vegetables makes you groggier and its harder to come out of the anesthesia. So I followed that advice.

And another thing I read was that once you wake up from the anesthesia, don't go back to sleep. Stay awake. This will lessen your chance of getting a headache.
A nurse came over and said "Go ahead and sleep it off."
Ah, no, I thought... I am staying wide awake. Per the holistic books that I read.
I just watched the clock with this awful feeling of not being able to move.

I was still alittle groggy when my Breast Surgeon appeared.
She asked how I was doing. And then she told me they found cancer in one lymph node. So they had to remove some lymph nodes.
So there is a drainage tube in my left armpit.

I was glad she told me while I was still groggy and still coming out of it. I was unable to get emotional. And that was a good thing at this point.

I think I was there for roughly an hour. I was trying to remember if I dreamed anything, or if I had a sense of time while I was out.
No, nothing. Just a black space in my memory.

Soon the oxygen mask comes off, and they started to wheel me, still on the gurney, to a hospital room.
This was worse than being wheeled while on the sedative. The Transport Guy had to move me into the elevator and down the halls.
All the maneuvering was a bit much. I closed my eyes most of the way.

Finally we get to my hospital room. The Transport Guy pushes the gurney right up to the bed.
He goes to the far side of the bed. He then gets ready to pull the sheets under me like he is doing a parlor trick to entertain.
I said "Oh, no, I know what you're gonna do ..."
He yanks the sheets underneath me, and slided over to the bed.

And with that little parlor trick, I was out of the anesthesia, and pretty much wide awake.