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(From Feb. 21, 2009)
Rather to my surprise, the port removal surgery went pretty smoothly. There was a glitch, which I will get to, but over all, not too bad.
Had to be there at 6:45 which is a time when I like to be telling the alarm clock it’s got to be kidding, but we made it there only a couple of minutes late and didn’t have to wait too long. This time they let Olav tag along, thank goodness.
The nurse who prepped me was absolutely flummoxed by the problem of me having the surgery in the arm that I was allowed to have IVs in and was afraid she’d have to put the IV in my foot. The supervising nurse told her it was fine to go in my hand, they could work around that. I figured that would be the case, since they did it that way when they put the darn thing in!
They got me in the OR and onto the operating table and gave me the nighty-night juice in the IV and then all of a sudden I was awake on the operating table looking at the surgeon about to slice into me. I was like ‘Hold it!’ I don’t remember my actual words because though I was awake, I was still pretty drugged up. I know I threatened to punch someone if they didn’t get it right on the second try. They later claimed this had nothing to do with them tying down my right arm hahahaha! At any rate, they did get it right on the second try. While we were waiting for it to take effect the doctor said something like ‘you probably don’t want to hear about this, but I’m going to go in through the same incision’. I don’t know if it came out, but I know I intended to reply ‘I don’t really want to hear about it, no, but that’s good.’ That’s the last thing I remember before waking up again back in the staging area. I was under approximately an hour and a half, though I’m not sure how the business with the second try comes into that. The first thing I remember of waking up is Olav’s face. A distinct improvement over that of the surgeon.