Comments will be updated with info as days pass [Updated: start of day 4]

Note: I am in Manitoba, Canada. List of things I bought in preparation listed at the very bottom of the post.

Second note: I do try to give as much detail as I can, as a heads up.

2024 12 02 After waiting months, after submitting my pre operation physical to the office in August, and multiple follow ups) I finally got a call for my surgery date. Dec 18th. Just over two weeks away.

Enter research mode. I scoured all the posts and stories in here. Many people said I was scaring myself, but, while I think it did in some ways, there was definitely a lot that I learned and helped prepare me. I am prone to high anxiety and have never had surgery. No one else in the house drives, so ensuring I had everything I might need was very important to me, especially because I can get very particular on "this isn't exactly what I asked for" OCD-ness.

2024 12 18 Day of surgery; scheduled for 1230pm. No food allowed after midnight. Can have up to two cups clear fluids until 7am. Required to be at hospital by 11am.

I needed a driver, which was my mom, and I will say, if you are prone to anxiety like me, ensure it's someone driving you whom will know how to keep calm around you. My mother, unfortunately, seems to be getting into some poor driving skills, and after having been in two accidents the last year and a half, which gave me chronic pain and PTSD now. ... this was not a good start to the morning. She also was vocally stressed about finding parking.

Please ensure you know your parking locations ahead of time, AND leave enough time for things to go wrong. I thought we would be there 30 minutes early, even with finding parking, but parking took 45 minutes, and we were barely on time.

Things I brought with me to the hospital:

● Emotional support rubber ducky (which ended up being used as a "worry stone" and fidget)

● puke bucket to stay in car for ride home, including a towel for my lap and a toilet paper roll for mouth wipe if need be

● wore warm button down pj's with no bra because I didn't want to be pulling clothes over my head/nose

● notebook and pen with my checklist of items to prepare at home beforehand, as well as my list of questions for the surgical team (I will post them at the bottom with my supply list)

● phone fully charged, and charger just in case

● all current medications in their original containers (with labels) because they asked (they never asked for it while there though)

● glasses case for my glasses while in surgery

● my health card and wallet, kept with my mom and stepson and NOT in the possession of the hospital

● ZERO jewlery; everything was left at home to reduce chance of losing it. Only thing I kept was my fitbit for step counting while I was walking lol

We arrived, checked in, did verification of identity and what surgeries were being done. Mom and stepson got a paper with my secret identity ID number to track me in the hospital screens. This protects the patients' identities while allowing family to know if they're in preop, operation, recover, leaving recover, or ready for visitors. I got my hospital ID band at this point.

Always make sure yours can't be slipped off!*

Mine could slide right off my wrist so I ended up having to get them to print a new tag because I did not want the risk of it being swapped and ending up getting a different surgery somehow. Paranoid? Yes, but it happened in our city recently where someone got the wrong leg amputated so....I'm OK with being paranoid about surgery. Haha

I was called from the "Family room" and mom joined me. They asked if I needed the washroom and I said no, he did say there would be chances later, so I figured I'd wait. However, as soon as we got to my curtained area, it was time to strip fully (I asked for hospital disposable underwear to wear) and put the gown on. So I went to the washroom first because I didn't want to hall walk in a gown.

My boots were put into a garbage bag which went into a larger bag, as did my coat and anything else with me. I could keep items out,but ince I was to leave, everything had to go either with mom or in the bag. Originally I was told this bag would be with me 100% of the time, roll with me in the bed into surgery where it'd be locked up, then with me as soon as I was out. This was not the case, they wheeled me out without it, so I'm glad I had mom there to watch it until they came back for it.

A woman came in, took note that I was already crying and shaking with anxiety and did her best to reassure me. She did her checks on identity etc. She checked on allergies and blood pressure and heart rate and temperature, and gave me my allergy wristband (and the better fitting wristband).

A gentleman came in with a cart, and he started preparing sanitized things which spiked my anxiety. He introduced himself as the anesthesiologist student, and he'd be doing the IV. I explained that usually people have trouble with IVs and getting poked multiple times. I also asked why he was doing it instead of the actual anesthesiologist. (My brain said because he specified anesthesiologist student, it should be actual anesthesiologist instead. Oddly, I think if he'd said he was a nurse to out the IV in, it wouldn't have stressed me as much).

He explained she was still in surgery with someone else, and the nurse in the room reassured that all nurses know how to do IVs, and so does he. He assured he wouldn't poke until he knew the vein would work, and did even get someone to come double check the vien he chose would work (I think more for my benefit than being needed though)

It hurt. A lot. I'm sorry to say. The first "small poke" was to add numbing to the area, and the "big poke" was the IV. I cried out, but managed to stay still so he didn't have to redo it. Thankfully lol

I think they said they needed an 8 Guage, which they admitted is larger and more uncomfortable. I kept panicking because it continued to hurt after being taped in and everything. But, I'm EXTREMELY sensitive to smells, touches, smells, tastes and hearing so I don't know how much was normal versus my super powers.

**Note to anyone who isn't aware:: the IV is NOT a needle that stays in the skin. The needle is used to introduce something into the vein properly, but no needle stays in your skin. This helped a lot with the fear of moving my hand--though I still didn't because I was hurting. **

After this I was left alone for a while. Introduce more panic anxiety. Everyone was very understanding though, being my first surgery and having zero idea what to expect etc. They were very reassuring and helpful. They did tell me that once I gave final consent to the full surgeon team, I could get some anti-anxiety added into the IV, but it had to be after because I needed to be legally if sound mind to give consent etc. Once I understood that, it helped, versus wondering why tf they wouldn't give it to me now.

The anesthesiologist came in to talk with me and answer questions and give the overview of her side of things. She went to check the IV and said "Oh, it's in already, good. Who did it?"

And the nurse said "the anesthesia student".

To which came my biggest panic attack when the anesthesiologist replied, "I don't have a student today. Who did this??" And they left the curtain. And I heard the nurse saying "I don't see him anymore..."

So that was fun...

I half suspected they added something to my IV to calm me because after that I felt like "meh, this is normal, everything is fine. No panic or crying." But, I was also busying myself with texting people and writing in my journal, so I think it was the distraction, because as they said, I hadn't given consent yet and when I did get the anxiety relief, the IV adder section of the tube was on the right side of me, and I'd thought it was on the left where the nurse was messing around before.

The surgeon, the student and the anesthesiologist all came.together and did their individual talks to each other. The anesthesiologist told the surgeon what she'd be using, which side she'd be intubating once I was asleep, that I looked like an easy intubation, and some other stuff I didn't understand. The surgeon explained to them what exactly her plan was, and then I got chances to ask all my questions. She also went over the risks, a bit about the aftercare but also said it would be gone over in detail once I was out of recovery room and co scions again.

Then it was time to go. I got the anxiety meds and my bed was wheeled out. I think the meds started to kick in pretty quickly because I do t remember where they wheeled me, and barely remember having the bed side saddle up to the OR table and needing to scoot myself over onto it. I remember them taking my glasses off. And a soft mask immediately put on my mose/mouth. I don't remember them asking me to count or anything. But I think they were direction me to take deep breaths. I think I remember 4.

It was about 12:45 at this point I think. I'd previously been told the surgery should be about an hour and a half, maybe two.

3:15pm ish

I started gaining consciousness again. I think I heard nurses doing hand-off talks about me again, and I definitely heard someone talking about how I'd been holding a duckie in pre-op lol

It was extremely hard to wake up, it just felt so much easier to give in and close my eyes and try to nod off again. I couldn't feel any pain or anything at this point, not even the gauze on my nose, but the nurses kept pestering me to take deeper breaths. I hadn't thought of it before, but I guess the intubation takes the lung work away, so the deep breaths are meant to help strengthen the lungs again, and to help wake me up quicker. I was breathing shallow, but I remember thinking it was my normal breathing pace anyway so I saw no issues with it and was annoyed when she kept calling to me to stay awake and take more deep breaths. Which apparently weren't deep enough, which encouraged more calling out. I'm guessing she could tell blood oxygen levels from the finger monitor and if I was breathing "right" cause most the time she was at a distance.

I remember someone coming by and asking if I felt awake enough to take T3s yet and I shook my head no. So they left me for a little bit again. I did hear nurses talking about how I was taking a lot longer to come out of the anesthesia than expected, and I found out later that the usual rouse was anticipated to be like 30 minutes but it took me an hour and a half to be okay enough to be moved from the main Recovery room. And even then I wasn't fully awake yet. I did finally get the T3s and was excited because I didn't get that horrid taste. Woohoo! (Spoiler, that was not the case the next time)

I had kept asking for water, one person said yup just a minute, then forgot me. So I started feeling panicky because my mouth was so freaking dry and sore. I wanted more but thy only gave me a few sips at a time, spaced about 10 minutes apart. They explained, once I was awake enough, that too much water at this point might trigger nausea, but once I got into the post recovery room, I'd "have full control over my water cup", which excited me lol

I think they moved my to a private room ("private", had space for another bed but no one was admitted in with me") around 4:45pm.

And I was originally told I'd likely be going home around 4. Lol oops.

When I got to the room, my mom and stepson were able to join me, but I was still incredibly out of it, the nurse convinced them to go get some supper so I could try resting a little longer. She was very good at encouraging me to NOT push it. "Recovery will take as long as it takes, don't worry"

She said she'd change the blood pressure cuff to go off every 30 minutes instead of 15 so I could rest. I thanked her. Then about 15 minutes later a dude came in and manually ran it anyway....

At some point the nurse asked if I wanted a popsicle in addition to the water, and I was eager for that. For me, it was a MISTAKE. Don't get the popsicle. The flavor is nice, but it created that sticky/dry mouth feeling that was worse than the dry mouth and drinking water wasn't getting rid if it.

ADVICE: Stick with water the full day of operation! Also, have some with you for after they stop bringing you some, and through the ride home.

The nurse asked if I needed the washroom and I said surprisingly no. I knew in recovery they mentioned I'd gone through a bag and a half of IV fluids, so I was surprised.She pointed out that usually once you setup or stand, that changes quickly lol

So after a while, I got the chance to sit up. I stayed sat for a while because I did feel some dizziness. I was eager to get out though ONLY because my mom had an event she was supposed to be at that night and she kept sighing every time she talked about how she guess she'd inky make the desserts now, or maybe not at all, or dad needs this information. So I was actually rather irritated with her because she kept giving such a stressful energy through the day.

I managed to stand and was asked to walk without looking at the ground. I asked then for my glasses, realizing that maybe that was part of the headache was not having them for the last 4.5 hours of trying to wake up.

I did infect need to pee. A lot. I was surprised at how much continued to come lol but it made sense with all the IV and water intake. Also, I found at the point they had not removed all the monitor sticky pieces off of me. So double check yourself lol

At some point a lady came in to go over the post op instructions. She said "Oh you don't have guaze so no apt to take that out" and (I forget when I learned this) but we were all like, no, I do infact have packing. Originally it was meant to be just dissolvable stitches because the surgeon "wasn't coming in to work on Christmas to remove stents or packing". But they did end up saying I had even extra packing. Usually I guess it's half a roll per nostril, but I got a full roll pernise. Which sounds insane but doesn't feel bad. My nose wasn't currently tender to the touch, which I was surprised at. No bruising as of yet.

So the new nurse asked me to tilt my head back and even used her phone flashlight to look in my nose and insisted "no, I see a lot of blood but no packing". So we insisted she check with the nurse when she was back. Nurse confirmed I did in fact have packing, and it was dissolvable.

I was frustrated because pre surgery the surgeon said I shouldnt see much blood, just ooze. And I definitely had blood and had chenged my packing twice in post recivery room. I learned later that apparently one of my medications caused/helped cause the increase of bleeding. So, a little annoyed she didn't seem to do that research or have that knowledge ahrmead of time.

Also, when I got a chance to look when home, you absolutely could see the packing. The nostrils were covered in wet and dry blood a few mms into the nostril, but then it was very obviously a dark blood soaked void if guaze, so I think that second nurse person shouldn't be doing what she's doing.

7:50pm

Mom was able to go get the car to pull it around. I got changed back into my clothes.

Except she couldn't. The parking pay stations weren't accepting her card, then it ate her ticket, then she couldn't find anyone to ask for help.

8:45pm

She finally got the car pulled around. I got wheelchaired out of the room and around and down right to the car. To which we (stepson and I) got regailed with the tales of frustration and more comments about how she definitely won't be making the dessert or even going now. And more concerns of her driving abilities. Which didn't help stress.

I did start to feel more and more nauseous as the drive went on, but was manageable enough.

Hubby was waiting once I got home to help me from the car, inside. I'd messaged him part way home and asked if he'd make grilled cheese for me, and oh boy was that so good to eat. It was rough on my throat but the more I ate the better my throat felt. I learned from my stepson that saliva actually has some minor anesthetic properties too, which would've helped too.

Hubby had managed to walk to the pharmacy before they closed to pickup my prescriptions, and glad he did.

Nurses had told me multiple times how one medication. Would interfere with my birth control, so to ensure I used barrier protection for the next week (like sex was the first thing on my mind anyway LOL) but that I could still take it and it would just be less effective. Our Pharmacist however, whom I trust a hell of a lot more to understand drug interactions, said no, don't even take the birth control while I'm taking the medication.

Trust your Pharmacist to understand drug interactions better than the hospital. It's quite literally their whole job.

I finally took more T3s about 11:15pm and got help to bed. I changed my bandage again to one that felt more secure that I'd ordered online thanks to someone in the reddit. The taping guaze down was not cutting it.

Oh, also, my eyelids were sticking to the upper lids because if whatever they used to tape my eyes down. I used a warm q-tip to gently rub at my eyes. But this wasn't apparent until late in the evening and hadn't thought about or read about it so figured I'd mention

Will continue the rest of recovery stories as days go in the comments, as well as my purchases and prep I did as this is already super long.