Pat ~
Your anxiety is perfectly reasonable. Fortunately, my surgery experience was quite positive so I'll be glad to share it.
Frankly, going
into the surgery was a bit intimidating. The trip on the stretcher and the (seemingly) small OR, packed with people that seemed very busy and of course, lots of blinking monitors and very bright lights. A technician (he performed my nerve monitoring) made sure I was comfortable (a relative term at that point) and assured me that I would be fine. I said that I hoped so. Within a minute, the anesthesia took effect and I was unconscious. I awoke some 9 hours later in the ICU. I don't recall much actual post-op pain but I did suffer from mild nausea and slight double-vision for the first 24 hours. In addition, the large head bandage seemed
way too tight for my liking. Oh, and daytime TV is atrocious! What I remember most was being incredibly tired, fatigued, really, which is not uncommon. I just wanted to sleep...and I did, except when the cheery ICU nurses came in to check my blood sugar (it was always normal - I don't have diabetes) or do something else that necessitated waking me up. I became somewhat irritable during that time. Fortunately, my wife opted to stay by my bedside for the first 48 hours post-op and apologized for me to the nursing staff, who weren't all that bothered by my grouchy demeanor and, fortunately, as I recovered (and the head bandage was taken off by my doctor) my usual affable personality emerged once again, much to my wife's delight.
.
Within a few days, the nausea was gone, I was eating what passed for 'food' and sitting up in a chair, which felt good. By Day 4 I was walking the halls with my intrepid wife and drinking as much coffee as she could bring me from the cafeteria. By Day 5 I was finally transferred to a semi-private room and I continued walking as much as possible. My appetite was fine and the double vision disappeared. By late morning of the fifth day of my hospital stay, my doctor was out of town at a seminar (he apologized - many times, in fact - but was scheduled to be a speaker and couldn't cancel) so my doctor's assistant (also a neurosurgeon) decided I was recovered enough to be discharged. The hospital PT nurse was skeptical about my being discharged so she made me perform a series of demonstrations (walking up and down stairs without using the handrail, etc) to 'prove' I was 'stable' enough to go home. I passed Nurse Ratched's tests, was dutifully discharged and on the way home (my wife drove) we stopped and treated ourselves to a stack of delicious pancakes at a local diner, a little treat that I had promised myself. Luckily, I have simple tastes and I'm easily pleased.
My recovery went smoothly, with only a slight infection at the incision. That was quickly resolved with generous applications of
Bacitracin, as directed by my doctor, via phone. I was given doctor's approval to resume driving within two weeks of my surgery and had no trouble doing so, even on the interstate. My neurosurgeon was elated by my recovery and so was I.
Although one person's AN surgery experience is not a guarantee that another AN surgery patient will have the same experience - or outcome, I offer you mine in the hope that it will give you encouragement, realizing that AN surgery is major but that most AN surgery patients do O.K. I think you will, too.
Jim
