Priscilla, you had a huge responsibility along with Pooter to go to Dr Vrabec. Sorry to leave you out of the mix of thanks I have to offer. The ability to send and receive personal messages here was important to me, and helped me decide what type of treatment was best for me. Nobody ever suggested which method to chose, but your experience with Methodist Hospital and Dr Vrabec was the tipping point for me. Thank you to Priscilla and Pooter. If I was young enough to have more kids, I might name them after you two.
My strength is rapidly returning. I lost about 10 pounds following surgery, but I am eating several times a day now, trying to gain it back. 12 hours following the surgery, I was fed a full breakfast of pancakes, sausage, a biscuit, milk, orange juice, and coffee. No sore throat. I know that everybody has a different experience in their recovery, and mine has been great. I am just offering to those of you who are thinking about surgery, either planning it or just waiting for the date, that this was not the end of the world. I thought the pain would be horrible, but there was no pain. Discomfort was another story...I just could not get used to lying there. My heel would start itching, then I could hear my heart in my left ear, then the blood pressure cuff was wadded up, then the bandage around my head was too tight. That was pure hell to me...no pain, just uncomfortable.
Surgery was Wednesday, and I was walked by a PT nurse with a belt strapped around me about 15 hours after surgery. She thought I was walking too slowly, but I was just glad to be up, and not listening to my heart beat or feeling that blood pressure cuff any more. I was put in a regular room by noon on Thursday, and started walking the hall way Thursday night. I set little goals like walk three doors and turn around, get back in bed. Next time go 10 doors. Finally I let go go of the hand rail and walked without support...getting better...I was so proud of my success. At this time I decided to set goals for lots of things, and quit worrying about my discomfort. My wife brought in treats from outside, like a cup of hot coffee, a sandwich. All of these little goals and treats made the day survivable.
One funny thing happened in ICU. I had regained my ability to think and reason, and I began to listen to the nurses in the area, just to have something to do. At one point, they started playing a game, trying to get responses from patients by buzzing them on the intercom system. One of them said, try the guy over there with the acoustic neuroma, and I got buzzed...I did not respond. This may have been part of there job just measuring the ability of a person to respond prior to releasing them to a regular room, but all I could imagine was that they were betting money on who would answer.
I just want to make a little difference in some ones hospital stay. This is not a vacation at all, but if you go in with the idea that YOU will make the best of this, set some little goals, work around problems, your stay will be much better.
