MY SURGERY AND BEYOND

On surgery day, September 13, 2005, my daughter drove my sister and I to the hospital. We arrived at 9:15 AM, and I checked in. By 10:00 AM, we were in the Pre_Op area and an IV was started. If the IV had something to relax me in it, it sure didn't work! Shortly thereafter, Dr Maw came in and asked if I had any questions. As I couldn,t think of any, I said "Did you bring your drill?" She smiled and said yes. At about 10:40, I was taken to the Operating Room, and given an oxygen mask. I was told to breath. After 2 breaths, the next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery area. I wasn't really groggy, and had just a bit of pain. I'm not exactly sure of what time it was, but I was later told the surgery took about 2 hours. After a bit, Dr Maw came by. I asked her if she got full insertion with the implant, and she gave me the thumbs up sign. I felt no nausea, and when we started back to my daughter's house, I felt pretty good considering. Most of me waking and sleeping hours thereafter were spent in a recliner. The only after effect had nothing directly to do with the actual surgery. I discovered after a day, that I could not empty my bladder. We thus went to the ER in the 15th where I was catheretized, and still am. While it is a pain in the neck carrying that bag around, It sure is more comfortable than before. I understand that this condition is not unusual wit men my age after surgery. Tomorrow I have an appointment with urology, so we will see what happens. Yesterday, I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Maw. She said all looked OK, and cleared me to sleep flat out, shampoo my hair, lift more than 10 lbs, and drive when I feel up to it. As I am still taking some meds, I'll probably wit a bit on that. My next appointment with Dr Maw is December 20th for another check up. All in all, withh that 1 exception, the CI surgery has been a positive experience thus far.......much better than I had expected.