Lightly Medicated

I don't know why you choose to read this blog...maybe you're related to me, maybe you wish you weren't, maybe I know you from living in Washington, Florida, Ohio or Tahiti (just kidding on the last one). Then again maybe you know me from one of the fun online communities that I belong to or blogs that I follow. Either way, you have come to expect me to write in a certain tone or flair. This post however, may be a little different from the norm because lately, I perform life better with just a tad bit of medication. So, that being said, this may be a bit of a disclaimer or not, depending on how this all comes out in the end.

For all of you detail needers out there, here's what's been taking place since my last post.

Note: I will be including a few photos, nothing ghastly, just some happy pics and a "wound" photo at the end.

My surgery adventure began at 5 am, Monday, January 11th.

I got up and got ready to go to the hospital in a completely reverse order of how I normally get ready to go anywhere. For example, I changed from one pair of pajamas into a different set of lounge clothes (and I wasn't even planning on going to Wal-Mart!!), took off my jewelry, washed off lotions and perfumes, cleansed my face and then did not put make up on afterwards. It felt completely weird. Adding to the fact that I do not like getting up at 5 am, it did seem entirely appropriate to get up at such an awful hour and do things backwards.

We breezed into the hospital valet lot and headed into the Ambulatory Surgery Center. (A side note... is it me or does it seem a little sad that the only place I've ever enjoyed valet parking is at the hospital?) I love the name they give these places "Ambulatory Surgery Center", it sounds so hospital-ish... ...which means, "use words that sound like medical terminology, so that people are comforted and think that they're going to a place to get sliced and diced by people who know what they're doing". Okay, so, maybe I'm being a little over the top, but remember...I'm on medication. :)

After nice people greeted us at the entrance, checked me in, and explained the little beeper light up thingy that they gave us, we got to walk down the infamous "long corridor" toward the the bright light...just kidding, it was just the waiting area. While we waited for my flashing gizmo to go off Mom and I exchanged a few phone numbers and watched Brian hunt for a drinking fountain. SUDDENLY!The beeper gizmo of a lady nearby went off, with flashing lights and a LOUD buzzing beeping sound! Several other people, besides the poor woman holding the gizmo gasped and raised wide eyes. Seriously? I thought... here is a room full of people feeling a bit trepidatious about going "under the knife" and this? is how you want to usher them into Pre-Op??!! Couldn't there be another way? Like maybe the nurse who signaled the thingy to go off could walk over and gently call a person's name? Sort of like, she cared? a little? or not.
Anyway, soon enough we had our turn with the Lights and Sirens gizmo and it was my turn.
Ushered into a nice curtained cubicle, I got to don a very cool heated hospital gown. Normally, when you're in a bad way they bring you those heated blankets and all, but my gown had a fitting that hooked to a long hose thingy that blew hot air into an inner chamber of my very modest "wrap around" hospital gown. Never seen the likes of that before, and since I lived to tell about it...har, har...now you know.
The great thing about having surgery is that you miss the whole thing!! The pain of waiting 'til its over is all on your precious friends and family. Sorry guys, but I did my part.
It went something like this...
"Okay, Karilee we need you to scoot over onto this table..."
(In the brightly lit , oh and did I say BRIGHTLY lit operating room)
"...and now scoot down just a bit..."
"okay, now I'm going to give you a little something to help you relax...

... ... 7:30 am ... ... 8:30 ... ... 9:30... ... 10:30... ...

11:30 am ... Dr. came out to the waiting area to talk with Brian, Mom and who ever else was there. Gave them the skinny on what they did to me while I snoozed in the recovery room.

"... Mrs. Hayden, that's your drain, we'll take that tube out...you're all done...just rest a while and then you can see your family."
...and then I was on morphine! It was great!!
Not really, it was yucky. I was so sore from that bless-ed tube down my throat and my chest was sore from those icky drains and for some strange reason my left arm hurt a-lot and the left side of my head. I briefly held that they had dropped me off the table and that was why my arm and head hurt, but nobody was talking. Almost 2 weeks later my arm still hurts a bit. The other explanation is that I was fighting them in the OR (repressed cage fighting skills?) and they had to restrain me beyond normal measures...does that sound like me? I don't think so.
The gist of what they did to me is...The thyroid was removed completely. The right side was removed in several sections and was in total, about the size of a tennis ball. The left side was also large, but not as large as the right.
Two drains were put in because of the size of the mass that was removed and the amount of resulting fluids . (ew) I will have to take thyroid medication for the rest of my life, but that's just fine since its supposed to make me feel better! All of the pathology reports came back stating that the masses were NON cancerous! Hurray!! What a wonderful answer to the prayers of many! God is so good!!
Now here we are 5 weeks later and this is really old news. Well, its still pretty fresh for me, but it is rather pale as a headline for everyone else.
My Mom was here with us and stayed until February 6th to help out until I was better. I can't say that I'm fully recovered, but I do feel better. My mind is still fuzzy sometimes so I blame that on the drugs and I'm stickin' to it.
Thanks to all of you that have prayed for me through this whole ordeal. God has certainly answered your prayers and I'm so glad to have your love and support.
Just last night Titus prayed during our Family Bible reading time... "Thank you God that Mama got the pipes out of her, so she can feel better. " How special it is to show my sweet little 4 year old how our loving God answers our prayers. :) Thank you Lord!!