Hurray – surgery is complete, now I am waiting to be
discharged from the hospital. Originally,
surgery was scheduled for 4-5 hours with a one-night stay in the hospital.
I got to the hospital Friday morning with one of the worst
migraines I’ve ever had! The
anesthesiologist gave me a shot of Zofran and also put an anti-nausea patch
behind my ear. I was happy when they
finally took me to the OR and I knew I would be put out of my misery
(headache).
Surgery took about 7.5 hours because of some challenges and
complications. A year ago, I had a
discectomy and fusion, the incision was made on the front right side of my
neck. Dr. Damrose went in partially
through this old incision and extended it more to the front. Finding the nerve on the left side was
perfect and like a textbook case (so he said). On the
right side there was so much scar tissue that after cutting it out they
realized the scar tissue had grown around the donor nerve they wanted to use,
this nerve was too short so they went deeper into my neck, and found another nerve
and were able to splice two nerves together to make a longer one.
The first day post-surgery was hard to swallow, it felt
as though it was the worst sore throat I’d ever had in my life. Thank goodness, for the vacuum aspiration
tube I have had here by my bed to vacuum and spit out the phlegm/mucus. I have been on a “nectar thick full liquid”
type of diet. It is very boring and
consists of cream of rice, creamy soups and pre-thickened apple juice.
This is the third day in the hospital and I am so glad I get
to go home!
Oh I might add that even though I have a soft whispery voice, it sounds much better than it did on Friday!
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