I hope all is well with you. As you might have heard directly or through the family grapevine, on Wednesday 1/14 I had surgery on my left wrist to remove a ganglion cyst (new window). It had pained me for years and prevented me from doing things like pushups, leaning my head on my hand, etc. I was afraid to do anything about it because I thought it might require surgery with all its associated risks to my dominant left hand. I finally had enough of it and decided to use my health insurance (thank you USAA!) to get it out. I apologize for the length of this story but I wanted to include a moderate amount of detail to help with remembrance.
It all happened rather quickly. On Monday the 12th, I went for an appointment to have a wrist specialist check it out. To our surprise, while there I was able to schedule a surgery appointment for the following Wednesday. The coordinator told me to arrive at 1:30 and the surgery would take place at 3:00. On Tuesday, a woman from the surgery center called to ask me all the relevant questions:
Do you take any medications?
No.
Any allergies?
Penicillin.
What is your favorite part of It's a Wonderful Life?
That part at the end where the angel gets his wings.
I may have made the third one up. You get the idea. On Tuesday evening, we drove Tyler to Houston, and Wednesday morning we drove back to San Antonio. It was a tough trip for all of us - Tyler was leaving, Linda was sick, and I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight the night before my surgery. When we returned, Linda ate lunch and I started getting ready to go. The center is a little over 10 miles from our house, so we left around 1:00.
We found the place without any issues and went to the elevator. Right outside of it were standing two or three men, and they were talking about a power outage of some sort. Not too much later we found out that an accident had occurred and power to the entire block had been cut for twenty minutes or so. They had tried to call me five or six times to warn me to hold off, but we were already en route by that time.
We found the reception desk and I signed in. After a very short wait they called me up to fill out paperwork. After that, another brief wait and my pre-op nurse called me in to change into my super fancy surgery duds. She then got me comfortable and stuck an IV needle (twice) in my right arm. It turns out that she's a Texas Tech alum. They fetched Linda to wait with me, then the surgeon and anesthesiologist stopped by to answer questions. Mr. Anesthesiologist gave me a choice: I could either have my arm paralyzed and numbed for the experience, or I could be put under. I chose the latter because I knew it would make the procedure pass more quickly for me. I kissed Linda and a nurse came to give me a shot via the IV. She said it would make me groggy and it certainly worked well for that. I remained conscious while they wheeled me into the operating room and positioned my bed. I can only assume that they then started the anesthesia IV because the next thing I remember is awaking in a different room with a bandage around my wrist.
It was very much like waking up from a night's sleep. I think a man and a woman were there and said a few things to me, but I don't recall of what they spoke. As I regained more of my consciousness, I noticed a new man who sat down beside my bed and asked me questions. He asked things like how I felt, if I was in pain, etc. He also answered my questions, a few of which I asked twice. "When will I be able to eat?" "After this." "Did I already ask you that?" "Yes, but that is fine." I was impressed with his level of patience. I told him I felt like a lunch lady in the hat they put on me for the surgery, which he did not seem to find all that humorous.
When the recovery man was convinced I was recouperating to his satisfaction, he wheeled me into another room at which point I was under the care of a second nurse. Somebody got Linda, and the nurse (who's also a Texas Tech alumnus) poured some orange juice for me. It stung my throat a bit - a side effect of the anesthesia - but was awesome nevertheless. I felt even better after she gave me a package of peanut butter crackers. Fortunately, they were untainted with salmonella. The nurse explained how to care for my wrist and let me change back into my clothes, with Linda's help. Before long, they gave us a plastic covering for keeping my arm dry while I shower, then wheeled me down to the door where Linda met us with the car.
A couple items about the day definitely stand out for us. First, recall that earlier I said Linda was sick, so while she was in the waiting room her eyes kept watering up and her nose was running. When they gave her an update it probably looked to them like she was breaking down with worry! Second, I was impressed with how careful they were to be sure they operated on the correct wrist. The pre-op nurse double checked that it was my left one and wrote "yes" on it. Then when the surgeon came to talk to me beforehand, he checked again that it was my left and wrote his initials on it while I watched. I appreciated these things because I definitely don't need a cyst removed from my right wrist.
Nurses Hedwig and Phoenix look after me on the evening following my surgery.
