playgirl
Surgery day, November 19, 2013
Nov 28, 2013
i've been on a clear liquid diet for the last 24 hours and nothing by mouth since midnight save a small sip of water with some meds. i took half my dose of long acting insulin today, as well as a few meds. i was surprised to find out that i was to continue taking aspirin. i thought because of its blood-thinning effects that i would have come off it about a week prior to surgery. however, i was told specifically that i should stay on it; the positives outweigh the increased chance of bleeding.
about a month prior to surgery, i went through three hours of pre-admission testing where i met with an anesthesiologist, nurse and had lab work. the most important part of that meeting was discussing fibromyalgia with the anesthesiologist, particularly the guidelines for elective surgery: http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/fibromyalgia-254553-5.html. i was assured that the guidelines would be followed. i was impressed that the resident actually knew about the notion of giving a dose of opioids prior to surgery to help prevent central sensitization of pain.
i arrived on time at the hospital for 7am. my surgery was scheduled for 930am. everything was progressing smoothly until i arrived outside the OR, and the anesthesia team prepared to give me an IV. it took three anesthesiologists over an hour, even with the use of an ultrasound to locate appropriate veins, to finally give me an IV. the IV ended up in the crook of my left arm, right where i typically have blood drawn. blood draws are difficult on me to the point that i try to go to one person to have my blood drawn because they are able to get it with ease, while others fail miserably.
during the hour they were attempting to get an IV in, we discussed the fibromyalgia guidelines and my intubation. i was upset to hear that they were intending to ignore all the guidelines because they were concerned about doing a safe intubation. my impression was that they were more concerned about their ease than any ongoing pain issues i might have from not having the guidelines followed. i do have a history of having a difficult intubation because i have an anatomically narrow airway that requires the smallest tube to be used. because of these concerns, they decided to intubate me while i was awake. they also planned on using succinylcholine which is specifically discouraged because it is known to cause muscle pain in some people following surgery. the opioid pain medication i was to receive 90 minutes prior to surgery was being scrapped as well. while i understood their desire to be cautious, i was finally able to convince them to give me the pain medication immediately after intubation and prior to the start of surgery, figuring that some time ahead was better than none. needless to say, after all the hoopla of getting an IV and trying to get them to comply with the fibro guidelines, i wasn't feeling too optimistic about surgery.
finally i'm in the OR. being intubated while conscious sounds horrendous, but it turns out that it wasn't so bad. once i was finally out, i'm pleased to say that the surgery was unremarkable, which is pretty remarkable for me. the surgeon stopped by to see me in recovery as she was leaving for the day and told me everything went fine.
arriving in my room, i was surprised just how out of it i was. i expected to be parched and craving water, but surprisingly i wasn't. perhaps them having lactate ringers running at a good clip through the IV helped keep me well hydrated. even my lips, which are perpetually chapped, weren't crying out for lip balm.
a scary start but a good ending :)