The Surgery

Friday morning 5:30 am woke up to the alarm I had set on my mobile phone, finished my morning duties, noted down few phone #s on a piece of paper and the directions to the hospital. I was strictly instructed to dress easy so, I put on my PJs and a simple t-shirt. I was also asked not to carry anything not even my wallet but I decided to carry my cell phone. I become very restless without the cell phone in my hand particularly in situations where I have to depend on lot of folks for help. Vasu gave me a buzz at around 6:20 and told me that he would reach my home in 5 minutes. I slowly got out of my apartment an waited for him. The plans was for Vasu to drop me at the hospital and Ravi(another friend of mine) to drive me home after surgery. Vasu & Manju reached my apartment and we took off for the hospital, 6:30 am and I405 was overwhelmed with traffic, we didn't expect that kind of traffic so early in the day. I had to reach the hospital at 7:00 but we managed to reach only at 7:15. The hospital looked more like a 5 start Hotel, such was the ambience. The place had a neat reception and a waiting area for visitors also had few coffee shops and other small shops. I spoke to the lady at the reception about my surgery appointment, she asked for my last name and I started to spell, these folks pronounce my name differently, as in, Subramania ends like the English word mania, I was in no mood to correct her so, acknowledged that it was indeed me. Quickly got down to some paper work, including taking a photocopy of my insurance card. Soon, I was taken to a ward on the adjacent block, truly that was the first time I got a ride on a wheel chair, was a little queer but was fun, I played around with the chair trying to make some tricky maneuvers.

Again more paper work, in the last 3 weeks I've done more paper work than what our government officers would have done in their whole life. I was told that the surgery would start at 9:00 and would most likely be over by 10:30 and that I would be brought to the post operative care ward by 11:00. Vasu had some work at office so he had to leave but said that he would come back and take me home. Meanwhile Dr. Santoro made a visit to my bed autographed my knee, just to make sure that no else operates my knee :-). I was also asked to get into the patient attire. The gown was quite revealing, it's basically a piece of cloth that covered the front of my body upto a foot from my groin. The back of the gown was completely open, I was reminded of Jack Nicholson from the movie "Something's gotta Give". From 8 to 8:10, I helped myself scrubbing the disinfectant all over my right leg. I laid back on the bed with a bunch of papers in one hand and my cell phone on the other hand waiting for someone to come and talk to me, next 30 minutes felt like the longest 30 minutes of my life.

Nurse Lillia dropped by at 8:45, she had this kind of Swedish accent and had quite a tough time trying to pronounce my name, I saved her the trouble and asked her to call me "vaithee". She once again appraised me about the surgery the dos and don'ts after the surgery, ironically one of the information brochures stated that I might not remember things that were told to me few minutes before the anesthesia. I confirmed with her if this was true, she immediately handed over some papers with all those information she had told me. By this time the entire bed had papers strewn all over. I was given a small plastic pouch to put all my belongings; it was too small to take those truck load of papers, my spectacles and my cell phone. The anesthesian Earl Ricardo, if I remember right, told me that I would feel a little strange after the initial dose of sedation and quickly loose consciousness. While I was talking to the anesthesian, Lillia fixed the IV, I didn't know that I had been drugged at that time, while I was moved to the operation theatre, my hearing capacity was failing, though I was stationary I felt as if the ceiling above me was moving, I asked the docs if it was normal. They reassured me saying that I was doing good, then poof! I was switched off; all I remembered was waking up at the post operative care with a bit of pain in my knee. The nurse asked me how bad the pain was, with a lot of difficulty I told her 4/10, she did something and soon the pain subsided.

I could hear the nurse talking, she was telling someone details about my surgery, I corrected her twice: first when she said I was operated on my left knee and later she said a allograft ACL reconstruction was done. Actually my right knee was operated and it was an autograft ACL reconstruction. Anyways, at that point I was barely able to speak; felt a lump in my throat. The nurse told me that she had informed Vasu and that he is on his way to take me back home. Vasu also collected some pain medicines from the hospital pharmacy. I was semi-conscious and when I felt a little better the time was 1:00. I felt really weak. The nurse helped me to put my t-shirt and PJ back on. One of the volunteers(a 60 year man) wheel chaired me to the car. Getting into the car was quite a task; we reached home at around 2:00 had lunch (curd rice) and from then till now I've been doing great. I am just hoping and praying that I get into a position to move around myself as soon as possible. More in my next post; mostly likely after my first follow up visit with the doc. on the 27th.