Carcinoid Tumor Surgery: Wednesday April 19th

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This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube.

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We left home in Blaine around 6:30 am on Wednesday morning April 19th. My parents were with us as they had come for Easter along with my brother and his family and my sister and her family. My parents stayed the few extra days so they could be with us as we went in for surgery. My parents drove straight to their Rochester hotel on Wednesday and we drove to the hotel where Emily's parents were staying. Evan was with Emily's parents, he stayed with them on Tuesday night before surgery so we could get a good night's rest. We arrived at St. Mary's Hospital and things moved very fast. Way quicker than we expected. In fact, I never saw my parent's or Emily's parents before going into surgery. We arrived early (around 8:40am at the hospital) and they were ready for us ahead of time. In retrospect we're very glad things moved so fast so we didn't have to sit around and wait and worry.

The Operating Room was a little intimidating and I'm surprised they had me conscious when they rolled me in. Lots of equipment everywhere.  The last thing I remember was being on the OR bed and being told to curl up into the fetal position and stick out my back so that I could get the epidural shot. Of course the epidural shot was one of my fears because I had such stress over epidural needles dating back to Emily's childbearing experience! But I don't remember anything beyond that. The next thing I remember was waking up groggy with Emily and our parents by my side telling me I was finished with the surgery and that it went well. I argued bluntly with them saying, "Not uh- surgery isn't done. We just got here." "You're lying. I'm not done." The rest of the day on Wednesday was kind of a blur for me as the anesthesia wore off. I recall asking to get up and walk and they accommodated that but Emily says I was super pale and I did feel pretty groggy taking the few steps that I did. I'm sure I was just eager to start my recovery. I didn't walk far. I didn't sleep great Wednesday night and I had nurses coming in every hour or two to give me more meds and check my vitals. I was on 6 ml / hour of Delaudid via my epidural. They also had me taking some Tylenol and stool softeners. My itchiness (a common side effect of epidurals) did begin Wednesday and they began giving me some meds to counteract that which allowed me to rest a little better.

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