Today we arrived at the hospital, as instructed, at 9:30 for my 11:30 surgery. Since I hadn’t eaten since last night’s dinner I wasn’t at all concerned about the procedure because all I could think about was how much hunger I had.
Pre-op prep went smoothly, when I was greeted by a very friendly and efficient nursing staff. I was also very pleased that Rita Moorman, MD was going to be my anesthesiologist. Rita is a friend of my partner, Allen, (business partner, remember Patrice is assigned those more personal partner responsibilities). Rita was my anesthesiologist when the hardware was removed from my hip one year following my hip fracture repair. She did a great job then and again today.
Surgery went beautifully. My surgeon, Garrett Matsunaga MD, performed like Luke Skywalker in scrubs. He sought out the alien intruder in my left ureter (if you don’t know what a ureter is shame on you for not reading my previous posts) and then took out his light-saber (aka laser) and blasted the little M-F-er into 3 segments (see below).
In recovery things didn’t go as well. Unfortunately I could not void. I think the main problem was that I have a large prostate (like all men of my age) and because of the trauma from surgery it burned when I tried to urinate. That resulted in a “perfect storm” and retention was the result. A catheter was placed and 775 cc of urine was drained. For those not in the medical field that is a huge amount of urine and results in bladder stretching requiring rest to recover. So right now I am resting my bladder in bed with a urinary catheter in place (my worst fear realized). The plan is on the board at the foot of my bed (see below). The catheter will be d/c (discontinued) in the morning and I can go home once I make water.
Let’s pray for the ability to make water (I’m taking about me pee-ing, the drought prayers can come later)
Robert
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 