The Surgery

Been absent from the blogosphere for some time now. Too busy with with the CNY celebration really. :p Anyway, before I forget, to each and everyone of you out there ... would just like to wish you GONG HEI FATT CHOI!!! May the year 2008 shower you with abundance prosperity of health and wealth. It's never too late to forward well wishes no??? Hehe.

Just so you know, I'm recovering very nicely from my recent surgery. All's well and dandy. Started driving today too (to the absolute objection of my mom and grandma) ... albeit only a few km to USJ Taipan but I really do miss driving. Been pigging out non stop. People are stuffing me with scrumptious food all the time. I don't mind really but then when I prop myself onto the weighing scale ... I see the kilos piling on. Can't run away from reality. :( Don't be suprised the next photo you see of me might depict me being horrendously overweight. Haha. *touchwood*

Ok, so about my surgery, here's a brief recap. I checked into the University Malaya Specialist Center at approximately 10am on Jan 28th. I was shown to my ward and it's a single occupancy room. (See photos above) It cost RM200 a night (not inclusive of food) and an additional RM50 for nursing charges. Soon after, my neurosurgeon, Prof. Vickneswaran came in to take some of me blood sample and to explain exactly how he's gonna cut my head up. Basically, the upper part of my neck behind will be cut open (see first photo above). Then he'll have to slice through a big chuck of muscle to get to the skull. A grinder will be used to powderised a small part of my skull to reveal my brain. Some grey matter i.e. my brain's tonsil would have to be taken out to create a 'sump' to allow my spinal fluid to flow there if necessary. Some existing spinal fluids trapped in my spine will be squeezed out too (just like squeezing toothpaste). After all that, they'll stitch up everything and I'm on the road to recovery. Yay!!! No momento for me though ... skull would be in powder form and they need to dispose the brain tonsil in a proper manner at the hospital. Oh yea ... and apparently, my skull could actually grow back over time. May take a while tough.

At mid day, my anasthetist, Dr. Usha came in to check on me and to measure the right amount of anesthesia to be given to me to knock me out could during the op. She also revealed a li'll too much info ... telling me how I wouldn't be breathing on my own but instead with the help of some medical equipment and that they'll have to insert some sorta tube into my lungs etc. OUCH!!!

Oh and I have to fast from 10:30am till after the surgery. That means no eating or drinking whatsoever for about almost 8 hours. At 4:30 pm, I took a really clean shower and just before the clock struck 5pm, the attendants wheeled me into the operation theater. It's just like those you see in the tele ... big shiny lights with tonnes of other equipments. Dr. Usha pumped me with some fluid and before long, I dozed off.

3 hours and 55 minutes later, I was awaken and the surgery was deemed a success. They sent me to the High Dependency Unit ward and there, the suffering began. I was vomitting profusely. And with each cough, it sends a sharp pain to the surgery wound. I needed to pee desperately too and they keep telling me to just do it. (I didn't know I already had a pee bag fitted to me). I was also hooked onto a machine dispensing paikiller into my bloodstream (morphine) to help cope with the pain. Each time I press the button, 1mg of morphine would be pumped in. I think I pressed it a total of 4 times. Don't ask if I felt 'high' cause even if I did, the pain probably masked that estatic sensation. :p Throughout the night, it was pure hell. The pain, the nausea, the excruciating headache and added with severe dizzyness ... I really don' know ow I survived. Each time I dozed back to sleep and awaken again, it felt as if a couple of hours had passed but when I asked the nurse for the time, only a couple of minutes went by.

Early next morning, I was allowed back into my ward. All the ill feelings were still there but it felt better to be in the ward ... the morning sunrays helped I think. (The HDU is windowless). Mom tried to feed me with some water and some semi solid food. Eating was a real bother. I was lying flat on my back and swallowing wasn't easy to say the least. I just wanted to sleep and make the pain go away. I had some visitors, some relatives and friends but I was really groggy most of the time to even realize who came. The morphine machine was uninstalled and I relied on tablet painkillers instead.

The third day was slighty better. Two nurses came in early in the morning and gave me a sponge bath. At that time, you wouldn't even think about being shy ... you just wanna feel clean again ... trust me on this one. I was allowed to sit up at a 45 degree angle on the bed. That made eating and drinking a whole lot easier. My appetite improved slightly too. More visitors came but I couldn't remember most of them. I only woke up to eat and then it was back to slumber. The pee bag came off and initially, I had trouble peeing. Maybe it's a phsycological issue there but six hours after the bag came off, I finally succeeded in peeing. Hehe. Wanted to watch some tv but you'd had to pay a RM50 deposit to obtain the remote. They took out the two manual channel switching buttons on the tele. Sheesh.

The fourth day, I was feeling heaps better. I was allowed to shower. They sprayed a thin layer of plastic on the wound to waterproof it. An elderly nurse helped me with the hard work. I basically just sat there and she did the rest. It was good to shower again especially when your hair feels really oily and lumpy. Again ... you just couldn't be bothered with the syness issue. Suprised myself too in this aspect. People were caught suprised at how alert I was ... heck, even I wasn't expecting myself to feel the way I felt. Started taking in a li'll bit of solid food and I reckon that helped in regaining some strength in my body. Was allowed to walk a bit and I may walked just a bit too much. Heh heh. The doc came and see me and mentioned that if everything goes well, he might even discharge me the next day.

The next day, I was really hoping on getting home. The stopped me on the nausea medication and immediately, I felt like puking 24/7. The headache came as well and it was intense. Puking cause my body is reacting to the absence of the nausea medication and the headache could be due to me walking too much the previous day resulting in some spinal fluid flowing back into the spine. Yikes!!! So in the end, the doc decided to keep me in for one more day. I only walked when I needed to use the bathroom.

The sixth day, the doc came in early and finally gave the greelight for me to be discharged. My parents started packing up my stuff and by noon, I was on my way home. It's good to be home ... it really is. Oh and I'm appreciating Astro just a li'll bit more now. Ahaks.