I returned to the downstairs area and started the check-in procedure. I filled out the general paperwork in the lobby and then conversed with the admission’s person. After that, I was taken back into their little pre-staging rooms where my vitals were taken and I changed into my gown and booties for surgery. The nurse also gave me three pills (no, they weren't pink or blue, didn't allow me to exit the Matrix, nor did I see any rabbits), one of which was valium. Next up, they moved me to the gurney in Bay 11 where they would perform the final prep before surgery.
One of the last steps is to place an IV in my arm. The last time they rushed me through pre-op for SRS, the nurse missed on the first attempt. I have noticed over the past few years that the hormones have definitely softened me. My veins no longer protrude like they did before. When I’ve had blood drawn for testing, they’ve missed once or twice over the years. Nowadays, I typically ask the person how good they are at either drawing blood or putting in the IV just to get a feel for their own confidence.
There is one guy at my HMO that is great at drawing blood. He puts the needle in with both force and grace, never once missing. I’ve had a woman that has missed twice, and I could tell right away that she lacked confidence in what she was doing. I ended up with a rather large bruise due to her.
So, when I asked how good my nurse was at putting in IV’s, she responded with “Oh yeah, I’m really good at it”....but she didn’t seem so confident.
“The last time I was here, they missed on the first attempt. The person that was supposed to go before me had to be moved to the main hospital that afternoon and they did a rush job on getting me into surgery that morning.” I could swear that I heard her say, “Oh yeah, I remember you” which really made me think that she might have been the one who jabbed me the first time around.
So, she started on my left arm by applying the tourniquet and searching for a good vein. She noticed the one near the inside of my elbow, but she said that it would make my arm less mobile. She then moved down my arm and looked over the veins around my wrist and hand. She decided to go for the one in my hand, wiped it clean, and then tried to insert the needle. It only went about half way before she stopped. She thought about trying to wiggle it around, but since she had already hyped herself up, she kinda just stalled on what to do. Eventually, after jabbing it around in my hand a little, she pulled it out and placed gauze and tape over my now fresh wound.
She looked at my right hand and thought there might be some veins there, so we did the same thing with the tourniquet, wiping, and insertion of the needle. This time, she again made it halfway in before stalling. She says, “You’ve got a lot of valves here, but I’m going to try inserting the IV anyway.” She did. Well, she tried at least. I start seeing my skin bulge up as the liquid just flowed into the skin and not the vein. She notices this and immediately pulls it out and places more gauze and tape over my second fresh wound.
I’m usually an easy going person, but this was starting to annoy me, especially since she had hyped herself up as much as she did. I look over at the desk where the nurses’ station is located and I see this woman in scrubs who kinda gives me this ‘I’m so sorry look’ as she sees both of my hands bandaged up.
My nurse then decides to go back to my left arm, in the soft area on the inside of the elbow. This is the region where blood is normally drawn, but it makes the arm less mobile for the time the IV is in it. She applies the tourniquet again, but from what I had noticed before, she never got it that tight. She was also wearing gloves that were at least a size too big, which probably prevented her from doing a great job with any finesse. So, I finally perk up and say, “Get that thing really tight and my veins will really pop out.”
She tries to get it tight, but is still fiddling with the oversized gloves. She finally gives up and pulls the gloves off. Now that she is glove-less, she once again ties the tourniquet around my arm...a little tighter than before. She then put her gloves on again and finally inserted the IV into my left arm. I was about ready to jump up and cheer that she finally got it in.
Anyway, if anyone reads this and is headed to Greenbaum for surgery, her name is Karen and I wish you better luck with her than I had. She was 2 for 5 with me. Just for reference, I had no IV issues with the people at Davies in San Francisco when I had my two FFS related surgeries there.
OK, so on to better things. After I was all set up, E came back to sit with me before I was taken back to surgery. We kidded around a bit about the valium, my favorite IV nurse, how I was definitely going to milk my recovery with the two flesh wounds, and how E was going to hook me up to all of the equipment and shock me. Evelyn stopped by and said she would be the nurse monitoring my sedation. I remembered her from last time. She said she would be watching my vitals as well as my facial expressions during surgery. She seemed really cool.
Michael, Dr. Meltzer’s assistant also stopped by briefly to introduce himself and to inform me that Dr. Meltzer would be there shortly.
When Dr. Meltzer did show up just after 1pm, I started out by asking two final questions. Unfortunately, the valium was working pretty good by then and I don’t remember the first question. The second question was ‘How soon can I start having sex again?’ E says that Dr. Meltzer kinda chuckled when I asked this but told me I could resume sexual intercourse in a month.
After the questions, Dr. Meltzer had me stand up so that he could draw on my stomach in the areas he would remove my body fat via liposuction. He drew rounded rectangles of different shapes on both sides of my waist.
Now you have to remember that the valium has really kicked in by now and I am a pretty relaxed person. Dr. Meltzer usually dresses very professionally, and by this, I mean that he is usually wearing a suit and tie. The only time he isn’t is when he is cycling or has cycled to Greenbaum to check in on everyone and has changed into scrubs. While he was drawing on me, I noticed his very sharp tie and the colors in his shirt’s fabric. They matched very well, and if I remember correctly, he wore a very deep blue tie with a shirt that had fine blue and white stripes, all underneath a dark suit with very fine pin stripes.
Of course, the valium (at least that’s the excuse I will be using) allowed me to say out loud, “You look very sharp. Your tie matches very well with your shirt.” Dr. Meltzer thanked me for my compliments then semi-surprised me by saying that he sold clothing in college.
After drawing lines on my waist, he had me sit down so that he could draw lines on my face in the areas where he would be transferring fat into my nasolabial folds. E tells me that after he was done and had taken off his gloves, I smiled and he noticed some other lines that formed on my face...at which time he drew a few more lines in some lower areas.
Now that I was fully ready for surgery, E and I hugged. E told me that E loved me, and I became emotional...almost crying...before telling E that I loved E, too. I’d left E another note in the pocket of my jeans...just in case...but as one can tell, I made it through surgery with no problem.
I was loaded onto the gurney and then wheeled off to the OR. I do remember actually making it there and doing a little more maneuvering, but most of my memory of that time is very foggy.
The next thing I remember is hearing a female voice, “Kara, the surgery is over.” I also remember that my arms were straight out to my sides and were restrained at the wrist. The worst part is that I felt super cold and started shivering uncontrollably. After that, I only remember bits and pieces from later that night.
After I arrived in my room for the night, E says that I spent a lot of time either asking the different nurses their names or trying to remember their names. I was definitely out of it. E also said that Dr. Meltzer had come up after surgery and said the normal stuff...that surgery went well and that he removed about 650cc of fat from my waist...a surprising amount considering my size.
Some of my more vivid memories are of dinner. They brought the slip of paper around for me to pick what I would like, and I picked items that were very easy on my stomach. I also asked if they could give E a dinner slip as well.
Anyway, I ate some vanilla flavored yogurt, some fresh fruit, milk, and two servings of ice cream. Luckily, the food preparation person remembered me from last time, as well as my fondness for ice cream, which is likely why I ended up with two servings. At this particular time, I felt very alert and remember things quite vividly.
I milked my IV battle wounds for more ice cream later on that night.
I’d also had visitors that evening, including Blair who rerouted her dinner down to my room, E, and Lisa, a T-friend from the Bay Area who’d arranged a consult with Dr. Meltzer for that morning.
E and Blair, though, had conspired to have a little fun with me that
evening while I was in and out of consciousness. I brought along my
stuffed bear, Stuffed, who unfortunately ended up as one of their main
props that evening. I didn’t really feel any discomfort that entire evening (that I was conscious of), probably from having the residual pain killers pumped into my body during surgery. It also probably helped that I didn’t have full sensation in my vagina yet. In between nurse visits to check my vitals, I seemed to sleep fairly well. E spent the night in the fold out chair in the room, but probably got less sleep than I due to the interruptions.
