screwdrivers, anybody?

Damn.... the wildest things happen to me!

I am rather hesitating to write this here now, but I'm going to go ahead on the off-chance that maybe someone can actually help me. Sigh. Not that I'm expecting anybody really to be able to help, but stranger things have happened.

I went for surgery yesterday to remove the plate in my arm that was put in two years ago from the accident. Everybody assured me it was a simple procedure, and it IS a simple procedure. Just cut, remove it, close. Easy-peasy!

I got to the hospital at 7 am. After waiting for a loong loong time, I finally was wheeled into the OR. It was strange being the patient (not that I'd ever been the doctor). But during my internship I would follow Dr. Bohl around, and observe pretty nonchalantly the patients in the prep room being wheeled into OR. It's been awhile since I've been the patient (not to sound like a regular to the operating theater!), and the last time I was there I was so doped up I don't remember a thing. This time, I had plenty of time to muse about how nervous I was feeling, how weird it was to lay on the bed, feeling pretty much helpless and small. NOT a very nice feeling for control freaks like me.

Anyway, in the OR the anaesthesiologist put an IV in me.. very skillfully I must say. It hardly hurt at all! There was also this funny thing he put on my forehead - apparently it's to monitor the brain waves. He injected the anaesthesia, and I felt a strange liquidy thing pulsing through my veins (or maybe that was just my imagination). Things started to get woozy real fast, and the next thing I knew I was awake, my head pounding like it was going to explode. I felt like I could hardly breathe, and was gasping and gasping. Not a very pleasant experience at all, to say the least. Somehow I managed to gasp out the fact that I felt like I was going to die (heh), and the doctor came over and gave me something (morphine I think). The nurse also gave me an oxygen mask and told me to breathe in and out slowly and deeply.. which I did. It helped somewhat, but it seemed like eternity before I finally calmed down and could relax again.

The pain. Ugh. Well.. let's just say I've forgotten how painful these things can be. It didn't help that I had this weird misconception that it wouldn't hurt so much just because it was a simple procedure! Of course I woke up with that throbbing pain in my arm, so much that I thought I would start screaming. I suppose the painkillers hadn't kicked in when I woke up. Still, it was pretty unbearable for the first part of it, and it only got better after I fell asleep.

Despite feeling really dizzy, I couldn't really fall asleep at all. They wheeled me back into the ward, and I lay there for awhile drifting in and out of consciousness. My parents came in soon, and then I had this sudden urge to call Caitlin. Don't ask me why... maybe it was the bonding experience we had through the accident. Heh.

******
OMG OMG OMG OMG. THE DOCTOR JUST E-MAILED ME.

******

Anyway back to the story before I explain what that above sentence meant. I was very insistent about calling Caitlin, and I couldn't understand why my parents were so reluctant for me to do so. My mom then took my hand and told me gently that they didn't manage to remove the plate. I'm not proud to say I started bawling my eyes out at the end of that sentence. She went on to explain that they couldn't do it because the screws that were used in my plate was different, and they didn't have the proper screwdrivers for it. Man.. I really started to sob the place down then. I was sharing the room with 3 other people, and thankfully my mom drew the curtains around me so I had some privacy.

I don't remember how long I cried. But halfway through I started laughing.. at the irony of it all. I dunno.. I'm thinking the morphine must have done funny things to the neurotransmitters in my brain, thus the yo-yo mood. Hm. Anyway.. I still insisted on calling Caitlin. Unfortunately she didn't pick up, so I left this really convoluted voicemail. Then I tried Saki - voicemail. Finally I called Eush. She was asleep, but she did pick up her call. She was so confused... poor Eushie! I started sobbing down the phone again... and she didn't know what to say at all. I must have traumatized her so much. Heh. Poor girl had to put up with my emo-ness.

Anyway.. like all things, everything calmed down after awhile. I drifted in and out of sleep. There was once when I felt so antsy and started talking non-stop to my mom. After which I had to go to the bathroom, and I felt like my wind was knocked out of me. NOT smart of me to be so hyperactive after anaesthesia. I even had to be wheeled out of a wheelchair to the car - I think I'd just have collapsed on the ground if you got me to walk.

Before I got discharged the surgeon came around and talked to me. He was so sorry about it :( Everybody was.. it was just totally unexpected. He said he had called the agent, and apparently these screws were new and not yet launched in Southeast Asia. So they couldn't get the screwdrivers from another hospital around here if they wanted to. At that point I suggested contacting the doctor who operated on me, and also the doctor I shadowed during winter term to see if they could help me out.

Subsequently I came home, slept off the anaesthesia. Woke up at an ungodly hour again. Have been checking my e-mail obsessively since waking up.

*****

So, the OMG is because I saw that I had a new e-mail in my gmail inbox, and it was the surgeon who operated on me replying me. He said he contacted the agent from the company, and they're going to send it over! HOORAY!

Ok, I'm exhausted with all this typing. This emotional rollercoaster thing is tiring. AHHHH.

:D