Day One: The operation

Wednesday morning started for me at 7:00am as I was shaken awake by a teeny nurse.

"Changee" she says to me as she passes me a different type of hospital shirt, and, no lie, a friggin' BONNET.

Then she left the room.

Obligingly I switched shirts, but left the bonnet off for the time being.

The rest of the morning I was visited by nurses and doctors almost every hour.

I had my blood pressure taken at 8:00.

At 9:00 I got my very first IV. (Sidenote, IV's are WELL used in Korea. It's a common sight to see babies in strollers attached to IV's. If you're hungover, you can get an IV too!)

So now I am attached to a six foot pole on wheels that I will have to drag around until I am discharges on the 10th (if things go well).

I got a couple of different liquids going through my veins straight away. One was just saline I believe (thank goodness!! It's HORRIBLE waking up and not being able to drink water!) and the other was an anti-bleeding medicine.

Nurses kept coming back with needles to inject into the IV as well. Some of them tried to explain what they were giving to me...but I didn't catch any of it. The language barrier was too high. It felt like ice going through my veins though, whatever they were doing!

As they slowly and surely prepped me, I started getting nervous all over again.

Luckily, Antoine (my rock) came again at 10am, as promised. I cannot stress enough how much a pair of tonsils would still be in my throat if it wasn't for this man!

We hung out and watched some 'How I met Your Mother' on the internet (I borrowed my friend's laptop for the hospital stay...I seriously have SUCH great friends!!)

All the while it just felt like Antoine and I were hanging out like normal...except I was dressed funny and on an IV (the sadist insisted on taking various pics of me in my bonnet too!) Oh, and another difference was that people kept bringing in paperwork for Antoine (my guardian?) and I to sign.

I told the staff that Antoine was my boyfriend, even though he's not. I didn't think they'd understand why just a friend was with me so much. Plus, it made them happy and swoony. 'Oh, boyfriend!! Very good!!'

11am and 12pm came and went...but it was still kind of shocking when they came for me at 12:10pm.

I had to ride in a wheelchair to the operating room. One of the nurses spent a lot of time fussing with my bonnet, until there was a great bow on the top of my head (Antoine got pics of that too lol).

They took away my glasses, locked up my room, and pushed me down to surgery.

Abruptly, they told Antoine that he couldn't come any further. That freaked me out! If it had been up to me, he wouldn't have been allowed to leave until I was already knocked out!

After my seperation with Antoine, I thought about backing out until the second I was knocked out.

After I was wheeled through these great double doors, I had to swap my wheelchair for a gurney.

I was pushed through room after room of double doors by a teeny surgical nurse, dressed all in green.

I could BARELY see anything without my glasses.

I don't know exactly why, but it was so scary. I'd never been anywhere like this before. I honestly thought shows like 'House' and 'ER' were exagerating the props/scenery.

Not so.

My operating room was 3x as big, 3x as green, and with twice as many HUGE lights as I'd been expecting!

With the edition of the lady who had pushed me into the room, there were now four teeny surgical nurses with me in the operating room.

They made me nervous (like everything else at this point).

They were all super skinny (all definitely under 100lbs), like four feet tall, and giggling together like school girls. They looked like high school students playing dress-up. I KNOW it's horribly judgemental of me, but I would have felt FAR better with some butch, broad, older nurses in the mix!

Anyway, my fears were unfounded as they professionally set me up for surgery. I got EKG sensors attached to my chest, a pulse checker attached to one of my fingers, and I was strapped down to the gurney, across my chest and thighs.

Now the only sounds in the room was my beating heart, and the titters of the nurses.

Seconds after they finished preparing me, the doctor came in. I already knew at this point that I'd be receiving Lazer, and not razer surgery, but I wanted to ask him if I'd be waking up with any tubes in me. Of course, no one in the operating room could understand me.

He held a mask above my face and told me to breathe. I was a bit confused because the mask looked as though it should suction over my nose and mouth, but he was holding it so it wasn't touching me.

Finally, I started taking deep breaths. I remember thinking it was taking a long time to work. I remember thinking maybe it wouldn't be effective on me. I remember closing my eyes, but then opening them again, worried that they'd take my closed eyes as a sign that as I was out, when I really wasn't.

That's all I remember of the operating room.

I woke up two hours later in a different part of the hospital. I woke up panicking and thrashing around.

The first fifteen minutes after I woke up are hazy to me now.

I don't know why but I started BEGGING for painkillers. I'm sure they had me on something, but I was freaked out. I don't even know/remember if I was IN pain, I just wanted painkillers in my fuzzy mindstate.

The nurses ran to get a doctor. He came back and told me that I could have stronger painkillers, but they'd cost me an extra 150$ for 48hrs worth. I immediately agreed. As they were preparing the painkiller, I begged for ice cubes to suck on, using all of the Korean I knew (I honestly think I spoke more consecutive Korean in those fifteen minutes then I have all year here). They were reluctant to give me anything orally, but I managed to co-erce three ice cubes out of them.

After the doctor came back (I found out later he had needed Antoine's permission for the extra drugs), he hooked up my iv with a little bag that is clipped to my shirt. There is a button on my wrist I can press if I want a burst of painkiller.

At about 2:30pm (half an hour after I woke up) I was gurneyed back to my room and reunited with Antoine. At this point I also came to my senses and remembered that I shouldn't talk.

I read a lot of stories of people who talked all through day 1 and 2, only to SEVERLY regret it on days 3-6 (the alleged worse days of this whole process, although days 6-10 have scabs coming off, and anytime from day 6-19 has a small chance of too MUCH scab coming off at once, causing major bleeding and a trip to the ER. Oh, so much to look forward too!)

All of my communication after this point happens with pen and paper. I'll probably start talking again after day 6 if I'm feeling like it.

Anyway, my throat was SO dry at this point. It had been 14.5 hrs since I'd had any liquid down my throat (apart from the three ice cubes).I begged for some ice to suck on. They refused, which utterly surprised me. All of my fellow tonsillectomy bloggers from the western world, spoke of being FORCED to eat a CUP of ice chips before being allowed home.

They told me they were afraid I would vomit and that I couldn't ingest anything until 5:00pm! That meant I'd have to wait for 2.5 hrs!

I told them I would die with no ice or water. They laughed (to be fair I meant them too:) and told me I could gargle water but I couldn't swallow.

Even just holding water in my mouth felt nice. I sent Antoine to get some ice for later, and cheated!! I totally swallowed water, and I didn't throw up! I told them I wouldn't! I haven't thrown up since I was a kid! (apart from the drunkest night of my life in Belfast, but if you don't remember AT all it doesn't count, right?)

I was served dinner at 6pm.

Dinner consisted of a cabbage/fish soup, and rice porridge with meat. Antione ate the porridge, and it took me four hours to drink the broth from the small cup of soup.

Shortly after Antoine left for the night, the ENT doctor came to visit me. He told me that I bled a lot more during the operation then most patients, so my chances of post-op bleeding was higher then most people as well.

He also looked at my ice very dissaprovingly, and said he only wanted me to drink water and eat ice cream.

I am disobeying this order.

I LOVE my ice!!

I let it melt in my mouth before swallowing anyway. Plus EVERYTHING I've read on the internet has ice chips as the number-one-must-have! AND everyone has said 'no ice cream!' because dairy produces mucus that causes coughing and difficulty swallowing.

I really believe the internet more then my doctor on these points. So I hope I'm betting on the right horse.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. I slept sitting almost upright, because I felt like I was choking when I laid flat.

Nurses came in every two hours, checking my blood pressure, changing my iv bags, and injecting little needles into my iv.

I can't believe that in Canada I would have been home by 5pm (most people said their hospital stay for a tonsillectomy was four hours total).

I will be in this hospital 6 nights by the end of it, and I'm actually pretty happy about that. I feel much safer here!