Success

The surgery was a success. My experience was great - I felt well treated. It's funny though because my mom dropped me off at the front door of the hospital. She was watching the girls for the day and had to get Ainsley to school and such. I checked myself in and went through all the pre-op by myself. Several people asked me where my family was? I told them my husband would be coming to pick me up. Daniel worked his morning schedule and took an extended lunch hour so that he could pick me up and drive me home. I guess it's odd for someone to totally check into surgery without a family member waiting. (Daniel did arrive about 40 minutes into my surgery). He said he had a scare - after arriving he inquired about me and they said I was currently in the OR. He said seconds later her heard over the intercom - "Anesthesia Emergency!!!". He knows that's code for someone quit breathing in the OR. Luckily it wasn't me but ironically it was an oral surgery case. Not his practice though and the man having the surgery was in very poor health to begin with.

Here you can see the lump is gone! Also you can see that the surgeon marked the site with his initials. I am really glad they do that because there are multiple ORs with multiple surgeons and if you are asleep already when the surgeon walks in, you want to be certain that the correct surgeon is working on the correct area.

During my interview with the Anesthesiologist she found out that Daniel was an oral surgeon who did cases at this particular hospital and it turns out that she ran his anesthesia 3 days before. She told me that case was really interesting and hopes he brings in more cases like that. The two surgical nurses in my OR were on that same case. They remarked that they liked working with him - that he was really nice and that they couldn't say that about everyone. I felt really good knowing that they had a working relationship with Daniel. You just feel like you'll get the absolute best care when someone knows you.

Here you can see that the scar is quite big. The doctor said the lipoma was 10 cm (4 inches) so they had to make a 6 cm cut (roughly 2 1/2 inches) to get it out. He told me he'd get some pictures of it so I guess I'll see them at my post-op visit. In this picture you can see the scar I had from my last lipoma (diagonally above to the right). It's not quite as big as this new one. My new one doesn't have any surface stitches. I guess they stitch the underneath layers with dissovable stitches and use a glue (durabond) to close the surface wound.


Saturday I felt well enough to go to my hometown, 2 hours away, to a baby shower for a good friend I grew up with - Angie L. My mom was invited too and so she drove me there and back. I admit I did feel a little sick in the car ( I think it was from the medicine) on the way down but by the time I got there I felt great. I had lots of fun and saw so many people from my childhood memories... Young Women leaders, friends' parents, piano teacher etc... The blanket I made was for this friend. She also got 4 burp cloths that I sewed in the middle of the night on Friday night. The pain medicine made me all twitchy and itchy and my mind was racing so after 2 and half hours of just laying there, I got up. I turned on the radio and got out my sewing machine and spent an hour and 15 minutes pinning and sewing. It was great actually although I was a bit tired the next day.

So overall it was a successful weekend. A big thank you to my mom for sitting Friday and driving me Saturday. Thank you to Dan who watched the kids all day Saturday while he landscaped around our back patio. And thanks to M and J who helped with the landscaping and made dinner Sunday!!