Surgery

So May 4, 2015 I got diagnosed with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome by Dr. Cherry one of the country's leading surgeons for this syndrome. Finally! I had been dealing this this since halfway through my last year of high school. It had been about 2 years, that is a long time to be in chronic pain. Since I had already been through physical therapy with no improvement and the muscle relaxers that I was on weren't doing much, I opted for surgery. With NTOS there is no test that proves you have it. They basically just rule everything else out. So during preop I was told you will know as soon as you wake up whether it worked or not. Basically meaning you will either wake up feeling your fingers or you won't. My surgery was a first rib resection and an anterior and middle scalenectomy.

I packed up and left school a week early. So this meant I got all the stress of moving finals around. Now for how Christian of a school SVU is and for how little money they have to deal with lawsuits they were horrible. They didn't want to move my finals, they didn't want to do anything. I finally got them to agree on medical incompletes which didn't make me happy at all. All I was missing from each class is my final. I worked hard in these classes I should for the first time in my college career get straight a's.... But now I have to take my finals in August so we will see what actually happens.... So no not impressed with SVU at all right now. My mom drove out from Kentucky to meet me at UVA.

Surgery was scheduled for the second wave of the day which was nice because we didn't have to be there until 9 AM. This whole night before and morning of I became a nervous wreck. I have only been admitted to the hospital once and that was when I was a year old so I don't remember a thing. Once we were back in pre anesthesia everything moved pretty fast. They asked me to change, placed my IV, met all the doctors, residents, nurses, med students etc. then all of the sudden it was time to go! My mom and I forgot to ask for my rib back. Oh well.... We have been told Dr. Cherry would have given it to me too! :( 

Then I got wheeled into the OR all I remember was it looked weird and really crowded with machines and lights. I moved off of my warm hospital bed onto the OR table. This is when my nurse asked me if I was going to go to the mountains or the beach. I think I answered...? And I think I said beach...? Maybe I honestly don't know if I answered her or not. 

When I woke up I remember being confused. It felt like I had taken a nap. But I had no idea where I was, who any one was.... And oh wait major pain in my chest. Within a minute of me waking up I remember opening my eyes again to three people standing around me trying to get me to breathe. Major pain in my upper left chest and rib cage. I think this was mainly due to my rib being cut out and scrapped off my sternum. I was in and out of consciousness in the PACU. I was there longer then they expected and all I really remember was my nurse wiping tears off of my face. I do remember looking at hear and smiling and telling her I could feel my fingers! Pain level 10. My nurse did tell me Dr. Cherry also debulked as well- took extra muscle and fiberous bands out.

I finally got moved to my room now my mom could finally see me. I got wheeled away at 10:45 and she finally got to see me around 4:45. All the bumps in the hallway and elevator where like steak knifes plunging into my upper left chest area, rib cage, collar bone, and all areas in between, needless to say more tears. My mom told me that Dr. Cherry did say I had a muscle literally wrapped around my nerve so if anything that in and within itself was causing pain. I thought this was funny because we were so hoping that it would be a mess in there and that I would have muscle wrapped around my nerve. Weird to wish that I know but we wanted something to be wrong! 

I got moved to the fourth floor cardio thoracic floor. This is where my memories really start for the surgery. They set up a morphine drip pump and kept pushing the pain meds. Eventually they were able to break the pain cycle and get it under control. The first night I mainly slept. I had a hard time moving. I didn't really feel like I had control of my neck or shoulder that night. Then next day I woke up and my neck did a little better still didn't do a ton. I hurt, I hurt to move. So it was a lazy day waiting for my eight minutes to elapse on my morphine pump - longest eight minutes of my life. My doctor came in and had me move my arm. My arm itself where all the pain was is now pain free! However where they operated now hurts and is tingly. I did sit up in a chair for about 30 minutes this day.

Day three was the day I was suppose to go home but then at 6 am I woke up sick. Like super sick. Don't know why but I remember trying all I could to not throw up. After this surgery it hurts to cough, to sneeze, to laugh, and I didn't want to know what it felt like to throw up. I had a really bad head ache and was super dizzy this day. Don't know why in particularly but I was. I got a sponge bath and got all the orange off my body from surgery. I remember just feeling like I was spinning which made me neaousous. This is also the day that I got switched onto pills and only had an antibiotic in my IV. 

The next morning they let us go first thing. Thankfully I was feeling a ton better than the day before. They took out my IV I took a shower with assistance from my mom. I still didn't have a lot of energy or lung capacity so it was an interesting day. When we were released we started our 8 hour car ride home. Most of the bumps in the road hurt. I didn't have a lot of energy to walk from the car to the rest stop, and I had to go to the bathroom every 1 or so hours, thank you hospital IV fluids... Interesting trip the second picture describes it pretty well.

Everything else that happened that I don't remember a timeline for. My NP came in and told us that me and about 15 other people after my same surgery end up getting him paged to the PACU because they don't want to breathe. So he asked what they could do differently. We also had a family friend that moved to Charlottesville they same time we left Houston so she brought me balloons and caught up with my mom- I slept through most of it...

Once home, I was still in major pain. My parents but my mattress on the floor to their bedroom so I didn't have to walk that much. Honestly didn't do much the rest of the first week. I had a good day, then a pain day and then would repeat. Finally on Thursday, a week after surgery I started to feel better. My incision looked pretty nasty and I am sure everywhere I got dragged I got stared at.

This past week I finally can actually remember what day it is! I have been doing a lot better little to no medication this week which meant I could drive if I hadn't taken any that day. I am in probably about the same amount of pain now as I was before surgery except that I am sleeping through the night. It had to get worse before it got better. But everything is doing so much better.  My incision is looking really good I am hoping for minimal scaring especially because it is on my chest and not covered by shirts. 

Pictures of my incision it slowly gets better and better. The drain was removed I think on day 2 or 3 (can't remember in particularly which day it is all a blur) the incision has internal stitches and then skin glue on top. The skin glue is what makes it look so nasty. 

So I am left with my battle wounds about twenty bruises and a 5 inch scar right above my collar bone. No violin or viola yet I am hoping in a couple of weeks though!