Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Got up super early to make it to the hospital for our appointment time. This is really the first surgery I have ever had and I was more nervous then I thought I would be. It was another conscious sedation procedure, similar to the liver biopsy. A surgical resident came in to explain the whole procedure to us and then we met the surgeon. I think the resident did most of the work in the surgery room with the doctor looking on. The whole procedure was pretty quick and I only had to stay around for about an hour for observation. We were home in time for lunch. My hip was hurting again when it was about time to leave so the nurse gave me some painkiller for it. They made two incisions in my skin - one where the actual port was placed and then a second one up higher where they put the tubes for the catheter into the vein. It all looks pretty gross (what I can see so far). Most of it is covered up with gauze and surgical tape. I'm supposed to let the surgical tape just fall off on its own in the week or two. While the surgical spots are a little tender, I'm not really in a lot lf pain from the surgery.

The primary president brought us dinner that evening - very much appreciated! After we ate some of us headed over to the church for Luke's last Pinewood Derby. I don't think most people who were there are aware of my condition at this time. Probably a good thing because I wasn't really in the mood to talk about it much.