On August 10th I made our ways to Cedars Sinai's main campus in Beverly Hills for my surgery. Sitting in the waiting room waiting to be called was a bit of a mind fuck. It was really the first time I'd had to just sit and confront what was about to happen. I stood looking out the window of the waiting room towards the Getty Center thinking about how two weeks prior I had no idea about everything that was about to happen.
After a wait, I got called for pre-op. Laying in the hospital bed was the first time I had gotten emotional about it the entire experience. And it wasn't about the possibility of not waking up, but the thought of my daughter not having a dad to grow up with and what that'd be like for her.
They did my final weigh in and I was down to 158 lbs. All the members of the surgical staff came in one-by-one to introduce themselves, finally followed by my oncologist. We spoke for a few minutes then he marked where the surgery would be on my right side. He also described how the robot would be brought in to do the procedure and because I misinterpreted him saying "dock the robot" I thought he was informing me of the robot's name "Doc." I have referred to it as Dr. Robot ever since.
The anesthesiologist gave me my first meds to relax me, probably a solid move on his part although whether he liked any of the jokes I was making as they were wheeling me over I'll never know but I'm sure he had regrets. Then once I was in the operating room they fully put me under.
Next thing I know I'm in the recovery room trying to remember where I am and how I got there.
Originally we were told the surgery would take 90 minutes once I was in the operating room, but it ended up being closer to five hours because my stomach wasn't staying inflated (to create more room for them to get in).
I came to in post-op recovery and the first thing I thought about was how hungry I was since I'd been expected to fast since the night before. Then it was the realization I had a catheter in me.
I'm not sure how long I was in the recovery room, but I had to wait there until they could find a place to move me. Thankfully they nixed the idea of putting me in a ward and moved me directly to my own hospital room once they located one. It was probably like 9 or 10 at night when I got moved and they finally told me I could have some vegetable broth and jello.
Whatever, at that point I'd take it.
After eating I got myself comfortable in the hospital bed, and watched some TV while I waited for the pain meds to kick in and I could crash for the night.