On August 10th my wife and 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, then Sheena was allowed to come and stay with me until it was time. While she was there 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." Sheena and 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 can only imagine what it was like for Sheena and her parents who were sitting in the waiting room the whole time waiting for updates.
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.
Sheena was allowed to come in soon after where she caught me up on everything that had happened. 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.