DAY 15 – scalpel in, lymph node out

22^nd February, 2011 -  I was woken by a nurse at 5 AM, so that she could bandage up my legs as a prevention from possible embolism during the upcoming surgery. I took a rest in my bed and I was naturally getting a bit nervous – my first surgery ever, you know.  Around 8 AM, another nurse came up to me to take me to the surgery room. As we entered the premises, I was asked to strip and put on a green garment. Then I hopped on a stretcher and the nurse pulled me towards the place where the surgery was going to take place. We entered the main hallway – the hiss, scents and the whole ambience were telling me that this was it. It felt like in a movie. I was taken to the surgery room and finally ended up on the main surgery bed. All of a sudden, seven people came to me, everybody with a different task. First I was approached by a anesthesiologist and her nurse who was slowly injecting some liquid into my veins along which I was being given nitrous oxid. From this point on, I remember only the next 10 seconds which ended in such a way that through strong lights I discerned a silhouette of the surgeon wielding a scalpel, he was ready to go…I blacked out…

In about half an hour, I could tell I started to have dreams and a few minutes later, a nurse woke me up. My very first reaction was a very sincere and open laughter because in about one second after I woke up, I came to realize that everything had gone fine and I had no pain at all. As I was laughing (still a little spaced-out) I asked the nurse to bring me some McDonald’s at which she laughed, too. So, yes, that was what I was feeling right after the surgery – a surge of happiness and hunger. I was left in another room to recuperate and to be on the watch by two nurses. As I was rather tired after the surgery and the only thing I could do there was to watch the ceiling, I began to drowse. The narcosis had deadened my senses so much that unconditioned reflexes were not so unconditioned :) yup, I ceased to breathe. The nurses immediately flocked around my bed to wake me up as the monitoring machine started to blare. This repeated for seven times as I struggled to keep in mind to breathe :) funny, but real. In two hours, I was taken to my ward.