I just ate pizza! Wahoo! I made it really soft in the
microwave and cut it into tiny pieces and then used the roof of my mouth to
maneuver the piece to the back of my mouth to lightly chew. VICTORY IS MINE!
So this was the scheduled hospital time – my tongue surgery
last Wednesday. A lot of us cancer patients always have another bizarre thing
wrong with them, well mine is in my tongue. I have a benign Arteriovenous
Malformation (AVM) on the under side of my tongue. I noticed it in fifth grade
and it slowly grew with my age. Docs had been watching it over the years and
confirmed it was benign, but would grow with age and change with my hormones.
It started to give me jaw problems and on some days it would swell and affect
my speech, so I decided it was time to take care of it.
Boston Children’s Hospital is the place to go for these.
Their Vascular Anomalies Center is world-renowned. The plan was to do
sclerotherapy on my tongue, which basically means they do an angiogram to see
were the blood is flowing and inject my tongue in different places to clot the
weakened vascular walls. When I finally made the appointment for this procedure
I couldn’t sleep because I was trying to maneuver my tongue in all different
ways to make it feel 2-3 times the size. The docs said it would swell to at
least 2-3 times the size, and I would be in the hospital anywhere from 1-10
days – if 10 days then time in ICU. That’s not a big range or anything!! My
doctor called it the “tongue party” because it is very unpredictable how much
it will swell.
***
Parental units arrived to my condo the night before surgery.
My dad had his foam pillow and my mom had a ton of presents for me including a
new monkey – Cooper! We watched a little of The
Voice, I briefed my parents on my typed document with all my doctor info,
(I get anal before surgeries; I guess that’s how I deal) and then we caught
some zzzz’s.
To be honest, I wasn’t all that nervous for this procedure,
I think mostly because I was hungry, (couldn’t eat the morning of and it was a
1:30 procedure) and I just didn’t have the energy to be nervous. The recent ER
visit took everything out of me and I had no choice but to just go with it.
Also, I unfortunately knew the drill.
We waited for about 20 minutes in the Interventional
Radiology reception area with Dora the
Explorer on TV and the tiny kids chairs with baby tennis balls on the
bottom of them. Mom and dad were sitting and I was pacing in true anxious Becky
fashion. The nurse then took me back to get my vitals, ask me a bunch of
questions, and put on my gown and those gross hospital socks they give you.
Then the fellow came over to talk me through the procedure and the doc came to
see me too. I felt…calm?
Mom and dad came back and the anesthesia team came to see
me. I, of course, asked for several “cocktails” and they assured me I’d get
them. The anesthesia resident with the biggest rock I have ever seen (almost
ugly because it was so big) put in my IV. Before I knew it, it was time for my
cocktail. These things are great, you instantly feel drunk (?) but the best
happy-feeling drunk. I think I kissed my parents and they wheeled me into the
room. I was much more alert for this than my other surgeries. I moved onto the
OR table and had to put my head in this circular foam thing. They gave me some
oxygen, put a blood pressure cuff on that was tight for too long, and told me
to think of a nice place. SEE YA.
***
Beep, beep, beep.
“Becky, Becky…” It was over and I was awake. I immediately checked my
surroundings and I seemed to be in recovery and had no tubes in my mouth or
anything. My tongue was really swollen, but I felt more alert than when I woke
up from my other surgeries. Where are mom
and dad?
A few minutes later mom and dad came in and said I did
great. Mom gave me Cooper and he immediately went between my chest and my chin.
My mom told me the doctor said it went great and it was a “textbook tongue.”
The fellow came to see me a few minutes after that. The doctor couldn’t come
because he was busy at a reception getting an honorary degree, ha! These
doctors are unbelievable.
I started with a red ice pop with a towel wrapped around it.
The pain wasn’t really that bad. It was just the swelling and numbness, granted
they were giving me IV pain meds and steroids. After shift change/a couple
hours later I got to my closet of a room. The floor docs came in to see me and
it turned out I worked with one of their wives. Small world! They said they
wanted me to stay overnight because the swelling could get worse day two or
three. So mom and I were hunkering down for the night and dad went home to my
condo. Mom had to sleep on this chair turned bed thing. At first it was too far for me to reach her
hand through my bed rail so I made her move closer so I could reach J. My nurse was a doll,
his name was Bong and he took care of me all night and tried to be quiet when
changing my IV meds.
The next morning I was ready to go! I literally did a little
flailing dance in my bed because it was so different to have surgery where I
could move my whole body. The fact that I’ve had three major abdominal
surgeries actually helped with this recovery, because my perspective is
probably different than the average person. This was a walk in the park. Would
I have opted to not take the damn walk if I could have? Yea, but what are you
gonna do.
Mom and dad got me home and in bed for a nap, while mom made
me homemade soup. It was so nice to have them taking care of me because the ER
experience was so awful :/. Mom woke me up during the night to give me my meds.
The next day mom and dad cleaned the crap out of my condo and hit the road.
Recovery…soup, pudding, painkiller, applesauce, antibiotic,
sleep…repeat. Each day my tongue is less swollen. If that is anything I know
about recovery, each day gets a little easier.
I hope that I don’t see the inside of a hospital again
anytime soon…
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