We made it to the surgery center perfectly on time. I signed in and sat down in the waiting room. For some reason, it was really strange to me that there would be a waiting room. A nurse came and took me and E back, where my vitals were taken, and my street clothes and all my body jewelry were put in a locker. I was taken even further back into the building and sat onto a hospital bed where E and I waited for Dr. Medalie.
The surgeon came in and we all made small talk while he drew on my chest in a purple marker. I felt self-conscious of having E and some stranger seeing my bare chest, even though I knew it was silly.
Then, E went out to the waiting room, and the anesthesiologist came in to speak to me. I was joking with him that, instead of being nervous about the surgery itself, I was more worried about the IV, since I figured I wouldn’t really feel anything after that anyway.
He said that, if I liked, I could just go back to the operating room, and I could be gassed on the operating table. I was actually really curious about how the OR would look, so I walked back, trying to keep my bare ass covered by the gown. It was pretty small, and clean, and there was a big table in the middle of it for me. It had a big leather strap, which I assume was to strap my legs down; that made me nervous, so I stopped thinking about it.
I hopped up onto the operating table and laid my head back. One of the nurses put these really warm things around my legs, presumably to improve circulation. Then a mask was put over my face, and they turned on the gas–which smelled pretty gross. I started to get really nervous, so I began to silently chant “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo”. I made it through two of them, was too tired to start another, mumbled something to the nurse, and then nothing.
I think I woke up once in recovery, registered that I was alive and that I wasn’t in pain, exchanged a few words with a really nice nurse, and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, E was next to me. He told me that the whole surgery had taken almost exactly two hours, and that Dr. Medalie had come out afterwards and told him that it was “a piece of cake”. I think a little bit more pain medicine was given to me intravenously, and I was given two Vicodin. I was really freaked out by the IV, and I was glad when it was taken out.
Soon after that, E helped me get back into my clothes and helped me put my body jewelry back in. I waited for him to pull the car up to the door and help me outside and into the car. I had never felt so tired in my life and I was freezing cold. I remained awake for the entire drive back to Mentor (around 45 minutes, I think), because I was terrified of us getting into a car wreck and my chest being damaged.
I spent the rest of that first day sleeping in four hour shifts, only waking up to use the bathroom, empty my drains, and take more Vicodin. I noticed a rapidly purpling bruise peeking out of my post-surgical vest on the back left side, up by my armpit. It was the only place I felt pain, because the foam that was between the binder and my chest stuck out a little on that side and would press into the bruise whenever I put my My throat hurt massively, presumably from the breathing tube.
