Today’s surgery was scheduled for 12:30. I had to be there at 10:30. The purpose of the surgery is to get a lymph node biopsy from my neck on the right side, and to install a single lumen port for chemo. The people in the surgery prep area were very nice. Jacqui and I played a few games of Skip-bo while we were waiting. The nurse gave me some antibacterial wipes to clean my chest off with, and they made my skin very dry and sticky.

After a while a nurse named Nicholas came to wheel me off to surgery. Jacqui and I said our goodbyes, and Nicholas and I went into the surgery area, where I got to speak with Dr. Zirkle, the surgeon who would be working on me, and Dr. Beamer(sp?), the anesthesiologist, who was a very helpful guy. He hunted down the results of my PET scan(which had good news), and gave them to me right before I was sedated. It was nice to feel good going into surgery.

When I woke up, Jacqui was right there next to me. She did an amazing job of taking care of me. The nurse gave me a Percocet for pain, and then remarked that “I was funny” on pain meds.

After spending enough time in the recovery room, Jacqui went to get the car, and the nurse put me in a wheelchair and took me out to where Jacqui was waiting with the car. It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden in a wheelchair. After we got home, I had expected to go to sleep, but to my surprise I was very alert and active, even though I was on Percocet. I realized that this was because the doctor had given me MAC anesthesia, so I was not as heavily sedated.

I go to see the surgeon again on Wednesday morning, so he can make sure everything went well with the surgery.

got percocet after, was high as a kite…

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Friday, June 18 – My PET scan was scheduled for 10:30AM, and then we were leaving for Nashville to go on vacation at Glacier National Park. Before the PET scan, a lady named Judy from Billing came and talked to us about how our doctor was out of our insurance network, and how that would make things more expensive, and that the PET scan was going to cost $3150. Not what I want to hear before having a PET scan!

After Judy left, the nurse came in and started an IV. After awhile, she started administering radioactive glucose for the PET scan. I felt like I was about to pass out, felt very faint, and started getting REALLY sweaty. The nurse was able to bring me some water, which tasted WONDERFUL, since I had nothing to eat or drink since the night before(the whole ‘nothing after midnight’ thing was getting tiresome). We figured out that I probably had VAGALed.

The wonderful thing is that during all of this Judy came back(the lady from billing, remember?), and fortunately, she had good news. She had been on the phone with the insurance company, and talked to a guy named Mike Miller, who said that the doctor was going to be treated as in network. This was great news, because it meant that things would be a lot less expensive.

So my body is full of radioactive glucose, and Jacqui is sitting there with me, and we’re singing songs from the Makem and Clancy Collection album to help us feel better. We had to let the radioactive glucose work for an hour before they took me in for the PET scan.

When they took me in for the scan, we were in a really big room. It was very white, and well lit. I laid down on the table, and after giving me instructions to not move at all, and explaining to me how this was a hybrid PET/CT scan, they sent me into the tunnel of PET scan machine.

I went in and out a few times, and then I went all the way through, and when I came out the other side, I could hear music playing. It was a very surreal experience.

The PET scan lasted about 20 minutes, and when I got back to the lobby, Jacqui was talking to this very nice man who wished us well.

Now it’s home to get ready to leave on vacation this afternoon!