Now, how could this have been? A FUN brain surgery???

Here I am, already back home with Phil. It was a 6:15am Mon arrival at
the hosp, and a checkout at about 3pm on Wed. It was amazing to be
through with it all and feeling so well so soon -- and it was not that
they threw me out -- I was ready to leave. In a few days I can drive,
and then off I'll go to see my ferties who are boarding out so that
Phil doesn't have to take care of them as well as of me. I really want
to see and cuddle them, but I am happy and content. Phil is taking
really good care of me, and we are so glad we've gotten through this
so well.

My neurologist and the two neurosurgeons I had interviewed had been
entirely reassuring about the upcoming operation, and I had been
referring to it as "a piece of cake" to friends and family, including
an MD friend of Phil's who works at the hosp (Stanford). I guess this
got passed on to the surgeon I chose, for when he came to see me after
the surgery, he repeated the phrase with some amusement.

The surgery had gone very smoothly. I'd slept a lot of Mon and a some
of Tues. My pain was minimal, and there were no problems at all.The
people who took care of me were great. Personable, kind, competent,
and responsive.

I hate listening to random TV, and as soon as I got out of ICU and was
wheeled into a regular room, I saw a pair of the dreaded mechanisms,
one in front of my bed and one in front of the other bed (empty but
unmade). Without giving it much thought, I asked if I could move to a
single-person room so I could avoid having to listen. I explained that
I don't mind other people, just TV. And soon I was in a little room
with sweet mild sunlight coming through small-leaved trees filling the
view.

When nurses, residents, etc came in to see me every few hours in ICU
and later, they'd ask me if I knew where I was, why I was there, how
many fingers they held up, etc. Once a resident heading up a group
asked me who the president was. I told them it was Dick Cheney. After
a frozen instant, there was a good laugh, and they talked about how
patients were all mixed up as to whether it was George Bush or Barach
Obabama. And, of course, that I was the only person who'd gotten it
right.

So, back to Monday, operation day -- l like to be conscious as much
as possible, so I declined Vercet and the initial injection of
tranquilizer for when I was to be wheeled into the operating room. I
looked around till they put the oxygen mask over my mouth and told me
to breath in 5 long breaths -- to be followed by anesthetic through
my IV.

Now, don't we all worry whether we were inappropriate while out under
anesthesia??? Well, apparently I realized some of our bad dreams. When
I came to, I didn't know where I was, but I was sexually aroused and
moving around in response. "Lie still!" came a command. So I did.
Ooops. The next thing I remember was someone asking me if anyone were
waiting for me. I said "Yes." He asked "Who." I said "Phil." He asked
"Is he a friend, boyfriend, or husband?" I said "All of the above." I
thought I was pretty funny.

When the same guy came to see me a couple of days later with some other
residents and interns, he asked if I remembered him. I said I didn't
think so. He told me that he had gotten me from the operating room
into Recovery. I drew a blank, and then he said he said he'd asked me
if anyone were waiting for me. Then I Remembered. Ooops. And laughed.
Later someone asked if I had any questions. I asked when I could resume
low-impact aerobic exercise. The woman among them got my little joke.
The guys pretty much just answered the question.

So, as I say, here I am, back at Phil's house. I've misplaced my
telephone list, so if you didn't get a reassuring call from Phil on
Mon or Tues, pls call me when you feel like it. I can't believe my
good fortune. The tumor came out cleanly and evenly, and it is almost
certainly what they expected -- a perfectly benign meningioma. It was
between two layers of meninges inside my skull but outside of my brain.
A little had pushed itself and the meninges under it into a brain fold,
but it wasn't attached to my brain. The pathology results should be
out today. And as for my good fortune, I can hardly believe I have my
companion and lover and dear friend back again after all of these years
of change and resolution.

[Posted in FML 6181]