Tomorrow, I shall go back to work, this, after a month of absence (the reason of which I already related in my last post. But since I know I still have to write about it, I would, now.)
It actually feels weird. Part of me wants to go back to work since I know I have been away too long, which means work has already piled up. I don’t want my colleagues taking care of the things I should be taking care, anyway. They already have their hands full as it is. But a big part of me wants to stay at home because even when I have been away from the office since December 15, I feel I’ve only gotten to enjoy life eversince I came home from the hospital after my slipped disc surgery (laminotomy discectomy). And what of it?
My surgery was performed last January 8 at St. Luke’s in Quezon City. But a day before, I was already admitted for some pre-surgery routine tests, my BP monitored to ensure that I will be safe. And so, my sister Anne and her boyfriend, Onid, brought me to the hospital. Later that night, she went home as my mom and Bong stayed with me all throughout my hospital confinement.
Anyway, I found out that rooms in St. Luke’s are so much more expensive, but not necessarily better than those in Asian Hospital. The latter also has better room facilities (the room I stayed in which cost P4,300 a day is comparable to Asian Hospital’s P2,750 a day room in size and facilities. Asian’s is even much better, actually.) But then, St. Luke’s is a teaching hospital that’s why what it lacks for in room facilities, it makes up for in resident doctors’ visitations. The nursing services are just the same. In my experience, they give the same quality of service. Oh. and Asian Hospital is much quieter whereas St. Luke’s, since there are more people around, is also much noisier. (Wait, this is becoming a hospital services review, so I better stop now.)
Anyhoo, later that afternoon, my anaesthesiologist, Dr. Yogi Lazaga, the wife of my orthopedic surgeon cousin, Dr. Jojo Lazaga, visited me and made me answer questions regarding my medications. She also walked me through what would happen prior to surgery when I am put on general anaesthesia. I told her I would appreciate being sedated because I was scared of being too nervous to go through the whole thing. Fortunately, she understood and she told me that earlier before the scheduled operation, I shall be administered meds to calm me. She told me, too, that the GA will be administered through a tube that will be inserted through my mouth (ha! that was the first time I have heard of such so it was really new to me. I am used to anaesthesia injected through my spine as in my previous CS operations). She said I wouldn’t know about it anyway since I would already be knocked down by the time they do this, but just the same, she wanted me to know just how she would do it. Dr. Yogi told me I wouldn’t know what happened til she wakes me up after the operation which would take about 2 hours. After explaining everything to me, she left with assurances that I am in very good and able hands. I told her I believed her because she and Jojo are taking care of me. And of course, family and friends would be praying with me. That night, the assistant chaplain of the hospital visited me and prayed over me. But what really floored me was when I logged in to Facebook and clicked that FB app, Message from God. Mine said, “On this day, God wants you to know…that tonight you can turn your worries to God, and have a good night’s sleep. You’ve been worrying too much about the future lately. So tonight, go ahead, put your faith in God, and just have a peaceful evening and a restful sleep.
Here I was, trying to be brave but deep inside, I was really really scared. Yet God, being all-powerful and all-knowing, made a way to talk to me, and that was what He told me. God is just truly amazing, huh?
After reading it, I felt peaceful because I knew, He would be guiding my doctors and nurses, and would make sure I was safe.
That night, before sleeping, Bong talked to me. He told me he would pray and he would wait for me. I told him I really wanted to go on with the surgery because I wanted to go back to being me. I noticed how, in the past few weeks, I have become irritable, and maybe hard to get along with. I told him I wasn’t anymore fun to be with because this illness had already invaded my being.
The next day, at around 3am of January 8, I was put on IV and later at 5am, began my no food intake order. At 11 am, the nurses came and gave me my meds, sedative, I was told. I don’t anymore have recollection about the time I was wheeled to the OR before 1pm, my scheduled operation. Bong just supplanted the info for me. He said I was not too conscious anymore as the meds had already taken effect by then, but that he accompanied me til we reached the OR. I think I remember him telling me he would wait for me and he would fetch me when it’s time to bring me back to my room.
And so, the operation went. At 4:00pm, I remember Dr. Yogi waking me up and her telling me, “Gising na, Kaye. Tapos na. Dadalhin ka na sa Recovery Room.” I think I said Thank you, but I also knew, that the journey was just starting. You see, I always vomit after an operation, which is how I react to GAs. And so, for the next 3 hours, I would vomit spit in a small basin and call nurses to replace the tissue or wipe my face since I was still tooooooo nauseous. (sorry if you are eating). But I also knew that Dr. Yogi ordered an anti-emetic so the vomiting would be reduced. At around 7pm, I heard one of the nurses saying that I was ready to be brought back to my room. At the time, although I was still nauseous, I also wanted to go back to familiar faces. Then, one of the nurses said, “Sabi nung husband niya, tawagan siya pag dadalhin na siya sa room.” And so, in a matter of a few minutes, I was already being wheeled out of the RR, and the first face I saw was Bong’s. I smiled. 
He kissed me and I knew, he was happy I was very much okay.
Dr. Jojo told me I was to get up immediately the next day to exercise my limbs. But two hours after I was brought inside my room, I decided to get up. I wanted to feel how it was to stand up without my right leg hurting. True enough, I did not anymore feel pain. And so, even when I was still nauseous, I would say, I was, for the first time, happily nauseous. Hehehe.
Bong later showed me what was taken out inside me. It was, according to him, explained by Dr. Jojo earlier. He showed me a small plastic container with brownish liquid and inside were white bits, one of which was round, about an inch in diameter. He said that the white bits were the disc, and the big one, was the one which was pressing on the nerves, and which made it very painful for me to sit or stand up. In short, that big round thing was the culprit. The liquid was formalin, I was told. It actually, as Bong described it to me while I was being wheeled to my room from the RR, like vinegar with garlic. Haha.
The next day, Drs. Jojo and Yogi visited me and explained what happened to me. I thanked them for doing a wonderful job. I was told I could go home the next day, Sunday.
And now, a week after my operation, here I am, finally “restored.” There is still pain at my waist area, but my wound, I was told (since I can’t see for myself,) is healing fast. My brother-in-law, who is also my PT, is using IR on my wound to help it heal fast.
As I look back at what happened, I am also humbled by the fact that I wouldn’t have made it through if it weren’t for caring friends who prayed for me and who prayed with the whole family. Again, those friends include you, my blogging family-friends, who, even if we haven’t met, (again, save for Fr. Felmar), have become my prayer warriors. Thank you so much, and I pray that God will bless you a hundredfold.
And though belated, I wish you all a Happy 2010!
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