Thank you all for having patience with me in writing this highly anticipated post: the details of my surgery! It's been one week today that I had the procedure in California. I'm now back in Winnipeg and everything is basically back to normal. I've been laying low, taking it pretty easy, which isn't very different than what I've been up to these last two month... boy life is tough when you don't have to go to work!
So procedure day has arrived. I have the first appointment of the day which means I have to arrive at the surgical center by 6:00am. This is quite a task for me as I haven't gotten out of bed before 10am in weeks. I haven't been allowed to eat or drink anything since about 8pm the evening before which wasn't a huge deal for me since I didn't inherit my fathers weakness for midnight snacking - LOL. I popped in my iPod to listen to some relaxing tunes during the drive to the surgical center. Music can easily set the mood for my entire day. I had to keep from thinking about (and stressing over) what I was about to go through. I wanted to be in the best possible state of mind.. even at this ungodly hour!
Once we got there, things happened pretty quickly. I had to say goodbye to my dad first since only one person could come with me past the waiting room. I can only imagine how he felt having to leave me at that point and wait outside alone. Parting ways that soon was the first things that made it REAL for me and this got us all a little teary eyed. My mom got to come in a little further. We got ushered back to a room where it was time to get into a gown, get an IV put in and heart monitor hooked up while we waited for the doc to arrive. I made mom snap a pic of me in this state, to help remember how I felt in that moment. I think finally, FINALLY it was hitting me! (you wouldn't think so by my smile, but I was throwing up on the inside)
Dr. Harris arrived just before 7am, came to say a quick hello and disappeared again. It was then that mom was told to say her goodbyes too (we both teared up again). They immediately started rolling the stretcher down hallways and through doorways towards the operating room. The nurses were teaching me a few breathing exercises along the way; exercises that the doctor would possibly ask me to do throughout the procedure. I knew we had reached our destination when the nurse who was steering the foot of the bed reach up and covered her face with the mask hanging from around her neck. Everything in this room looked out of a scene from Grey's Anatomy. From stainless steel in every direction to the overhead lights brighter than the sun. This may have scared the crap out of some but for me, for whatever reason, it gave me a feeling of calm and order... wow, this place was clean! I remember thinking.
From this point onward, things are a little blurry for me. I remember them telling me they were prepping the groin area, which would be the entry point for the wire and catheter (through the femoral vein which is basically between your pelvic bone and your upper thigh). At one point in time I raised my head to look around for Dr. Harris. I never did find him - LOL - who knows if he even did the procedure! I was sedated with 5000 units of Heparin but have no idea when it was given to me. It was suppose to be a 'conscious sedation' but I barely remember a thing about the whole procedure. Nobody asked me to perform the breathing exercise, which I was bummed about cause I totally aced them in practice! :) The only thing I remember was telling the doctor (or whoever it was) that at one point, whatever he was doing was giving me a headache and it hurt. I apparently said this 3 times. I'll explain the reason in a sec.
If you remember what I wrote about my MRV scans the day before, it was that my right jugular showed blockages and reduced blood flow and that my left side was hard to assess from the scans. The doctor hoped he would find out more regarding blood flow on that side of my neck once he was inside me. Now that he was in my neck (and I'm taking this info directly from a report that was written post-procedure by Dr. Harris himself), he was unable to catheterize the left jugular, meaning that he couldn't enter it, even after many attempts were made. It appeared that I had NO left JUGULAR! A venogram (x-ray) was then performed and it demonstrated 'significant collateral flow throughout the left neck within the vertebral system' which in layman's terms means that even though I have no left jugular, the tiny veins making up the remainder of the left side of my neck have taken over the role and are sufficiently draining the blood from my brain. On to the right jugular, everything went as planned. He used a 20mm balloon to disrupt the valve and unblock the area of concern. An image taken afterwards suggested that the disruption was successful and that it showed improved blood flow. While over on the right side, a couple attempts were made to gain access to the left side by passing through my sinuses (BLAAAH!) however this is when I came to on the table and told the doctor that I was in pain. Attempts were then stopped. The azygous (the vein that runs down the spine) was treated not for blockages, but for a mild abnormality of the valve. A 9mm balloon was used to disrupt this valve and then the venogram x-rays afterwards suggested improved flow.
What felt like 5 minutes total for me, turned out to be about a 45 minute procedure and then 1 hour of recovery time. My parents came in and sat with me for the last half of recovery. They took this AFTER picture to my dismay:
Pretty hot, I know. At least my hair net had been removed at this point! So by about 10am, I was free to go back to the hotel and rest in a proper bed. Easy peasy, but what a day!
H. xo
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