The morning of my surgery, I woke up quite early because I had to be at the hospital an hour and a half before my actual surgery time. I had very simple instructions prior to the surgery, nothing to eat or drink after midnight. I could handle that much.

When I got to the hospital, I went right up to the day surgery unit. When I got there, I was registered and told to take a seat and wait until my name was called. I was getting more nervous by the minute. This just had to prove that I wasn’t faking it. I just had to get some answers.

After what seemed like forever, my name was finally called. I followed the nurse into a little room where she took my blood pressure, temperature, and weighed me. She also asked tons of questions. I had to give her my whole life history. The questions were just to give her an idea of how fit I was for surgery, I guess.

When I was finished there, the nurse brought me into a big room full of people wearing hospital gowns. I was shown where the bathroom was and was handed a bag containing slippers, gowns, and a blanket. I was told to take everything off and place it in the bag. Once I was changed, I went back into the waiting room to wait some more.

My name was finally called and surgery time had arrived. I was put into a wheelchair and was wheeled down toward the elevator. Mom got to ride with me until I reached the surgical floor.

After a teary goodbye to mom, I was wheeled through heavy double doors leading to the operating rooms. As soon as I got in through those doors, I was parked and a blue shower cap thing was placed on my head. My papers containing all my information and my arm band were also checked. After all of that was checked and more of the same questions were asked, I was ready to roll.

I didn’t have to go very far. I was pushed down to the end of the hallway. Again, I was parked but this time it was just outside of the operating room I was going in. There I met with the anesthesiologist. He asked about any fears I might have had.

The only fear I had was about waking up before I was supposed to. When I had my tonsils out, I remember waking up and people saying "you’re not suppose to be awake yet," and then it all went black again. I told him all of this and he gave me his word that it would not happen this time. That made me feel a whole lot better.

While I was still parked outside of the OR, I was also checked yet again. I was asked the same questions. My armbands were checked and so were my papers. I also got a quick look at my doctor and he came over to say hello.

I was finally wheeled into the operating room and immediately shivered. It was so cold in there. They have to keep it cold to help ward off all the bacteria. I was told to climb up onto the table and was offered hot blankets which I gratefully accepted.

I remember my anesthesiologist starting an intravenous in my arm. They put on a blood pressure cuff on my other arm and a thing with a light on it, on my finger. Then they placed these electrode sticker things on my chest and back to monitor my heart. I was well wired up by the time they finished. I recall hearing them say that they were going to give me the "sleepy drugs" and the nurses holding my hand and telling me to have a good sleep. Just before my eyes closed, I remembered seeing Dr. K at the foot of the table telling me everything would be all right and that they would take good care of me.

I remember feeling pain. A different kind of pain, not really hard, but a burning tearing sensation. The nurse keep checking my cuts and measuring my blood pressure and heartbeat. She also offered me pain killers and gravol to help combat my nausea. I was thankful when she put them into my IV. I had an oxygen mask on to help me breathe until I was fully awake. I kept dosing in and out the entire time I was in the recovery room which added up to about an hour.

Once the nurses found that I was awake enough to be moved, I was ready to go. They took the oxygen mask off and gave me something else for pain. Then they took the breaks off of the bed and started rolling me out of the room.

I was rolled into another big room filled with lots of beds in curtained off areas. I got into my own little area and the curtain was pulled over to give me some privacy. The nurse came in to check my vitals again and informed me that this was the day surgery recovery room, this is where I would stay until they felt I was ready enough to go home.

By this time, my mom was peaking her head in around the curtain to see me. Boy was I glad to see her. I was also happy that it was all over with and looking forward to having a name for my pain.

I stayed in that recovery room for about another hour. Mom then helped me get dressed which was quite the challenge seeing how I was quite sore and spaced out from all the painkillers they had given me.

When I finally got dressed and was itching to go, a nurse came into my little "room" with a wheel chair and got me all comfy while mom went to get the car. Before I left, another nurse told me that I had to phone Dr. K’s office for an appointment in six weeks and she also handed me a prescription for Atasol 30 that Dr. K had left there for me.

I was wheeled downstairs to the main entrance of the hospital where both mom and the car were waiting for me. The nurse and my mom helped get me into the car and then I was ready to roll yet again. The ride from the hospital was quite funny because with all the pain killers and anesthesia, I felt like I was floating so it seemed like we were driving into the clouds instead of on a road.

We had decided beforehand that because there was an hour and a half drive home that we would stay the night at my Aunt Brenda’s. When we arrived at her house, mom put me to bed and I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping.

I rested all that night and by the morning after surgery, I was ready to go home. Since my surgery was on a Thursday, I had all weekend to recovery before returning to school. I was only given a medical note for three days, so I had to go back to school on Tuesday.

I pretty much took it easy that weekend. Mostly sleeping and taking the medication as needed. I kept trying to do as much walking as possible to help reduce all the gas that comes from the surgery.

I felt stiff for about a week and it took that long for the swelling in my stomach to go back down.  However, it was a relatively simple procedure and the recovery rate was about as long as I was told it is.