Packed myself down to South Perth hospital today to have some nasal polyps removed. This was the third operation, but there’s now a plan involving allergy desensitisation which may mean it’s the last.
The nursing staff at the hospital were amazingly kind and lovely, really awesome. Got myself checked in, saw the anaesthetist, and then sat there waiting and wondering when I’d be wheeled off.
I’m slightly curious which anaesthetic I ended up getting. Apparently the swish anaesthetic of choice has egg products in it, so last time the anaesthetist went with an older drug. Unfortunately last time I also ended up with a blood clot in a vein in my arm, so he suggested he’d go with the very slighty eggy drug. I certainly feel pretty good after this anaesthetic – the last one knocked me for six.
Woke up in the recovery room in the middle of having the intubation tube taken out, which was disconcerting – not painful, just very surprising. I woke up from a dream, which is odd – all other general anaesthetics I’ve had it’s been like an on/off switch.
Amusing incident came when it was time for the gauze in my nose to be removed. This is quite a painful procedure and I’ve been through it a couple of times before, but it’s also quite brief. This nurse was swift and brutal, which was great – she just yoinked the whole thing out. All seemed calm afterwards (moderate amounts of immediate gore, very little afterwards) so she wandered off.
Then click, blood was suddenly really gushing out of my left nostril. Pressed the “nurse” button on the bed and built myself a little pyramid of blood soaked tissues. Apparently I should have made some audible request for help rather than pressing the button – they came a minute or too later. Ice packs on my head and neck and chewing some ice fixed it up, and they discharged me about an hour later.
My lovely friends Keith and Helen picked up me up and now I’m at home, tucked in bed, listening to the rain. Life is pretty good :-)
