Tympanoplasty Post Surgery Update

Woohoo, I have an eardrum! I suppose this post is mainly for myself to remember it by someday and my nerdy friends who like all of the technical stuff and gory details.

Yesterday went great. It's actually hard for me to believe it is all over with. I thought for sure that I would be super nervous but having such a great doctor really put me at ease. I simply cannot say enough great things about my team at UVA. They were all so wonderful from the nurses, anesthesiologists, residents and Dr Kesser himself. Everyone really took their time to make sure that I was comfortable and answer all of my questions. Lets starts from the beginning of the day and go from there.

6am- Woke up, got ready and headed to the hospital.

9am-Checked in and filled out some paperwork. We waited around in the family surgical area for a while then I was called back to do the pre-anesthesia work up. The nurse there was great and made me feel even more confident. She raved about Dr. Kesser and told me that he had patients come in from all over the country just to have him as their doctor. It's always comforting to know that your doctor is the best of the best and is loved by his staff. After she took my bp, temp and O2 stats I went back out to the waiting area.

10:50 I got buzzed that my room was ready. The hospital had these cool buzzers like you get at a restaurant so it was nice not to have to constantly be on alert for them to call my name. I was so hungry that when my buzzer went off I was really disappointed not to be greeted by a waitress asking what I wanted to drink and if we wanted an appetizer. LOL. The nice lady took me up to my room where I changed into what I referred to as my kimono and I got to get in bed. I called my gown a kimono because I swear it was a triple extra large. It had these really cool ports in it that tubing hooked into and blew in warm air. It was pretty nifty. After that a nurse named Kat came in and hooked up my I.V. She wins a prize in my book as it only took her one try and she put it in my hand as I requested. I HATE arm IV's. They are so uncomfortable. Another nurse came in and took my vitals again then the waiting game began. We watched some show on discovery channel about marines while we waited and I was surprisingly calm.

11:40ish- The doctors started stopping by. Dr. Kesser and two residents came in and we went over the game plan again. He answered all of our questions and went to start scrubbing in. Next the two anaesthesiologists came in. The first was nice but the second was nicer. Luckily the 2nd I dealt with more. He was pretty funny. I told him I was disappointed in the service because my buzzer went off and I had yet to have a waitress take my drink order. He laughed and said he brought me a mimosa which was really a mild sedative. He gave that too me and we chatted some more waiting for that to kick in. He explained what all we would be doing once we got back to the O.R. and that the breathing mask would smell like a shower curtain (he was right!).

12ish- He wheeled me back to the O.R. and they put some really cool massage cuffs on my legs to prevent blood clots. Then he put some more stuff in my I.V. and put on the shower curtain smelling mask. It felt like I was awake for 5 more minutes but it was probably only 30 seconds. I remember looking around at everyone and them looking at me like ok, close your eyes now. Haha.

3:30ish-The next thing I knew I was waking up and dreading feeling sick. After I had my tonsils out I was super sick so I was afraid of that. This time I had no nausea. Come to find out they had given me some anti-nausea meds in my I.V. before hand. I am super thankful for that because being sick is no fun. My head felt funny and I thought for sure that I had peed myself. The nurse laughed and said that I was probably just hot and a bit sweaty from the gown. Thank goodness she was right! The dr's were all too cute for me to have peed myself! Haha. Dr. Kesser came in and told me that everything went really well and that my 2nd and 3rd ear bones looked much better than he was expecting. Apparently my 2nd ear bone is slightly turned for some reason which made it appear eroded. The 1st bone he was able to fix some. I don't remember the technical details because I was so loopy. Next, mom and dad came up and I got dressed. A few minutes later I was munching on some ice chips and my grandparents came up and brought me some pretty flowers. Here's me still pretty drunk as you can tell.

4ish- Discharge papers were signed and a wheel chair was brought for me and we headed home. I got some pretty interesting stares from passing cars and we finally made it home.

Decided to try to eat however it hurt to chew so I ended up swallowing some ramen instead of the pizza. The numbing meds began wearing off so I tried some Tylenol before the vicoden. Tylenol helped for a bit but I've ended up switching to the other as it helps more. The night was pretty restless because I could only lay certain ways. I'm a side sleeper so it was hard to keep off of my left side. Here's my beautiful mummy head band.

My grandmother came and stayed with me this morning since mom and dad had to work. Dr. Kesser called to check in on me and told me that I could take my mummy wrap off. I was a bit surprised because my ear looks so strange. All of the packing has it sticking out a bit more than the other. Hopefully once the swelling goes down everything will return to normal.

Once mom gets home she's taking off the material behind my ear. Behind that there should be some band aids covering the stitches and incision behind my ear. I tried taking it off myself but I was afraid I would also rip off the bandages that are supposed to stay on. I am also interested to see how much hair they had to take off to do the skin graft. I would say it's just the area that is bandaged. We shall see. This whole post probably made very little sense because I'm still a bit loopy.

Lastly, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has called, texted and fb messaged me. Your support, thoughts and prayers mean so much to me!