It is now a week since my surgery.
My partner, Lynne, dropped me off at Derby Royal before my 7am appointment time and I made my way up to Elective Admissions. First job was to sort the paperwork out and to make it as clear as possible what was going to happen to me. Then a visit from the aenethatist to explain the measures he would be taking including an epidural in my spinal cord to numb the area of the operation and a line in my jugular to administer drugs.
Then it was getting my kit off and donning the hospital gown before being taken down to the surgery waiting area. I think the last thing I remember was the epidural going in which seemed to be slightly difficult.
Whilst under they inserted a chest cavity drain to drain excess fluids, a tube through my nose to my stomach to drain excess fluids and gasses, a feeding tube to my intestines and a catheter to drain urine. I dare say I was wired up to ecg monitors for the duration. The operation itself meant deflating my left lung to give access to my oesophagus and stomach from my side, cuttting away the bottom of my oesophagus and top of my stomach and pulling my stomach up to meet my eosophagus and stitching it all back together. Phew. This all took about 4 hours.
Then the team are bringing me around before taking me on a bed to the Intensive Care Unit. I manage to communicate with family before going off to sleep again. Apart from the drains and tubes already mentioned I seem to have canulas galore, be wired to an ecg monitor, have an oxygen saturation monitor on one finger and an oxygen mask. My blood pressure is monitored somehow through one of the canulas. My mouth is also very dry and my throat is sore from whatever tubes they had going down my throat. My nurse helps by moistening my mouth with cold water via a twistle stick. I am nil by mouth so have to avoid swallowing anything. The epidural is checked periodically by applying an ice pack to various parts of my body and asking me to describe the level of coldness. Where I can't feel a thing the epidural is working.
Next day I am still groggy but get a visit from the Physiotherapists who endeavour to get me out of bed for a short walk around ICU. They also get me started on the Spiro Ball - a bit like a breath test in reverse by measuring how much air is inhaled. Frequent use of this will help to reflate my left lung. I also get a visit from the mobile xray service who manage to xray my lungs whilst I'm sitting up in bed. Then manouvre their transformer like machine back downstairs. The surgeon visits and says the operation went very well and the team are all very pleased. It was a somewhat restless night's sleep being frequently woken to take temperature, blood and blood pressure.
The next morning the Physios are back to get me out of bed and into an adjustable chair. Sitting up will apparently aid my recovery. The chair is adjustable and incredibly comfortable. They also check my progress with the spiro ball thingy and I can now pull 2000ml of air into my lungs. Later I am taken around to corner - discharged out of ICU into the High Dependency Unit or 'step down' as they call it locally. The difference between ICU and HDU is staff ratios - ICU is 1 nurse per patient whilst HDU is 1 nurse per 2 patients. I have a side room with en-suite to myself plus a television. However, my delighted exclamation on seeing the tv was met with a voice from the corridor telling me it doesn't work.
The next few days settle into a routine of washing, changing, monitoring, adjusting medications, getting out of bed, walking around, sitting out and exercising my lungs with the spiro ball plus a lot of sleep until my saturation levels mean I can dispense with the oxygen to my nose. One less tube to worry about.
Today (Wednesday) I will be going for a swallow test. I drink some clear liquid which is actually a dye and they xray the result if the liquid passes into my stomach without spilling out into my chest cavity then the join between eosophagus and stomach is good and I'm ok to start eating and drinking again - though probably a lot of soup to begin with. It also means my pipes, drains, tubes etc can start to be removed including my chest drain, catheter and epidural. I can revert to conventional pain relief.
How am I? I can move around better, shuffle up the bed, roll to one side, walk and use the bathroom much better. I am not in pain although there is discomfort. And all the staff are just so unbelievably thoughtful and caring - I can't praise them all highly enough. The next few days and weeks will be all about recovery from the op. Then we'll find out how effective it has been and what further treatment might be needed.
