Surgery was about a week ago, on Dec 27th. The hospital was amazing. They dealt with my panic attacks extremely well. They made sure I was kept in the loop before hand, that I got to speak with everyone as I requested, they even offered to give me my versed (anesthesia that causes memory loss afterwards) dose about an hour before surgery to knock me out. I wound up choosing to wait a little bit to get my versed so I'd be sober when speaking with the doctor. The surgeon gave me some input on where to locate the brains of the unit, I chose my back above the waist. The butt cheek is a much more common location, but I didn't want to be sitting on the unit in case it winds up being sensitive. Sensitivity at the implantation site is not uncommon, especially for the first few months. They also usually locate the units on the right hand side, but I chose the left to keep it away from the hardware in my femur.
The rep from Boston Scientific was there the day of surgery and came to visit me beforehand. He assured me my new unit was fully charged, then took it out of the box and showed my exact unit to me less than 40 minutes before it entered my body. It was, of course, still hermetically sealed, but still neat to see through all the layers of plastic.
I'm told I make blue hair nets look fashionable. Also that I'm remarkably calm pre-op, despite the whole panic attack thing going on. (My vital signs gave me away, but I am proud to say I kept the hysteria to a minimum.)
Post-op, the awesome people at J Hospital hooked me up with paper tape bandages. They were awesome! I tend to itch like a crazy person under plastic bandages like Tegaderms, so I really appreciated them finding me an alternative.
I wrote this whole post, then realized it had become extremely long. So I'm posting half tonight, and half tomorrow.
How are you doing? I've been watching for updates, hope you're doing okay.
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