1982

I had two surgeries that year. One was an eye surgery and the other was reconstructive surgery. I was eighteen (18) years old. Both surgeries were done at CMH.

July 1982

I had surgery to tighten the muscle in my right eye. I had it done on Fri., July 9, 1982.

My right eye had become lazy. It was drifting upwards. I had strained my eyes after the surgery in February 1980. Both my eyes swelled shut after that surgery. :: SIGH ::

I remember being admitted to the Same Day Surgery unit. There was a possiblity that I might have to stay overnight.

It was somewhere around 12 noon when I was taken to holding. I watched "All My Children," my favorite soap opera at the time, there while I waited to go to the OR. LOL LOL

Finally I was taken to OR #3. I got put under. I remember waking up briefly in Recovery and then totally crashed. When I woke up the next time, I was in one of the rooms in SDS unit. I don't remember being wheeled back there at all. I remember one of the nurses who used to work on 5-North waking me up. LOL I got to go home shortly after that.

On the way home, I couldn't see out the window because the light bothered my eyes so bad. When my mom and I got home, I slept on the couch for awhile and then I was OK. I never got sick, which was good.

The next morning I had to get up and go to the eye specialist who did my surgery the previous day. He had to make some adjustments.

I thought that the light sensitivity problem would never go away.

October 1982

This was suppose to be the year that I was not going to have any reconstructive surgery. Well that did not end up being the case. And this is where I started to really exercise my control. :-) I told ya that I am not the perfect patient. LOL LOL

On Sun., Oct. 24, 1982, we go to to the conference with Dr. Tessier. During the conference, My parents and I gave him one of my senior pictures. My parents and I told him about my decision to hold off on any surgery. He told us that he would do the surgery next year. I was waiting to see if I had been accepted to the Univ. of Kansas. On the way home. my parents and I got to talking. I would have to sacrifice the first semester of my freshman year. We got home and Mom called the conference room. Mom talked to Maggie. Maggie told her that she would see what she could do.

On Tues., Oct. 26, 1982, the word came. I would be admitted to the hospital on Thursday and then have my surgery on Friday.

On Thurs., Oct. 28, 1982, I was admitted to 5 North. I had a semi-private room (the first one as you entered the unit.) My dad brought me some real food for dinner. :-) I let one of the moms whose kids had surgery that day stay in the room that night. Her daughter was in ICU. She was in and out all night visiting her daughter.

On Fri., Oct. 29, 1982, I get up the morning of my surgery. One of the PS residents walked into my room not too long after I got up. I was brushing my teeth at the sink in the room. He is like telling me to wash my hair again. I had done it the night before. The time comes for me to go to surgery. I am taken to holding around 10 AM. In holding, I get hit with the following: Dr. Tessier wants to go thru your head. I am like "NO WAY." I got really upset. I remember crying on Maggie's shoulder. They decided not to go that route after all.

About 11 AM, I finally got taken to the OR. I remember being put under. As I was being put under, I did the vomit thing because I had gotten totally upset in holding.

During the surgery, Dr. Tessier did many things: He did some revisions to my nose, put more bone (taken from my right hip) around my left orbit, and he built the space between my front gum and lip with skin taken from my right hip.

I woke up in Recovery. I was taken to my room, another semi-private room on 5-North near the nurse' station. I had managed to talk myself out of both ICU and the mini ICU unit. I just wanted to go somewhere quiet and where I could sleep off the effects of the anesthesia. I had that room to myself that night. I was sick a lot that night.

The weekend was kind of rough. I remember two nurses getting me out of bed the next morning. Was that ever fun - NOT. That night, C. was moved into the room with me and her mom stayed that night. They were transferred to PCU the next day. The Sunday following my surgery, the IV popped out of my vein. :-( It took two nurses several tries to try to find a vein. A nurse from ICU finally found a vein with a small needle. I was told not to put anything in my mouth because of the graft. I also took it as no talking either. LOL

As time went on, things got better. The IV came out for good on Monday. A. and her mom came up to see me that evening. I only had one other roommate the whole entire time I was in the hospital. A little girl had swallowed a tack. She was only there one night. One morning, my mom and I got into an argument. She left the room to go talk to someone. At one point someone wanted to order crutches for me. Someone who had known me for quite awhile cancelled the order because she knew I didn't need them. On Thurs., Nov. 4, 1982, I received my acceptance letter from KU. I remember my youngest brother reading the letter to me over the phone. I remember telling my PS about the letter too. I watched M*A*S*H that night with the evening unit clerk. I finally got released the following afternoon.

I missed six weeks of school then. My Latin teacher was my homebound teacher.