Breast-Cancer Blog for Husbands, Spouses, Relatives and Friends

We got up at 4:00am on Monday morning and got to New York Presbyterian-Columbia University by 5:30am. Everything went really smooth, administration-wise. Except for one thing; on one of the papers it said that I was in for a prostatectomy. I was in shock. But apparently that was just a misprint and I was assured that the foreseen procedure was indeed a radical robotic left nephrectomy. Anyway, I signed in and a few minutes later I was called up with a bunch of other patients to be admitted to the prep-area. I had to change into a gown and stockings. I hated the stockings but the gown actually felt quite comfy. The nurses drew blood and hooked me up on an IV. I also spoke to my three surgeons and the anesthesiologist. They explained to me that Dr. Badani will operate the robot while the other two surgeons will assist with things the robot can’t do.

And shortly before 7:30am, I was brought into the operating room. That was a scary setup in there. A lot of metal, wires and electronics and in the middle of all that, the operating table. I was told to lie down. Then they asked me the usual questions and to take three deep breaths….. and gone I was……

When I woke up later, I felt if I was hit by a truck. I was very drowsy and sleepy. The nurses had trouble with my last name, Peise. A short name, but apparently it causes some serious trouble to Americans regarding its pronunciation - even worse than my first name.

I tried to explain everything to the best I could but it was quite hard since my throat felt like it just had the pleasure of being treated with blender for five minutes. I hurt badly, because I got a tube inserted during the surgery.

I was able to see Ann for a little while. Then they transferred me to my room. The pain was bad and actually got worse when they disconnected the IV with the pain killer. Most of the pain was caused by the gas inside me. The doctors said that this was normal and probably will last for another few days until I will have my first bowel movements again. Ann stayed with me until 7:00pm. I tried to sleep but the pain prevented me from doing that. What I didn’t understand: I had to ask for pain killers every single time as opposed to just being provided with them automatically on a set schedule. I mean that was just shortly after having had major surgery and they make you ask for pain killers? I don’t blame my nurses, in fact, they were fabulous – Thanks a bunch, Ebby and Fely!

Anyway, the night went by slowly and Ann came back early Tuesday morning. A bunch of doctors stopped by and confirmed that I was on a good way to recover quickly. Therefore, I was likely to be discharged the same day. I was happy to hear that. The most trouble I had was with the bed. It was a high tech thing that every time I made an adjustment to the angle or height, the mattress re-adjusted itself automatically. The nurse explained to me that this what they call an ‘intelligent” mattress. Once the patient makes and adjustment to it, it does some fine tuning by itself to prevent the patient form getting bed sores. Well, that might be quite intelligent and advanced regarding technology; to me it was just brutally annoying because I wasn’t able to get comfortable.

I was supposed to do breathing exercises with the help of a small plastic apparatus they provided me with. But I couldn’t since I was too weak. Shortly before noon, I was asked to get up. The nurse said that she will remove the catheter first. I really dreaded that, but it was actually okay.  Then I slowly moved up and set on the side of my bed. I thought I was going to pass out any second. I had cold sweat all over me. But the nausea subsided after a few minutes and I was okay to get up with the help of the nurse and Ann. From that moment on, things got better. An hour later I started walking around, a little bend over with my upper body, because of the pain, but at least I was able to move. I also ate a little bit. The doctors then told me, that as to whether or not they will be able to send me home, only depends on if I was going to be able to urinate all by myself. Luckily, I was. An hour later I peed a small amount. Another hour later I was provided with my discharging papers.

The ride back home was really tough on me. I never realized before that the George Washington Bridge and Route 4 had so many bumps and holes. I got shook up badly and that was certainly detrimental to my sores and nausea. Back home I actually regretted that I wasn’t in the hospital anymore. The drowsiness and nausea was almost unbearable. But it slowly got better. My mom in law had prepared the pull out sofa in our living room. First, I didn’t like that idea, however, for practical reasons and since we don’t have an upstairs bathroom, it turned out to come in handy.

This morning I felt much better already. I was able to pass gas which was a great relief. I actually also had bowel movements – sorry to be that graphic, but as a matter of fact, this is another important step on the way to recovery.

I just had my first shower; that felt really good, washing off all that bloody-crusty stuff all over my abdomen. I was actually a little scared since I thought the scars might burn upon contact with the water. But it turned out to be okay. In have six incisions in total. Most of them are really small. The biggest one is right above my belly button which is 2 inches at the most. That’s the one where the doctor pulled out my kidney trough. Which is quite amazing. Before laparoscopic surgery techniques became state of the art, they used to cut you all the way open for this kind of procedure which left you with a huge scar afterwards. Let alone the significantly longer recovery time. 

Okay, so that’s it. The surgery is past me. And I’m glad for that.