The year 2011 was a very significant year in my life. I was in my last year of highschool when I was informed that I would need to have another surgery. I had already gone through this process many times by this point in my then-18-year life.
From stomach, to my back, to my head, this just seemed like another typical procedure. This time, it was my bladder.
My appointments and surgery all took place in a hospital in Montreal, Quebec. Every time my family and I had gone there, there always seemed to be something that went wrong. Our hotel was right downtown, not very far from the hospital that I went to.
Downtown Montreal always smelled like cigarette smoke. It seemed like everyone smoked there. I couldn't believe it. This alone seemed like a good enough reason to order in. I wanted to stay out of the smell as much as I possibly could. Little did we know, the smoke wasn't the biggest problem we ran into during our stays.
One day we decided to go around the city on foot (or wheels) and find a place to have supper. After a while of looking around, we decided to head into McDonald's and order there. That's when something crazy took place. A fight between two women broke out right in front of me. I'm not sure what caused them to fight. Maybe they couldn't decide what to order? Just kidding.
Another time we were in Montreal, we were on our way to the hospital. As we were heading down the sidewalk, we hear something odd behind us. It didn't seem like a big deal until we noticed people running past us. Curiously, my mom looked back from where we just were, and noticed a man with a couple of beer bottles in his hands.
I never saw this man, because we were trying our best to leave the area as fast as possible to get away from this person. We needed to cross the street to get away from him. There was not very much time. He was coming towards us, throwing the bottles in our direction. Exiting the sidewalk onto oncoming traffic seems like a foolish thing to do, but that was our only option.
Everybody that was driving looked at the two of us as if we were the crazy people, but they must not have seen the guy coming towards us.
A little while later, we arrived at the hospital, shaken, scared and out of breath. We told the doctor what happened and he was extremely shocked. Apparently these situations never happen in downtown Montreal....Except when we arrive!
Now came the day of my surgery. I had to be there two hours prior of when it was schedule (8:30 am). They went over everything with me so I knew what was going to be happening. For me, I always say that the IV is the worst part, because I am asleep for the surgery.
This time, I was wrong.
The surgery was supposed to take roughly 6 hours. But surprise! It took 14 hours due to the fact that, when they went in, they discovered that my appendix had either burst or been taken out during a prior surgery. The appendix was supposed to be a major help in my surgery, but they had to go in a different direction in regards to how they were going to proceed.
Of course, when you are the one having surgery, it feels like it takes literally two seconds due to the anesthetic. For my mom, it felt like a lifetime. She felt helpless and alone because she saw the nurses leave at the end of their shifts while I was still in surgery.
As I mentioned earlier, the surgery was 14 hours long. When I woke up, my arms were completely numb and asleep. I couldn't move them. It was very difficult to get from the operating table into my bed, but it had to be done somehow, someway,
Other than the numbness in my arms, I felt very good post-op. No pain, even though I had two tubes in my stomach connecting to my bladder. If it weren't for my numb arms, I would have been able to head home in just a couple of days. However, the tingling feeling stayed for over a week, postponing my departure from the city I never wanted to be in ever again.
They had a device that dispensed pain medication for if I needed it, but I never really did. The nurses told me that I should press the button a couple of times, just in case. I listened to them. I felt extremely drowsy a little while after. The medication started to kick in. For some reason, they thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of bed that same day. Oh boy, that was a big mistake!
I got into my wheelchair, and started to feel the medication kick in shortly after. You see, I was and am unable to walk as it is, so if I fell, there would be hardly anything someone could do. After a while, it was time to get back into bed. However, I was too weak to do so. There were a bunch of people trying to lift me back into bed but they were unable to. A janitor had to come and help get me into bed to rest.
It was just another scary situation that occurred!
During the surgery, they inserted two tubes into my stomach connecting to my bladder. One of the tubes was the main one that had to stay in for a couple of months. The other one was just a precaution tube in case something went wrong. Thankfully nothing backfired and that precaution tube was taken out not long afterwards.
I got homesick. I just wanted to be home. The thought of being in the hospital made me very upset. I wanted to see my stepdad and sister badly. After all I went through those days, being away from home really took a toll on me.
My sister was still in school so it wasn't easy for her to miss time to come all the way from Manitoba to see me. But they came! It made me feel so much better that I got to see them. I don't know how much longer I could have been away from them.
To my surprise, we were sent home while I still had one of the tubes in my stomach. I am surprised that they didn't keep me there longer because this was a very intense situation. When we arrived home, we discovered another obstacle. How was I going to get up the stairs? Luckily, a neighbor of ours came over and helped lift me in my wheelchair up the stairs.
Phew. Overcame that obstacle!
I entered my room, and then when I left, decided to wheel out backwards. Bad idea. I ran into the doorway and my wheelchair tipped backwards. There I was, scared on the floor. I was sure the tube was coming out because of the fall. Luckily it didn't move!
Eventually, teachers from my highschool started to come everyday to catch me up on what I had missed. I started getting into the routine of doing homework. It felt very weird being home all the time.
Finally I was back at school. It felt good to be back. It wasn't very long until graduation. I had missed so much time away from highschool that year! I graduated a couple of months later.
I have not been back to Montreal due to being too old to go to that hospital. But you could say that this is a relief! Who knows what would have happened next. It has been quite a journey since that surgery and I am glad it is over.
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