Day 2, Surgery Day

Well, this day could have turned into another disaster. Since Dr. Rumbaut wanted me at the hospital at 7AM, I would have to take a taxi since the hotel doesn't offer shuttle rides that early. So the hotel arranges a taxi for me the night before and told me that he'd be there at 6:20AM. Well, I wake up at 5:40AM since my 5:30AM wake up call never came that I requested. I get ready in time and get to my cab. The driver first takes me to San Jose Hospital which I knew was wrong so I show him the printout I had with me saying that my surgery was at Christus Muguerza Hospital so he took me there. I go in and try to check in with the front desk. They have no idea who I am or who Dr. Rumbaut is. After about an hour after they made a bunch of calls, they determined that I needed to be at Christus Muguerza Sur Hospital. (Sur means south for those who don't understand Spanish.) So they call me a taxi and explain to him where I needed to go. He shows up in an unmarked taxi which I was like "oh great, I'm going to taken somewhere remote to be mugged" but I was too desperate to not take it. He gets me there with maneuvers that would put even the craziest New York City cabbie to shame.

Here are some pictures of the lobby of Christus Muguerza Sur Hospital.


I get there and go to the front counter. The lady starts checking me in then she calls a doctor who speaks English to translate for the info that she doesn't understand. The doctor then leads me to the elevator and up to the floor that I need to be on. They get me to a prep area, I guess you would call it, have me get out of my clothes, put on a gown, and lay on the bed. They take my wallet, passport, and cell phone and put in an envelope to take it somewhere for safe keeping. They get me hooked up to an IV, they wrap my calves in ace bandages to prevent blood clots, then wheel me down to the operating room. They have like a half dozen people waiting for me. They make me slide onto the operating table from the bed. Then they have me extend my right arm out. I assume this is to get it out of the way during surgery.

After that, I wake up in a recovery room feeling really drunk wondering where I was and what was going on. I had some pain in my chest area and my shoulders. The shoulder pain is interesting since it's a "referred" pain. The nerve that causes it is in my gut but my brain interpreted the pain as coming from my shoulders. After being in there a bit to basically sober up, I get taken to my actual room.

Here are some pics of my room.



I get settled in and get my laptop out since the hospital has free WiFi. Once I felt up to it, I made a couple of calls back to the States. Around dinner time, my "dinner" shows up consisting of some chicken broth, bottled water, and hot tea.

Everything goes down fine. After I eat, I walked the halls for a bit to prevent blood clots in my legs and since I was getting a little stir-crazy. Here are some pics that I took wandering around.




I finally get bored with that and go back to my room. The nurse comes and injects more pain medication in me through my IV and gives me a sleeping pill. That's how I ended my first day as a "bandster".