A few more details about today

So it went better than I expected - we got there at 6am sharp, like we were told and things happened right on schedule. Dr. Greene popped in a few minutes before 7am to answer my questions and tell me my CT scan looked normal, the anesthesiologist came by a few minutes later followed by Dr. Greene's resident (another woman urological surgeon, cool!) By 7:30am I think they'd already given me the "happy juice" in my IV and off to the OR I went.

Apparently the entire surgery took about 25 minutes and I woke up around 9am in the recovery room already half way through my mitomycin torture uh I mean treatment. 9:35 they flushed it out, and then they let me rest a bit before moving me to the visit-able part of the recovery room and bringing Mark there. (That's when I got my hands on the blackberry and sent my pre-written "I'm fine" message so that was 10:35am)

Between more visits by Dr. Greene and nurses giving instructions and getting my stuff and writing prescriptions it was almost 11 and by the time Mark got the car and they took me downstairs in a wheelchair (strange hospital custom) and we drove home it was getting close to noon.

I napped most of the afternoon but seem pretty much fine now - quite tired and it hurts to swallow a little (from the breathing thing they put in the throat during general anesthesia) and my bladder feels a little burning/raw from the chemo but hopefully I'll be feeling less discomfort tomorrow and I hope to be back to normal by Monday morning after taking it easy all weekend.

Last time I definitely was off doing too much too soon and feeling quite tired from it so this time I'm going to take it easy for a week (next work trip is just over a week away).

My post-op is on March 29th so that's when we'll review pathology results and maybe discuss what other preventative measures there might be against further recurrence (I'm not sure there are any).

All went fine

This message is prepared in advance cause I'm sure I won't be up to typing that all went fine and I'm recovering, but I figure I'll save this as a draft and then all I have to do is hit send so if you're reading this, then that's what I did!

Today's the day

I'm supposed to be at UCSF at 6am for 7:30 TURBT.   If last time was typical that would mean we'll actually start around 9 which would still mean I'll be out of surgery before 10am and probably done with all the mitomycin (chemo) before noon.   Last time they kept me for another hour after that to make sure I was all good before sending me home.

The funny thing is that I remember the ~2 hours in the recovery room pretty well, but I have no recollection whatsoever of getting dressed and going home (I do remember Jeanne calling for a cab).  I'm pretty sure I didn't come home dressed in the hospital gown so I guess I must have gotten dressed at some point...

I'll see if I can get an update to here in the afternoon, but no worries if there's no update till the evening - who knows if they'll let me use my Blackberry in the recovery room...