Sick Girl Part VIII
Continued...
On August 20, 2013, my mom and I were back at the hospital at 6am in the morning. We sat in the waiting room about 20 minutes before they called me back. They handed me a gown, a paper hat, socks, and a bag to put my belongs in. The nurse came in, checked my vitals, and hooked up my iv. My mom came in the room and sat with me, We watched TV and just talked.. My stepdad called and prayed with me over the phone. The iv liquid was making me cold all over. The nurse brought me heated sheets. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my mom would wrap me and my sister in the sheets fresh from the dryer. My surgeon came in my room along with his assistants. He drew on my stomach where he was going to make his incisions and cuts. I couldn’t believe that I was getting a 10 pound tumor removed from my body and I would be going home the same day after my surgery after all the horror I had heard from other surgeons about hospital stays and skin grafts.
After my surgeon left, the nurse came in and said she was going to give me some medication to relax me before she wheeled me back into the operating room. I don’t know what the hell was in that needle but they could have cut my leg off right then and there and I probably wouldn’t have cared. My mom kissed me on the cheek and they wheeled me out. In the operating room, they began prepping me. They out a mask over my face and told me to take three deep breaths. I remember taking maybe two before I was off to lala land.
When I came to, I was shivering. It was cold but I thought they hadn’t started yet. I ask the nurse why didn’t they start yet. She laughed and said, “Baby, they are done. It’s over.” I looked down but all I saw were bandages. I asked for my mom. She said I would see her as soon as my oxygen level came back up. She told me that the nurse that took the cap off of my head had fallen in love with my natural hair. She said while I was still sleeping she was playing in it. The other nurse that she was talking about came in. She told her that she was just telling me that she loved my hair. She came over and started playing in my hair again talking about how long, thick, and curly it was. Now that I think back on it, that was kinda weird of her but I was so high at the time , I didn’t care or think about it much. Soon they took me back to the recovery room. They helped me get dressed. They helped me into my mom’s car and we headed back home. I think I slept the rest of that day because I can’t remember a thing after that.
The next day I got to see the results when my mom changed my bandages. I was free! The tumor was gone! The tumor had started to spread to my groin so he had to go a lot lower than I expected. I had a scar going from hip to hip at the bottom of my stomach plus one going down towards my hooha. I was a little disappointed about the scar on my hooha because the doctor told me that it would never look like it did before. It felt funny when I walked because I was so used to the scar weighing me down. After 4 or 5 days I barely had to take any pain meds and I was able to walk up the stairs at my apartment. It was great because I was ready to leave my mom’s and go home.
I still had pain here and there but I was just so happy the scar was gone. After two weeks, I started trying on clothes I hadn’t been able to wear in years because of the tumor. I still couldn’t wear jeans yet but I looked and felt so good that I could wear cute clothes again and I was in less and less pain every day. For the first time in a long time I felt like I could live again.
