Surgery Tomorrow and Thanks for the moneyz!

Thank you all for the moneyz and lovez.

First off I have to say “OMG WTF holy shit” to reaching our fundraiser goal within 1.5 days of the giveForward site going live…The original idea was to reach the target by December 15^th and to coincide with our Germany trip/operation but I guess that was a gross underestimation of the power of crowd sourcing. Thank you to everyone who either donated money or spread the link around. I would have never reached the goal so quickly if it wasn’t for you all. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it made it on reddit and some of the comments totally made me laugh (the health care debate and the cancer troll/anti-troll battles were incredible). The thoughtful comments/hugs you left me are really something special. I have a hard time keeping my tears at bay when I read the messages some of you posted.

Back at the Fachkrankenhaus hospital in Coswig

It’s kind of weird coming back to a hospital routine only 3 months after originally leaving. It feels like my time back at home was a dream and my reality is to be in this hospital recovering from some operation. I did accomplish a lot in 3 months (we moved, a lot happened at work and I resumed my gym routine of running and yoga) but it is a bit disheartening knowing that I have to re-level my damaged body backup yet AGAIN. One big improvement is the temperature. It is roughly around 40 degrees F. which is amazing. This not only makes sleeping easier but it makes hanging out in the hospital room a much more pleasant experience.

My operation is tomorrow morning so I am fairly nervous, less so than before but I guess it’s normal since it’s a pretty major procedure (5-6 hr long thoracotomy, fun fun). It’s also strange being very familiar with the hospital staff and the strict time tables for all the tests (go German efficiency). This time the nurses are treating me much better (I know many of them by name now) and I bet that it’s also strange for them since I have returned so quickly.

My pre-surgery Tests and Results

Earlier I finished doing all the lung function tests and my pre-surgery CT scan, same as before (lung capacity tests while sitting in a small glass box, breathing through a tube while riding a bike and having blood samples removed from my left ear). The results were apparently great! That’s good news since after the tests the last time they thought that there was an issue with my heart, which ended up not being the case.  

Chief Krassler & Professor Rolle told me that my lung function results were better than what it was before my last surgery…which is AWESOME since I was afraid I would lose some noticeable lung capacity after a major procedure like that (the power of the pewpews). I would be willing to bet that a combination of my new diet/juicing routine along with my new meditation/yoga habit has something to do with it.

When I mentioned the pain issues I had before Krassler brought up a few solutions:

My epidural was not working properly the last time so he is going to try a new spinal position.  He is also going to give me stronger pain meds and keep me in the ICU a day longer than before! (Yay for extra care, the ICU is awesome compared to the normal ward AKA gen pop).

All this plus the colder temperature should make my recovery much easier than the last (trying to stay optimistic here).

Surgery TOMORROW

I will probably not be posting until a few days after the operation since I will be UNWELL but I figure you guys want to get your money’s worth so I might be posting some extra gruesome  post-op pictures to compensate. Goodbye everyone and see you all on the other side (of my anesthetic nap).