Miles Surgery

[MSGT-R]

Just don't raise your voice..

I bet a heated exchange! His wife needs to get into contact with the hospital general manager and the insurance company to make sure they don't wind up paying for that additional hospital time; their mistake, their bill.

[kjelders]

their mistake, their bill.

It stated that in his email....he got a private hospital room and he won't be paying for it!

[MichaelG]

I would like to THANK all of you for the well wishes. I appreciate that.

I got home today about 1:30 pm, after being released from the hospital earlier, and then a previously scheduled doctors appt. as a follow-up to the surgery from yesterday. The doc this morning was the surgeon that cut me open and sewed me back up. According to him, the surgery went very well. He said that once he got in there, the forward 2/3 of my right ear drum was completely gone, and onloy the back 1/3 of the ear drum was still there. They took a skin graft from the backside of my ear (outside) and inserted it on the inside of my ear drum, then backfilled the space further inside the ear drum area with a disolvable jel, to fill that space and put pressure on the new skin graft, to help it adhere to the ear drum. Then he placed my ear back in correct alignment (I checked) and sewed it back in place.

Today, no pain, and I am off the pain meds. Now I only take the antibiotics. I am not into pain meds, so the faster I get off them the better.

He says it will take about 2 months for the dissolvable jel to dissipate to the point of being gone, so that the new ear drum can function properly, and he does not plan to do a hearing test for up to 6 months from now.

No riding for 2 months (yeah, sure), and no flying for that same time. No blowing of the nose either.

BTW, the issue yesterday by the anesthesiologist was far too much meds...and it did not put me in a medicaly induced coma, but damn close to it. Had my wife not intervened (she is a doctor too), then I have have been worse off. Good to have someone close watching my back. They will be discussing what he did wrong, and changes will be implemented. The surgery I had is designed to be an outpatient procedure, with the operation taking about 2 hours. Due to the slip up by the anesthesiologist, and I couldn't wake up on my own, they had to transport me next door to the hospital, and medically wake me back up, and then I was "wired" awake since yesterday. Awake all night long, and have not slept since yesterday afternoon. At least I got a private room, and they are paying for all of that.

So, I am home, I am feeling fine, very much up and around, and have to remind myself not to overdo it.

Again, thank you for all the well wishes.

[Hornblower]

Welcome back, Miles
It's great to see you back on the forum so quickly. We'll keep praying for a speedy recovery. Now, where's that helmet with the special ear pocket

[Deer Slayer]

Great news Sparky.

[Retired Army]

I think the doc was referring to flying while on wing (Gold Wing that is).

[choptop]

Best of luck Miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

[BubbaJePH]

I'm glad you are doing so well. Remember to sneeze with your mouth open too. Prevents much back pressure on the back side of the ear drum. They usually use fat pads behind the ear. Glad they did not use your backside fat pad. When you would break wind your ear would wiggle. Did you get to wer one of those sexy ear cups? I am a Recovery Room Nurse. I've worked with heavy handed anesthesia providers since 1986. Not everyone responds the same way with dosing and medications. Today we had a doc that wanted to give all these different medications to a child that just went through a sick appendix. I told my coworker, use a few drugs as possible and give them IV fluid boluses. These drugs can make each other stronger than alone.

[1951vbs]

Miles, you are one cool cat! Welcome back and thanks for the update.

[MichaelG]

Did you get to wer one of those sexy ear cups? I am a Recovery Room Nurse. I've worked with heavy handed anesthesia providers since 1986. Not everyone responds the same way with dosing and medications.

Bubba, I did in fact get issued one of those sexy ear cups. It looked like an athletic supporter protection cup, being worn on the ear. It was quite funny looking, and I just kept telling people, "stop staring at my ear". They just laughed. When I saw the doctor today for a follow-up, he removed it, and placed it in a bag for me to put in my collection.

As for the heavy handed anesthesiologist, the issue was they only use the parameters of the patients weight, height, body mass, and how long the operation would normally take, to determine how long the patient will be out for. The problem with those limited parameters is that it does not take the individual physiology of the individual patient into accord, so...if you have two patients, that both weigh the same, are the same height, and the same body mass, and are both in for the exact same operation...does the anesthesiologist give both of these people the exact same IV drug to knock them out? What if one of them is an admitted alcoholic, and has a very high tolerance for mind alterning substances, whereas the other patient...i.e., ME, does not drink alcohol at all, does not smoke tobacco at all, and does not use illegal drugs at all (and this was all explained to the anesthesiologist in fine detail), so the same drug given to the alcoholic patient that would have little affect, will turn me into a mind dead coma patient in a snap.

A simple analogy, give patient A a six pack of beer, and he hardly gets a buzz, but give patient B a six pack of beer, and he is drunk on his butt with the first bottle of beer.

This is what the anesthesiologist was unwilling to take into account. I have a very low tolerance to any kind of mind altering drug, because my system is so clean from anything like that, and is not used to taking anything like that. When he issued a full does of meds, I dropped out (literally) in one second, and did not wake up for several hours, after they had to medically wake me up. When they brought my wife into the recovery room, she immediately spotted that something was wrong, and she forced the nurses to call my surgical doctor.

Bottom line, I am much better now, home, and feeling fine. Life goes on.

Let's get back to bikes and riding.