Let me tell you about the first time I had Surgery. First, let me tell you a brief background of why I had to have surgery. In the spring of 2014 I had torn my ACL and my Meniscus at a football workout. My doctor told me that if I wanted to play my football my senior year that I would have to have surgery and that it would be about a 6 month recovery. A little upset that I was I knew it was the best thing to do since I was still so young.
It was June 19th, 2014 at 4:30am that was the start of the longest day in my life. I was never scared about having surgery till the day had come. I was awaken by my awful alarm on my phone labeled Surgery Day! I was still half asleep so it still had not hit me that I was about to have a major surgery. I got dressed to go to the hospital and my mother and I hopped in the car and drove off.. Just my mom and I in the car, not saying a word to each other. of course because it was still 5:00 in the morning. I was dead tired and about ready to pass out. I was starving too because I wasn’t allowed to eat anything 12 hours prior to surgery. I sat there with a blank face staring at all the buildings with bright lights while we were driving. I got to thinking about everything that could go wrong with surgery. That once I have surgery I wont be able to walk for at least 6 weeks. I was asking myself “Am I even ready for this? What if something horrible happens?” I kept thinking that one of the biggest moments in my life was about to go down. I have been calm this whole time thinking that surgery didn’t scared me. But now that the time had come, It did. It truly horrified me because not knowing much about surgery, all I could picture were the negative outcomes.
When we had finally arrived at Genesys Regional Medical Center. I thought about the last time I was in the hospital. It was a moment that really frightened me. My flesh was literally burning itself. I had a fever and my throat was swollen. My mom had rushed me to the emergency room to see what was wrong with me. It just so happened that I had mono. They weren't normal side effects of mono besides feeling like you have the flu. But since not even a week before I had my wisdom teeth removed, I was on a few medications, one including amoxicillin. Now if you don't know the mono virus and amoxicillin react and fight against each other. So that explained my skin turning red and me feeling like I was going to die. That was probably the scariest thing I had ever experienced. It was just a horrific experience for me and had me thinking that hospitals are where bad things happen. Where people die.
My mother parked the car and then we looked at each other. The look of pity in her eyes and the look of sorrow in mine. You could tell that not only was I nervous, but she was too by the tone of her voice when she asked “Are you ready?” I nodded my head and we got out of the car and headed in the building for the next step. Now It may have been the first time I ever had surgery but I wasn’t new to the hospital. I had been in and out of the hospital for many reasons that year. When we walked in they had been expecting me and already had my room ready and waiting for me along with my gown and socks. After I got dressed into my ugly green polka-dotted hospital gown, I still had an hour until surgery. Thus began the longest hour of my life. When I layed down on the bed I crossed my legs so the doctors and nurses didn’t get a show every time they talked to me. They rolled me up to the second floor to a different room for questioning and stuff before surgery. One by one, different doctors and nurses came in to ask me the same 10 questions. I gave them all the same answers and finally I was just getting sick of it and asked the current one to just look at the last persons chart. One dumb nurse came in and said “Oh I see you're having surgery on your ACL, I guess you hurt your knee pretty bad huh?” I wanted to just say “Oh really? I had no idea!” But instead just said yeah and went on to the other questions. When my doctor that was going to be performing the surgery walked in I knew we were finally down to business. He asked me my final questions and then he headed over to get prepped for surgery. I looked over at my mom told her ‘Goodbye forever.” She just laughed and said everything is going to be fine. I believed her. I didn’t notice but when the doctor was asking me questions they snuck in and put the anesthesia in my IV. We rolled over to the surgery room and I could of thought that room was Antarctica. It was really cold so I asked for a blanket and a nurse already had a nice heated blanket ready for me. She put it on me and then, everything went silent and everyone disappeared.
When I woke up I was back in the room I was in right before surgery. Two nurses and my mother were in the room with me talking to each other. They looked at me and asked how I was doing. Myself, I was still a little medicated and kind of dizzy so I just gave them a thumbs up. That day, I learned something about myself. I tend to not show my emotions or how I’m feeling. I realized that its alright to let loose every now and then. Prior to having surgery, I didn’t even show my true feelings to myself. I believed that surgery was no big deal until the time had come and I was terrified. Life can be scary sometimes but things will always get better. Luckily I had my mother with me by my side to help me through my struggling times and keep me smiling.