Success! I am home from the hostipal! I officially have one fewer tooth and one few growths in my head. Sweet! I am so happy to be back at home I can't even say it. That is partly cause I sound a little silly saying anything at the moment though. The swell should be pretty much gone by next weekend though I would imagine.They certainly do things differently in this country but that is to be expected I guess. I went in on Wednesday, a day before the surgery. I wrote a little journal to document and pass my time there so here are some excerpts and some pictures taken by friends and myself.

Wednesday November 16, 2005
3:30 PM

Well they are nothing if not thorough! I have had about five meetings since I checked in at 10 this morning and they don’t seem to be slowing up. How could there still be tests that need to be done at this point. I know I will be medicated to the max while I in here though. They are giving tranquillizers at night to make me sleep but they are getting me up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to take my temperature which they have already done three times since I was in here. They have reweighed me, re-measured me , checked my lungs twice and my blood pressure twice, explained the anesthetic process three times, the eating processes several times, how and when to use the bathroom, what underwear I can wear and how the surgery will be performed about 1 million times. There are so many forms for every step of the process as well. It’s unbelievable. I wasn’t stressed out before but now I am a bit. Never mind the near constant tremors that you can feel at this elevation. I thought I wouldn’t be doing much of anything today. Why would I think that? There are more events scheduled than a cruise ship for god sake! I have spoken to the nutritionalist, the anesthesiologist (a very old man), the chief surgeon while a crowd of 10 doctors stood and listened, the assistant to the anesthesiologist, the pharmacist, a battalion of nurses and various other doctors. I have been tested for allergies, had more x-rays, eaten a hospital lunch and there is still a few hours of the day left.

November 18, 2005
5:50

The operation is over and apparently everyone is happy with how it turned out although I haven’t heard a whole lot about it. They have told me a bit about it but nothing compared to the plethora of information I received before the event. They had to pull out one of my teeth which makes me wish they didn’t do so many root canals but they couldn’t have known how it would turn out. I have had some visitors which have really helped to pass the time. I have also slept quite a lot. When I woke up I was not very comfortable. My throat hurt so badly from the ventilator and I felt like I couldn’t get my breath back. The made me where an oxygen mask for an hour after I woke up. I tried to tell them that I could breathe but no one could understand me and they kept taping it back to my face. I wrote it on a piece of paper and they were looking it up in the dictionary but they didn't get it for some reason. Everything has to last for preset amounts of time and you can’t do anything until the schedule says you can. So the mask couldn’t come off until five. I thought I would suffocate. They had me on a drip for the morning yesterday and it came out around bedtime which was nice. Nakamura (My board office suervisor) stayed with me right up until the surgery time and walked me to the room. I started to panic a little bit when I thought she had left but then I saw her at the last second. They gave me anesthetic through the muscles in my shoulder. It was sore yesterday and today. They gave it to me about an hour before the actual operation. I was nervous because I wasn’t asleep but I didn’t last very long in the operating room. When I got in there, there was about 8 or 9 people and I couldn’t understand what they were trying to get me to do. The last thing I remember was being covered in electrodes and them putting a patch that felt really cold on my hip. They I just remember waking up in my room in pain. I had a smashing headache when I woke up too. It felt like the migraines I used to have and I thought I would be sick. I eventually got comfortable and Nakamura was there to help me too. They gave me some pain killers around 5 which really did the trick. They just take a while to work. I wanted instant action!

Here are some pictures of my gross meals:

Here is the nice view from my room:

And here is what I look like now:

Now that I am back at home, I feel much better. I am going to spend the day today getting everything back in order around the house before school starts again on monday. I hope you all had a good week and thanks to everyone for the emails and support! It meant a lot.