7 most torturous days of my life

It was finally time for me to get admitted in hospital. Trust me its not something you wanna do. Friday morning was the day I was to get operated but Thursday nite 10pm onward I was not allowed to have a drop of water or even put a morsel of food in my mouth. Its the toughest thing to do: when you are forbidden to do something, that's the only thing you wanna do.

The next morning I really felt like a patient - in a blue robe, felt so naked in it :P it was open from everywhere...I guess that's why the doctors find it easy to operate in it. Soon I was on local and then on general anesthesia and before I knew it I was out cold. Woke up in the post operation recovery room couple of hours later but that was not the end. It was so bloody noisy in there and painful coz I couldn't move. I had just been through an open biopsy and was yet to go through the actual surgery. The biopsy was just a formality to identify what the mass growing inside of me was. Soon I was off to sleep again coz the actualy surgery had to be performed. Woke up yet again in the same noisy-ass post operative recovery room but this time the surgery was done. The docs had performed a Median Sternotomy with Thymectomy - which basically meant cracking open the rib cage to yank out the Thymus gland and the growth on it. They cut 6 freggin ribs to reach it. Can you imagine how big the growth was??

The stay in hospital after that was not fun. I would think that a patient was to have no disturbance at all, but there was someone coming in every half hour. Pissing off!!
I wasnt allowed to eat or drink anything at all again. Was on saline for a good 2 days after that.
Had friends and relatives coming in to chill out. It was good but sometimes strenuous. The food in the hospital was bland and I hated the fact that I had needles in my hand and arms, so painful and my hand actually started to swell up since I couldn't move it around. I was on painkillers for most of the stay thereafter. I decided that was the end. I had to get out of there!! I waited eagerly for the day I was to be discharged.

The day had come...there was a ton of formalities to be completed which took almost the entire day but once I was done, I walked out of the hospital and hoped never to go back there again.

I pray that neither I nor anyone I know ever have to be admitted in hospital.

P.S. - I had to skip a lot of intricate details while in the hospital.

My first Biopsy (and hopefully the last)

Ok, so here's a lil background to wats happened in the past couple of weeks since my last post: I flew down to Pune, my hometown, to get myself checked further and get more tests done. The sad part is that doctors in a very reputed hospital in Hyderabad, Apollo Hospital, were unable to diagnose the issue until the last moment. I even wonder why they asked me to get an x-ray done if they dint know how to read one, since that was the first and most obvious sign of the problem :(

Soon after reaching Pune I had a biopsy done which did not reveal wat the doctor wanted to know, reason being, it is very difficult to obtain the correct tissue using just a needle. I dont blame them.

The biopsy went off fine but after that I had a bit of running around to do in the hospital. I waited for the results of another x-ray during which something very scary and uncontrollable happened. While I sat there in the chair everything around me started to go black very slowly, I could feel sweat dripping down my forehead and my t-shirt was soaked, my feet went cold and before you know it I passed out. Now the strange thing is, during all this my mind was still very active and I knew that something was wrong. I could feel my brain telling me to wake up and take control of the situation but there was absolutely nothing I could do. Its a strange feeling where your mind is still so active but your body stops reacting to the brain.

My mom later told me that my eyeballs had rolled back and lips became pale yellow, which really freaked her out too. I was put into a stretcher and the docs said my blood pressure had dipped drastically low to 30/something which is extremely low but I regained consciousness soon.

I just lay there on the stretcher with a saline bag hung over my head and wires attached all over and before I knew it they were wheeling me out since there was another patient who came in with a gunshot wound. It doesn't look so bad when you see it in the movies but when you see it right in front of your eyes its...painful. He was groaning and his vest was soaked in blood. Well thats all that happened there that day. I went home to rest, praying that I never had to get another biopsy done ever. Its a painful experience to lie on the bed completely conscious while doctors poke a needle into your chest trying to fish for some tissue!