final operation in Japan...I hope!!!!

Yesterday’s operation went well. It took longer than what they had planned, instead of half an hour; it took an hour and a half!! They put me on an IV again, and then covered my face with a paper blanket that had a hole in it, for the doctor to only see my throat. I think that was the worst part : not knowing what they were doing and not seeing anything but blue tissue.

They used local anesthetic. I think they must have injected it in 8 different places around the hole in my throat, but each injection hurt a lot!!! I’m sure it hurt less than the actual operation, so I was glad to have my throat numb. I asked the doctor to explain what she was doing when she could, and I brought my electric dictionary with me so the nurses could look up the technical terms I didn’t know. They were all very helpful. From what I understood, the doctor cut the skin just outside of my trachea to be able to stitch it back up, then, stitched her way out from my trachea to the skin. That took 30 biodegradable stitches. Then, she finished with 10 stitches on the outside.

After the operation, I had 2 hours of bed rest. Nicola came in to see me then. She is so great!! I still can’t express how wonderful she has been during my stay at the hospital!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!

After my bed rest, I felt fine. Walked downstairs with my friend Will, and chatted a bit with him over orange juice and banana milk. But in the afternoon, the anesthetic started to wear off and the pain started to kick in. They gave me painkillers, but my throat still hurt a lot. I distracted myself by knitting and watching a movie. If you haven’t seen the movie “Whale Rider”, watch it! It’s a great movie!! It’s from New-Zealand, Nicola lend it to me. It’s really moving.

After that, the sleeping medicine kicked it, and I slept for a few hours, woke up in pain around 2am, got some more pain medicine and went back to sleep until 6am. I feel a lot less pain this morning, so I’m hoping it was just yesterday. I’m feeling a bit tired today, but other than that, I’m ok. Now, everything has been done. I just have to wait about one week for the stitches to be taken out. After that, I will be able to go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (to Higashi izumo, not Canada, sorry Mia)

I’d like to thank again everyone that came to see me, or who wrote to me : THANK YOU!!! It was/is very comforting.

This is a picture of me yesterday morning, just before the operation…to reassure everyone that I’m ok.