Medical procedures are most definitely not fun. I would know because I have already had two different kinds of surgeries. The feelings that you go through, or the feelings that you hear about how people felt is kind of interesting. The first surgery that I had was when I was ten months old. I can’t tell you how I felt, because I wasn’t old enough to remember anything. I do, however, know what others in my family thought and felt about the everything. My heart surgery was a major surgery. I had been very sick for the first couple of months after my birth.
Later at nine months, the doctor had found a hole that was still in my heart. This wasn’t just a tiny hole either. If you took the size of a baby’s fist, that was the size of my heart at the time. Now if you put a quarter next to the fist, that’s how big my hole was in my heart. For me, I have no idea why and how I was alive for those first ten months in that condition. I can’t tell you what I was feeling that day. My family though gives me pretty good descriptions on how they felt. When the nurse had came to get me for the surgery that day, as she was taking me away, both of my parents started crying.
I know it’s hard to imagine my dad crying, but I was their only child at the time. They had asked their pastor if he could have a devotion with them. After he left, all they were doing was just waiting around with both sets of their parents. The nurse would come in every so often to give them an update on how things were going. But for a really long time she didn’t come out, and that started to freak everyone out. It turns out that everything went okay. I had the surgery done on a Tuesday, and I was released from the hospital on Friday.
The doctor had warned my parents that I might not want to play with any toys or move a whole lot once I got home. But I ended up doing the unexpected. As soon as my parents brought me home, they put me down on the floor, and I immediately rolled onto my stomach. It was really shocking since I had just had the surgery only a couple days ago. My mom did say that I had some awful nightmares because of surgery. My mom, one day, was just grinding some coffee, when all of a sudden I start screaming very loud, almost like I was in pain. I was asleep too, but my mom raced into my room.
She had called the doctor because this happened every time she tried grinding some coffee. The doctor had decided that since they had to use a saw to cut through my rib cage, the sound of the grinding probably made me think about hearing the saw. I think that it kind of cool actually how I was able to hear the saw while I was put under. After my mom heard about this, she never did any more grinding of coffee until I was much older. She waited for so many years too. That would be one of my surgeries. My other one would be the most recent.
It happened just before I started freshman year of high school. This time it was my knee that was the problem. I am an athlete and I love playing sports. Well I was in the middle of a basketball game when I was in sixth grade when I felt this pain in my knee. My parents had just told me that I was growing, which was probably true. Well with me being a catcher for softball, it got worse. I was wearing a knee brace for everything that I did with sports. The summer after graduated from eighth grade, my knee was hurting a little bit more than usual.
I even began to stop catching because it was so bad on my knee. Since I was going to get a physical for high school and for sports, I had asked my doctor more about it. He set up an x-ray for me that day. They didn’t find anything, but authorized an MRI. After the MRI, I was on vacation when I was told that I was going to need surgery because my meniscus was torn. My first reaction was am I going to come out of it alive. I don’t know why I thought that. I guess it was just scary knowing I was going to have surgery, and this time I was going to emember it.
I had surgery the following Tuesday when I got back from my last week as a camper up at Camp Phillip. I remember that Tuesday morning how hungry I was. It was awful because I couldn’t eat anything after a specific time. I had to wait around in a room with no food in my stomach for about two hours. It was probably my least favorite part. I remember that right before I was taken into the surgery room, I got to say goodbye to my parents. Well for some reason, I felt as if it was my last time seeing them again.
I almost cried but I didn’t. When I got into the surgery room, I remember it being so cold. My mom had said that it would be because of the tools that they had to use. It was nice with having so many nurses in the room. They kept on calming me and telling me that I would be okay. They couldn’t find a strong vein for them to put me out. So they ended up just putting a mask over me instead. I remember them telling me to take five deep breaths. After I did, they told me to do it again. I didn’t even reach five the second time. Everything went dark.
When I woke up from surgery, I remember not really remembering where I was at. I also remember having a massive headache. The thing that I remember the most would probably be the pain my knee was in. I was confused. I was wondering why my knee was in so much pain. I kept on screaming at the nurses. Then | remembered that I had surgery. Then I was freaking out because I wanted to know if I was going to be able to play volleyball or not. I guess I kept on screaming at the nurses so much they took me back to my room. When I first saw my parents I didn’t say hi to them or anything.
Instead I had just found out that I wasn’t able to play volleyball, so that was the first thing I said to them. I remember being in so much pain with my knee. I don’t want to feel that kind of pain ever again. It is interesting that I am only sixteen years old and I have already had two major surgeries in my life. I don’t mind that I’ve had them. It kind of make me who I am. It’s weird to think about sometimes with my age. But I know that God was watching over me and my family through those tough times. I am truly grateful for the work of the almighty God.