OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

May 9th, 2007 -- Day 1: Admission --

Mom and I arrived at the hospital around 8:20 am that morning. It was too early for our scheduled check-in (9:00 am), but I wanted to have a nice breakfast at the coffee shop in the hospital. Mom had to take an early train, and I knew she didn’t eat anything before leaving home, even though she said she did.

After breakfast, we checked in. A nurse took us to the in-patient ward and showed us around. My bed was the one closest to the door in a four-bed room. Good! I can easily sneak out the room and munch on something if I get hungry in the middle of the night. :D And I like the cover with pink flowers. Looks lovely. Honestly, my biggest concern then was whether I could have a good sleep during my stay there. I usually have a late-night supper around 10 pm after my nighttime job and fall asleep around 2 am. Hey, how could I adjust to the “Dinner at 6 pm, Lights off at 9 pm” lifestyle and get a good rest?

Yeah, I was definitely ready for a rest after the major cleaning during the Golden Week AND the “two days in hell” after that. On those two days, things kept going wrong, problems were found one after another at work, and as if it wasn’t enough, the spin-dry of my washing machine completely broke after I started washing the mattress on May 8th before work. Oh no! What did I do? I shoved the wet mattress into a huge plastic bag and rode my bicycle to a nearby laundromat (or coin washers), then to the closest ATM to get small changes for the washing machine. Guess what. The ATM was temporary out of service!!! That night -- the night before my hospital admission -- at 9 pm, I was drowning in a cold sweat and half crying in the office because the amount in our cashbook and the cash at hand didn’t match… Man, I’ve got to feel cozy and be lazy here in this room! This is my break and I DESERVE IT!

BTW, I had bought these eating utensils as well as two bath towels and a pair of slippers at our famous Daiso 100-yen shop (Of course. Where else?!) for this hospital stay. Those were listed in the “things to bring” list in the pamphlet I had been given. I knew they were available at the shop in the hospital, too, but I wanted to choose the ones I like at Daiso, which I believe was a less expensive idea, too. Other than those items, I brought underwear, two face towels and a hand towel, “travel size” toiletries, my digital audio player, digital camera, rechargeable batteries with a recharger, a couple of books, a notebook, writing utensils and a small paintbrush. I had thought about bringing my laptop with me, but decided against it at the last minute.

Unpacking didn’t take long. When sitting in the room, mom and I were asked to come to the nurses’ station. There my doc was waiting to explain the surgery procedure to us.

I found this site (Japanese) after I came back to my room from the hospital, but I wish I had seen it before my hospital admission. Nice illustrations, aren’t they? If I had seen them beforehand, the doc’s explanation would have made more sense to me. Anyway, doc said that they would basically make 3 incisions, one being about 3 cm big and others 1 cm or less. Gas would be put into the abdomen to expand it. The dermoid (5 cm) was too big to come out from the 3 cm incision, so the cyst would be put in a sac first and then cut into smaller pieces within the sac and be extracted with the sac.

Then he talked about possible risks during the surgery, such as spillage of the content of the cyst, damage to adjacent organs during the operation and excess bleeding, as well as those after the surgery including thrombophlebitis and infections. About the thrombophlebitis and deep-vein thrombosis, he explained in more details (using a printout) and mentioned the use of elastic stockings. Yeah, I’ve read about the stockings on someone’s blog. He also said that they would try to remove the cyst only and save the rest of the right ovary, but if not possible, they might go for a total extirpation. And there was a possibility to change to open surgery if the removal was found difficult with laparoscopy, he said.

None of these sounded scary to me. Nothing is 100 percent safe, of course, but with all the information available to us today, it was not too difficult for me to be basically optimistic about the removal of a 5 cm dermoid cyst. And I basically trusted my doctor. He didn’t say anything different from the educational materials on this tumor that I had read both in English and Japanese. In his explanation, what was unknown was unknown, possibilities were possibilities and risks were risks, quite straightforward. That’s what I liked. So I was pretty calm, and to my relief, mom didn’t look scared, either.

After mom and I signed the agreement, there was nothing left for mom to do at the hospital. So she left for home before lunchtime. The rest of the day was boring. I did some additional shopping (a box of tissue paper, TV card and inari-zushi for my late-night supper), emailed my friends with my cell phone in the waiting area (it was allowed there) and tried to take a nap but couldn’t really fall asleep. I guess I was too excited. Wearing hospital pajama with a bar-coded wrist band on my wrist -- Now I’m officially an “inpatient!” Yay! ... Forgive me. I have been terribly healthy and always had a slight longing for being an inpatient.

Early in the afternoon, a young nurse gave me a questionnaire at the nurses’ station about my medical history and lifestyle. Later in the evening, a young pharmacist came to my bed and explained the medication (incl. drips) I would be given during this hospital stay. Gee, this could be more drugs than I had in the past two years. Glad that she gave me the printouts with the names, photos and descriptions of the drugs…There’s no way I can remember which is which.

I spent the rest of the day watching TV. I wasn’t worried about the surgery at all. But can I have a good sleep tonight? Oh I really want to… I really need to catch up with my sleep…


to be cont'd...

入院の日

母 と私は８時20分頃に病院に到着。9時の入院手続きにはチョト早すぎたけど、病院内の喫茶店で朝ゴハンを食べようと思って。母は早い汽車、じゃない電車で （スイマセン四国では未だにJRのことを汽車と言う世代が残っております）来たので、食べて来たとは言ってても、ホントは何も食べずに出てきたのがわかっ てたので。

朝食後、入院手続き。看護婦さんが入院病棟に連れて行ってくれて、そこの説明をしてくれました。私のベッドは4人部屋のドアに 一番近い場所。よっしゃ、ここなら夜中にお腹すいた時に部屋を抜け出して何か食べるのに好都合やん。それにピンクの花模様の布団がカワイイし。正直、その 時の一番の気がかりは、入院中よく眠れるかどうか、やったんです。私はたいてい、夜の仕事の後で10時ぐらいに夜食を食べて、午前2時ぐらいに寝るのに。 そんな、『午後6時夕食、午後9時消灯』とかいう生活にどう適応して安らげと。

そーです私は、あのゴールデンウィークの大掃除と、それに 続く地獄の2日間の後で、ホンマに休息が欲しかったんです。その2日間、物事は悪いほうに転ぶし、仕事じゃ問題がこれでもかと次々出てくるし、しかも8日 の日に仕事に行く前にマットレスを洗濯し始めたら洗濯機の脱水がブチ壊れるし。いったい何の報いでこんな目に？で、濡れたマットレスを大きなビニール袋に 押し込んで自転車で近くのコインランドリーへ、それから両替の為に最寄のATMへ。そしたら、そこのATMは「ただいまお取り扱いできません」！！その晩 -- 入院前夜の午後9時には、私は職場で出納帳と現金が合わずに冷や汗に溺れて半泣き状態…。ここでの入院中、わたしゃ絶対ゆっくりのんびりせずにおくもの か。これが私の休暇ですもん。あれだけエライ目にあった後ですもん！

ところで、この入院のために、こういう食事 に使うものと バスタオル2枚とスリッパを、われらが100均（モチロンですね）で買っておきました。こういうのは全部、病院からもらう入院のしおりの 「持ってくるもの」リストに書いてくれてました。病院の売店でも買えるとわかってたけど、ダイソーで自分の好みのを買いたかったし、多分その方が安いし。 このほかに、下着、顔を拭くタオル、ハンドタオル、旅行用サイズの基礎化粧品やらシャンプー・石鹸･歯ブラシやら、デジタルオーディオプレイヤー、デジカ メ、充電器 と充電用電池、本を1,2冊と筆記用具、あと絵筆を一本、持って行きました。ノートパソコンも持っていこうかと思ったけど、結局最後の最後にやめときまし た。　（パジャマは、洗濯物増やしたくなかったので病院の５０円の貸し出しパジャマを借りました。あとヘアドライヤーは病院のが使えました。）

荷物を出したりするのはすぐ終わって、部屋で座ってると、ナースステーションに来るよう呼ばれました。行ったら主治医の先生が居て、そこで私と母に手術の説明です。

このサイト、 実は退院後に 見つけたんですが、これを前もって見てたらあの時センセの話はもっとピンと来てたと思います。イラストわかりやすいでしょ。とにかく、基本的に３箇所切開 で、一つは３ｃｍくらい、あとは1センチかもっと小さく切る。お腹にはガスを入れて膨らませる。5センチの嚢腫は3センチの切り口から出すには大きいの で、嚢腫を袋に入れてその中で小さく切って、袋ごと取り出す、とのことでした。

それから、手術中におこりうるリスクの説明。取り出すとき 嚢腫の中身が漏れてしまう可能性とか、嚢腫の周りの臓器を傷つけてしまう可能性とか、出血とか、ですね。加えて手術後のリスクは、静脈血栓症とか感染症と か、って。肺血栓塞栓症・深部静脈血栓症については、また別の説明書を見ながら詳しく説明があって、弾性ストッキングを履くということでした。おおこのス トッキングの話、誰かのブログで読んだぞ～。私も履くのかぁ。それから、腫瘍だけを切除して残りの右卵巣はできるだけ残す努力はするけど、無理なら全摘に なる、そして腹腔鏡下で手術始めても、それで摘出が難しかったら開腹手術に切り替える可能性がある、ということでした。

特に怖いと思うよ うなことはなかったです。もちろん100％の安全ということはありえないけど、いろんな情報からして、５cmの皮様嚢腫の摘出って、楽観視するのが難しい ものとは私には思えなかったです基本的に。それにセンセのこと信用してたし、基本的に。ここのセンセは、私がデルモイドについ て読んだ情報（英語と日本語両方）と違うことは何一つ言わなかったし、説明の中でも、不明なこと は不明、可能性は可能性、リスクはリスク、でしたから。私にはそれが良かったです。なので、別に怖くなかったし、見たところ母も怖がってるふうじゃなかっ たので一安心でした。

手術同意書にサインした後は、母にはもうすることはなかったので、お昼前に帰りました。あとは退屈な日でした。 ティッシュ一箱と、テレビカードと、夜食用のいなりずしを買い足してきて、待合から友達にケイタイメールして（そこでは携帯使用OKだったので）、あとは 昼寝 しようとしたけど眠れず。やっぱ興奮してたんですね。病院のパジャマ着て、手首にバーコードの入ったリストバンドして、これで私も正式に入院患者！…スイ マセン。不謹慎やけど、今までやたら健康だったもんで、入院患者というものにちょっとあこがれがあったんです。

その午後、若い看護婦さん とナースステーションで、私の病歴とか生活習慣についてアンケートみたいなのに記入。夕方には、若い薬剤師さんが私のベッドに来てくれて、今回入院中に私 に使う薬（点滴も含め）の説明してくれました。いやぁこりゃ過去２年間に飲んだ薬の全種類よりまだ多いかも。薬の名前と写真と効能を書いた印刷物くれたん で大 助かり。絶対どれがどれやったか覚えてられんもん。

あとはテレビ見て過ごしました。手術の心配は全然しなかったけど、夜眠れるかどうかが心配で。今までの寝不足をホントにホントに解消したかったので…。

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Categories: Dermoid