My name is Adrian. I am 16 years old. It has been a year since I had my scoliosis surgery. My story is unique for many reasons. First, is the fact that nine out of 10 scoliosis patients are female, and as my name suggests, I am a male. Also, my surgery was done in stages. The first stage involved releasing the front of my spine and shaving my ribs. The second stage of the surgery, two weeks later, involved the actual insertion of the rods. But I survived, and am living healthy enough to tell you my tale.
My surgery was on April 26, three days after my 15th birthday. I woke up early that morning to get to the hospital. We got to the hospital close to 6:45 am and signed in at the surgery check-in room on the fifth floor. After the brief examination that ensured I was physically able to undergo my surgery, I proceeded out to the waiting room… to play video games. After playing for a while, I was greeted by some of the various people who would play some role in my surgery. Then my surgeon came out and talked with me and my Mom.
I walked down a hallway and went through a door into the operating room where all the cool people were preparing for my surgery. All I had to do was hop on the table and lie down. After that came the simple task of sticking various needles into my veins for the surgery. But I was a man, I didn’t cry (as far as I remember, lol). Finally, there was the mask that they put on your face that puts you to sleep.
Now contrary to popular fears, there is like a one in gazillion chance of waking up during the surgery. I learned that they don’t give you the sleeping gas just once and hope it keeps you asleep the entire surgery. They actually give you multiple doses as the surgery progresses. There’s actually a person whose entire job is to make sure you don’t wake up. So fear not.
Now, when I woke up, I was being wheeled to the recovery room. When I got there, I fell asleep. Woke up, fell asleep. Repeat that step about three or four times. By the time I had fully woken up, I thought it was a few days later, but it was only a few hours later. This is something you have to get used to in the hospital. Time slows down by 75%, especially when you’re sleeping.
All of a sudden, the room got extremely cold, and I could not stop shivering. Yet at the same time I was burning hot and began to sweat. Nothing I did stopped this from happening, so my mom called for the nurse. I can’t remember how, but eventually I was calmed down. The nurses said it was most likely a reaction to the anaesthetic wearing off.
The human body was not made accessory-compatible with any form of long slender tube. This is why I, and most likely everyone else in the world, would grow to hate the catheter. The catheter is a long tube that is inserted into your…. well, whatever part of your body your urine comes out of. For males, it’s incredibly annoying for obvious reasons. I’m sure you can figure it out, so I don’t need to describe anything.
Personally, pain was never a problem for me, since I learned long ago to just grit your teeth and bear it. But for the sensitive, there’s a handy morphine pump which you can press to relieve your pain. When you start feeling that the pump is no long effective, you can move on to the morphine pills, which are a lot more helpful.
After about a week, I was able to get up and move around a bit. This was part of my rehabilitation before my second surgery. Something you grow to love is the play area in hospital, where you can go on the computer, play almost ALL the systems, watch TV, or even play foosball, air hockey, or table soccer. My friends came to visit the day before my second surgery. It was really fun taking them to the play room. To this day, they still want to come back and visit it.
My second surgery was slightly like the first, except I didn’t have any reaction to the anaesthetic, and I didn’t sleep and wake up as much. Also, this time around, I was up and out of my bed the very next day. I was fitted for a post-surgery brace, and the next day, I was released.
It was an incredible experience that was fun to relive by writing this story. If you’re going for scoliosis surgery, there isn’t much to fear, since you’re working with professionals. For the most part, you should have fun, since it’ll be something that you’ll never regret doing.