OK, today is the day of the surgery. I haven't been able to eat or drink since midnight last night and it's a b--ch not being able to have my morning cups of coffee. Marjie's sister Sarah picked me up at 1130 and we headed to the hospital. Sarah dropped me off and I checked in. The nurse took me to a room and had me undress and put on a surgery gown and then climb in bed. I laid there for about 30 minutes till the nurse came back and started hooking up gear to me. Heart rate monitor on my finger, blood pressure gadget to my arm, and then an IV. They started pumping some IV fluid in me for the next couple hours while I watched TV and waited on Dr. Debo who was doing other surgeries that day. Around 2pm, the anesthesiologist came in and said she was going to give me some "feel good medicine", then the anesthesia.
Boy oh boy is that stuff good! A few minutes later, they wheeled me out and to the operating room. I remember heading out the door and into the passageway, and I asked the nurse what this medicine was supposed to do? because as far as I could tell, it wasn't doing anything. She said that I should feel like I consumed three or fours beers. I wasn't feeling antthing! Next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room!
There was a nurse attending me and I asked her where I was and what was going on? She said I just came out of surgery and the doctor would be in shortly to talk with me.
Now for the bad news!
Dr. Debo arrived about 20 minutes later and explained that while doing the surgery, it turned out that it was not a brachial cleft cyst, rather an infected lymph node gland. He noticed a small lump on my tonsil and did a biopsy of that and along with the lymph node gland, sent it all to pathology to have them tested.
Both came back as squamous cell carcinoma.
Dr. Debo said he would have the pathology report in a couple days and we would discuss options then.
David and Sarah met me in another room while I was recovering and both had been briefed by the doctor as to what was going on.
I was released that evening since there was no point keeping me through the night if I could recover just as well at home. They wheeled me out of the hospital in a wheel chair and David and I proceeded to the Naval Hospital to fill my prescriptions for pain meds. I was given some Percoset, some antibiotics and something in case I became nauseous. We then headed home and I spent the next couple days recuperating.
Percoset works for the pain, but I was getting an alergic reaction to it I think. It really made me itch. Used percoset for a day and a half then switched to regular 325mg tylenol.
A few days later, Dr. Debo sent me this email:
Dear Mr. Vigal,
My nurse informed me that you requested that I e-mail you a brief synopsis of what we found at the time of surgery. I sent the tumor we removed from your neck to the pathologist for frozen section evaluation. This gives us a preliminary result and is not as accurate as the permanent pathology (so the results could change) but the results of the frozen section were that you have a squamous cell carcinoma. This tumor is likely related to your previous tobacco use. The primary site is as yet undetermined, however, while you were asleep, I examined the back of your throat and did a directed biopsy of your left tonsil to try to identify the primary tumor. I mentioned that this is a serious but treatable tumor. We will talk further on thursday when hopefully we will have the permanent pathology back.
Richard F. Debo, M.D., F.A.C.S.
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