My recent (minor) surgery

As stated in the last post I recently had to go into hospital for a minor surgery. It had been hanging over me for a while so it was a relief to finally get it out of the way but that said it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. Many months ago I had been informed by a dental surgeon that I would need to have my lower right wisdom tooth removed, it was at an angle and trapping food against the molar beside it. As soon as he sat down he said that it would need to be done under general anaesthetic due to the awkwardness of it and my small mouth. The last time I had surgery was also to remove teeth back in 2005. That time I was knocked out before they intubated me (put the oxygen tubes in) through my nose. However this time it was decided that they would use fiberoptic intubation wherein they would keep me awake, numb my nose bit by bit and put a camera down my nose to look at my airway so they could accurately intubate me before knocking me out. Having not experienced this before I was rather nervous though I was told I might not remember much of it due to the sedation.

On the day itself I had beentold to be in at 10.30am and we (my mum was with me) had a lot of hanging about. They checked my blood pressure several times, also checked my height and my weight and had to go through the full consent form with a nurse despite having gone through it previously. Also had two younger doctors in who informed me that I might need to get the tooth beside the one that was going to be removed taken out as well which was a bit of a shock. One of the original reasons for getting the wisdom tooth out was to save that other tooth. But they said it was better to get my consent there rather than have to come back and get it removed another time. They tested it with a bit of electricity which I could feel which was promising... Despite the fact it was just an oral surgery I had to wear surgical stockings and a gown.

I was taken up at around 3pm and was taken into the room before the operating theatre and put on the bed and got the iv needle in my hand which was a bit painful. I was then taken into the operating theatre. The anaestichtist attempted to numb both my nostrils but it was painful. I remember very little after that but he decided to go to plan B which was to intubate me through my mouth. I have a faint memory of coughing a lot. I then woke up fully about 6pm in the recovery room. I was surprised how awake I was. One of the nurses informed me that they had to take both teeth out which was disappointing.I had to stay there for a while probably not helped that they were focused on a guy in a bed beside mine who had obviously had a more major surgery. I was finally brought back to my room (got a room by myself!) And it was a relief to see my parents (my dad arrived after he finished work). I had to stay until after 10pm with a nurse coming and checking my blood pressure and breathing regularly. Also had to deal with my mouth bleeding and holding an ice pack to my jaw. Once the nurse was happy and once I had been able to pass water I was able to leave.

It was certainly a  bit of a different experience from the last time I had surgery, however the surgeon and the anaestichist told my parents that they were both very happy how it had gone. My recovery hasn't been the most pleasant due to my mouth bleeding, not being able to eat on the right side of my mouth and having to rinse my mouth along with taking liquid painkillers which didn't taste very nice (I struggle to swallow pills). I had a bit of a scare on Sunday night when my mouth started bleeding a lot when I was merely sitting in bed on my laptop but I managed to get it stopped after sitting with  a bit of gauze in my mouth for an hour or so. Thankfully I've been able to reduce the amount of painkillers I've taken and have been eating pretty much what I would normally eat. I had my follow up appointment at the hospital and the dentist who looked at my mouth said it looked great and that it has healed quicker than expected. She removed some of the stitches, some of which she said were irritating my mouth a bit so I feel a bit more comfortable now.

I feel incredibly lucky that I haven't really had to have many surgeries, I certainly don't remember much about the surgeries I had when I was very young. Obviously this surgery wasn't the most pleasant but I'm glad to get it out of the way and I'm especially glad it went smoothly (mostly!). It was disappointing to lose the two teeth but I'm quite fortunate that I still have a fairly healthy mouth of teeth. Now I'm just looking forward to being able to eat certain foods like burgers and pizza again!

Well that was a tough month!

Well to say that November was a tough month for me would be an understatement! At the start of the month I was in a bit of a limbo, I had time to recuperate after submitting my thesis and also suffered from a cold and then a cough but I didn't need to start focusing on my preparation for my PhD viva (interview with a external and internal examiner where you defend your thesis) just quite yet. Possibly due to having nothing to really focus on and having so much free time to think about things I started to feel a bit down. I ended up getting some negative thoughts stuck in my head that I would normally be able to shake off. I ended up talking to my parents and felt a bit better but around this time I started to feel off with a constant feeling of nausea. I felt mostly fine otherwise but it didn't do much for my anxiety levels and I started to worry about things I didn't need to worry about. Long story short it was a rough few weeks, I had nausea then I was exhausted, my appetite wasn't great then the nausea went away only to be replaced by my stomach being upset/unsettled. I felt all over the place physically which didn't help my mental state. It didn't help that I had it in my head that it couldn't be a stomach bug or something because I wasn't throwing up but we spoke to the pharmacist who said that's what it likely was and it was normal for it to take a while to pass. I was also worried that my mental state wasn't helping things so it was frustrating when I managed to set my worries aside only to still feel rubbish. There are reports that your stomach can be linked to your mental state and if things are not right in your gut then it can affect your mental health. I have to say I am a believer because I was definitely not myself. It was only at the start of a couple of  weeks that I started to properly feel like myself again which was disappointing because I had actually been away for a short break with my family and despite feeling good on the journey to the place and for most of the first day I really struggled to lift my mood that night and the next day.

So we got back from our break and I was feeling better but now I had to really up my preparation for the viva. I went through the my analyses, I asked my supervisor a lot of questions and I looked up common questions online. On reading through my thesis again I was pleased to note that apart from a few minor typing mistakes/formatting mistakes there was nothing major. The problem with the viva is that it is very hard to know what to expect, everyone's different and each examiner will ask different questions. Mine started on the Friday late morning and lasted over 3 hours with one short break. It was tough because they asked a lot of questions about things I hadn't thought about or didn't think I needed to think about. The internal examiner caught me off guard early on by asking me about a line I had written in the introduction, something that I hadn't given any more thought to after writing it. Long story short it was tough but not overly so, communication was a bit of an issue but the examiners both seemed to be in positive moods. Unfortunately when it came for the time for me to step out of the room so they could make their decision they really took their time. I was left standing out in the corridor for what seemed like ages, at least 20 minutes if not 30.. It didn't help that there was another PhD student doing his viva at the same time and he had finished and found out he had passed. So I had to stand in the corridor and see him and hear people congratulate him whilst I awaited my fate. Thankfully they eventually came and brought me back to the room before congratulating me for passing with minor corrections (very uncommon to pass with no corrections). I only had a few days to relax after the viva until I had to go into hospital to get my wisdom tooth removed, something I will talk about in detail in my next update.

I'm currently waiting for the full list of corrections/revisions and apparently I will have 3 months to complete them but I hope to do it quicker than that to get it out of the way. Once the new version of the thesis is signed off then I will be able to get it printed and hardbound and submit copies to the university, the people who funded me and of course have one for myself. I will then hopefully graduate in the summer. It has been a very strange period, having been so focused on getting through my PhD and getting it all written up and to suddenly finish and have to start thinking about what I want to do next. It ended up being a bit of a perfect storm, negative thoughts, being ill, worries about the future, trying to navigate this transition period, stressing about the viva and then having the stress of the hospital and the subsequent recovery. Thankfully I'm feeling better in myself though obviously the future is still very uncertain for me as to what I want to do next. I find it difficult to sit about and do nothing but I am trying to enjoy some much needed time off and of course I'm looking forward to Christmas though no doubt it will fly by like it always does.


Thanks for reading, I will hopefully have a post about my hospital experience up soon as well.