My first major surgery at age 59

I have been very blessed throughout my life to never really have any major medical problems. So when I get a hernia at age 59 it set me up for my first major surgery operation. I was working at SupraNaturals in October 2012 when we had a batch of product that we had to put into big tote’s (large containers made for liquids that hold around 275 gallons.)

 We had been putting them into bottles but there was a problem with the bottles and so we had to dump a batch of them back into the pasteurizing tank to get the liquid into the totes.  We dumped them into 6 gallon buckets and then I would lift them three feet or so to the top of the tank so I could dump them. I knew something was wrong but never having had a hernia I didn’t know for sure what it was. One other fellow helped me dump some of them and I was grateful that I didn’t have to do all of them. Well I had my annual check up for my thyroid coming in November so I waited until then to ask the doctor about it since it still continued to cause me pain throughout the day at times. He couldn’t find one so I just left it alone until February when I knew for sure it was a problem and went back in for another checkup on a Friday that I didn’t work. Sure enough he knew it was a hernia for sure that time since it was sticking out quite a ways. He had me go in for a consultation with Doctor Craig Cook the next Tuesday. That was the 12^th of February and I was scheduled for surgery the 15^th of March.  I suffered with it for the next month and was just always trying to be careful not to stress it any more than it was already.

Wednesday night, March 13, I asked Scott and Jeff to give me a blessing. Jeff anointed and Scott sealed the anointing and gave the blessing. I didn’t know until after the blessing that Scott had been through similar surgery only his was much more intense. I was very touched by the fact that either could have given the blessing but Scott was the one who should have since he knew what I was really up against. It is so neat to have sons whom I can call on late at night and will respond to the call even when not easy to do at a spur of the moment as I had given them.

I had a wedding to photograph on the 14^th of March and that day was pretty hard since it hurt as well as the usual pains that I get in my body from carrying around a 16 pound camera all day. So when the call came that night at the reception that I was suppose to be in the hospital by 6 am the next morning I was very glad.

However as 6 am rolled around Friday morning and I was being processed into the hospital I wasn’t so sure anymore. I had great nurses and Doctors and when I went into surgery at 7:30 AM I was not expecting to be out by 8:30 AM. I actually didn’t wake up until around 10 AM from the anesthesia but I was able to leave the hospital by around noon after I had been successful in going to the bathroom.  The first time I couldn’t get any urine out but an hour later and a lot of water later I finally could so they let me go home. It was a long morning for Marie however as she had to sit and wait for everything until she could take me home. 

The following is Marie’s list of the Doctors and Nurses:

Tracy – Explained everything when we first checked into the hospital.

Barbara – Put in the IV tubes.

Olivia – Shaved the site area for the operation.

Dr. Mark Critchfield - Anesthesiologist

Chris – regular nurse before the operation

Dr. Craig Cook – performed the operation. He also went and talked to Marie after the surgery and explained that I had two hernias. One on each side. Fixed both of them at the same time and instructed her to tell me to take the entire week off from work. I was in recovery for about an hour and a half.

Kenneth – helped Amanda bring me ack to my room after waking up.

Amanda - She was my main RN that morning and was with me until I was loaded into the car with Marie.