Robotic Surgery - incline position

Well I went into the room of doom and met the rest of my surgical team the last one I met was the sleep doctor.the next thing I remember I woke up in recovery did'nt remember anything.Welcome to you and take care.

Zach

Thanks Zach and Sephie.  Strange as it sounds that it my big concern right now.  Apprently the position puts strain on your system and being overweight makes it worse.  My surgeon says he's done guys bigger than me and I've lost 25 lbs since the spring and am trying to keep it going up to the d date (jan 13th) 

Thanks Len  - Best wishes to you and your family

I think that I was out before they tilted the table. I say I think because the anesthesia is a hypnotic than can cause the last 5-10 minutes before it kicks in never to be saved to long term memory. That is you are still awake but won't remember it when the operation is over.

I have a weak back, but had no problem after surgery.

One thing people haven't mentioned very much is that when you wake up enough (back in your hospital room) you will be wearing these strange leggings on your calves that are hooked to a machine that inflates and deflates them every minute or two. This is to prevent blood clots, but some guys have trouble sleeping with them. I just told my self that it was my cat draping herself over my legs -- then off to sleep.

The robot will probably be across the room, covered in plastic, when you go into the OR. You'll be gone long before they bring it over. It takes almost the first hour to get the thing in the proper position and up and running.

Steve

Thanks everyone for your responses.  This place is great.

Burcoload,



I was concerned about being "upside down" for four hours. I get headaches just lying in bed without a pillow, I used to get lots of headaches in fact. I also used to have loads of nosebleeds.



I stopped worrying about the position for the robot when there was a patients meeting about four weeks before my op and I saw what most of the other guys looked like. I could see that I was defintely the healthist looking one there and reasoned that if the docs thought that these guys' bodies could cope with the slope for four hours then I most certainly could.



And my Da Vinci was fine:



These times approximate regarding what happened:

I was told I could have breakfast but not eat later than 7.00am

I arrived at the hospital at about 9.00am

I was checked in and checked over and given a tablet to take at 10.30 (sedative)

Two nurses arrived to take me to theatre at 10.45. I had my lasy pee for a week then I stripped off and put on stockings (anti DVT). Then I was taken down to prep room at 10.50 and I watched them wheel out the patient who had been robotted before me.

They put a canular in my right arm and attached (heart monitoring) knobs to my chest.

The anaesthetist injected stuff into the small of my back then big dose of stuff into arm at 11.00am; we were talking all the time

I shifted myself over to the table which had been covered with warmed blankets and some padding

Wheeled into theatre. at about 11.03

More padding starting to be strapped to my legs etc to hold me in place.

I said "hello" to surgeon at about 11.05am and said I was glad that the enormous light above me was not on. Did not see the robot even

Don't remember anything else until about half past four in the afternoon.

No back ache, no swelling, no head ache.

And no memories apart from a slight one about being in the elevator on the way to my room and the trolley bumped into something. Also I only remember the surgeon coming to see me once after the op whereas my wife says he came twice and I spoke to him on both occasions.

I also pulled the oxygen tube out of my nose and stuck it in my ear as I thought it was the earpiece of my MP3 playing.



My short term memory thus a bit of a blur, but I had expected that. I had asked my wife to take a photograph before the op and another of me as soon as she could after surgery for me to be able to see it later in case I was unable to remember it. I don't look too good in that second photo and so I found it good to know what I had looked like to help me undestand how it must have been for her. She also took a photo 24 hours after the op and I look exactly the same as I had one hour beforehand!



I felt a bit dizzy the first time I tried to get up (I had been on oxygen and a drip for a couple fo hours as my BP had dropped, but that was the only minor problem I had.) but I was able to sit on the side of my bed about three hours after the op to eat a meal.

I went home 27 hours after coming round. (The other patient stayed in hospital for a second night, yet I thought he was in better shape than me!)

Had a bowel movement the next morning.



What I did notice was that for about ten weeks after the op I didn't have any headaches and I have also got a much better sense of smell than before.



Alfred

I think they've got the routine pretty well wired to avoid Pt anxiety.

"OK, sit here, now lie back and relax.  Yes, that's the machine over there under the plastic".

"We're going to give you something just to take the edge off.  By the way what do you... <insert some casual, mundane, conversational question that I either can't remember or never actually heard>"?

Wake up in recovery.

Not like sleeping, where you have some awareness that time has passed, only others can convince you it wasn't instantaneous.

Thanks again everyone -

Arnie - did you attend a preop class - I was hoping to attend one but the one in January looks like it will be after my surgery.