While it was quite difficult to find a surgeon who had availability and who accepted my insurance, mostly due to the insurance company and the surgeons not keeping updated records, I eventually found a match with Dr Hideo Takahashi, who practices general surgery, surgical oncology, and hernia surgery with Mount Sinai South Nassau. I found him to be communicative, experienced, and knowledgeable. In addition, the entire staff at his office was a pleasure to work with.
We scheduled surgery for December 27, 2023 at Mount Sinai Nassau South in Oceanside, NY. It was a relief to not have to go into Manhattan for my surgery. The facility at Mount Sinai Oceanside is modern and beautiful and the staff couldn’t be nicer. As flawed as the medical system is here in the United States, I’m grateful that it was so easy to schedule an appointment with a surgeon as well as a date for surgery. I was even able to meet with several different surgeons before deciding on Dr Takahashi.
We arrived at the specified time for check-in and I was immediately brought back to the waiting area. The nurses took my vitals and got me on an IV. A nurse came to get some medical information, and the anesthesiologist stopped by to do the same. I was nervous about going under anesthesia, and when I communicated this with the anesthesiologist, he immediately put me at ease with his words.
After a much longer wait than I had anticipated, I was informed that it was time to head to the operation room for my surgery. I was walking over to the operating room and being guided to the operating table, which didn’t look much different from the type of table used for prisoners scheduled for lethal injection. The staff in the OR were friendly and upbeat, and they clearly held Dr Takahashi in very high regard. I laid down on the table and the first part of the anesthesia began being administered. Before I realized it, I was sound asleep.
The next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room completely unaware of anything that had happened over the last couple of hours. I felt perfectly fine except for the fatigue and some mild discomfort in the surgical area. Soon after, I was encouraged to get up to urinate as I wouldn’t be permitted to leave without doing so. I also had some of the snacks I packed (more on that later). Once I urinated and walked around a bit, it was time to sign my discharge papers. I then slowly got dressed and was wheeled via wheelchair with my wife next to me until we reached the front door. My wife brought the car around and we left for home. While walking, and moving in general, was quite uncomfortable and even a touch painful, it really wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected, and was reasonably tolerable.
It turned out that bringing my own snacks was a great idea. I had anticipated that the hospital food would be processed and lacking in nutrients, as is the case with most hospital food throughout the United States. I brought with me some fruit, dates, string cheese, and crackers. I also brought bottled water and Gatorade as I was expecting to awake feeling dehydrated.
At home, I had prepared some additional items to help, including various NSAID options for painkillers, laxatives, suppositories, light snacks, soup, and more Gatorade. It can be both painful and an anxiety inducing experience to try to pass a bowel movement during the first week or so following abdominal surgery due to the pressure against the abdominal wall, so using a laxative can be very helpful. I found that suppositories were the best option during this time, and they were only needed for about two weeks.
My follow-up appointment with my surgeon happened one week later and all looked good, and he cleared me to return to full activity after six weeks. I was advised to not lift anything more than ten pounds for several weeks and that was it. I was very clear with my surgeon that I intended to return to Jiu Jitsu once cleared, and he still insisted that I would be okay to do so. I was skeptical, so I waited eight weeks and began to slowly ease in. I’ll go into more detail about my recovery process in another post.
