- I think the scariest thing about going into surgery
is worrying about the anesthesia.
You get knocked out and then it's almost like
(snaps fingers) that, you wake up.
And when I woke up, I was like, "What?"
(upbeat music)
- Today we're gonna talk about something
a little bit different.
- We are gonna talk about our experiences with surgery.
- Everyone's experience is completely different,
but we thought we would share our own.
I'm gonna talk about the first time
I went under general anesthesia.
It was three days after my 18th birthday.
So it was a fun birthday present to me.
My surgery that I had was to remove
a tumor that wound up being benign.
From the left Marsha, from the left breast.
For me, the scary part about it
was just finding it when I was 17 years old,
going in for a routine physical
and not really expecting anything.
It was my pre-college physical.
We did an ultrasound and everything
to figure out what it was
'cause at first, my doctor thought is was a cyst.
So they tried to drain it by sticking a needle in there
and then it didn't drain 'cause it wasn't a cyst.
Yeah, that was a little uncomfortable.
- Like a little party balloon.
- Yeah, and then I did an ultrasound
to figure out what it was and so they were like,
"Okay, we think it's benign."
But my doctor was like, "Before we send you off to college,
"I just wanna get it out of there."
And I was like, "I'm fine taking it out."
Three days after I turned 18, I went to surgery.
I think my mom and my grandma took me.
They knew it was my summer break
right before going into college.
They took me in to go get my own outpatient surgery.
One thing that also made me a little sad is like,
so I was checking in and she goes, "Oh, you're 18 now.
"You need a different wristband
"then the one that I gave you.
"Hold on, take that one off."
And I was like, "Yeah, my birthday was three days ago."
This is how I rang it in,
by having a luckily benign tumor and going into surgery.
But that just made me a little bit sad
because I was like, "Oh."
She was the first person to be like,
"I needa treat you differently because you're 18."
So kinda the scary things for me
were waking up during surgery,
and then also just being so exposed.
Since it was on a body part that I considered pretty private
and I was young, I was a church kid.
No one had seen my body before.
And here the people that were seeing it
were these doctors that I didn't really know.
We went through all of that and
very normal, good-at-his-job-type man.
And it was like, "Alright."
Feeling okay about this.
But then when you get into surgery, you see him in there.
He's in his scrubs, he's in his mask,
he has his glasses on, he's ready to go.
That's when you're like, "Oh, wait."
This is something that is happening right now and--
- [Kristen] There's no eject button.
- And there's all these other people
in this room that I've never met
who are also about to see my body right now.
I'll never even know their names.
That was freaking me out.
So going into the surgery,
first and last things I remember is
having the anesthesia administered,
being asked a question that I don't remember,
and then all of a sudden,
I saw some lights happening through my closed eyelids.
I started hearing people talking to me.
And I was like, "Oh my god, I'm waking up right now.
"This is my worst fear."
So I kept trying to fight it and go back to sleep.
I wound up waking up and then one of the nurses was like,
"We've been tryna wake you up for 45 minutes.
"You were sleeping so hard. (laughs)
"You were one of the hardest people to ever wake up."
And I was like, "Oh my god!
"I thought that I was waking up during the surgery!"
Because that's how much of a blink it feels like.
And I was like, "Oh.
"It's 'cause I was tryna go back to sleep.
"That's why I wasn't waking up."
They told my mom, "She might feel
"a little woozy after surgery.
"She might not have an appetite for a little bit."
And I get wheeled out.
My mom's like, "How are you feeling?
"You feel hungry?
"They told me you probably won't feel hungry."
I was like, "I'm ready for a burrito
if you wanna go to Chipotle.
What? - That's the worst
thing you can do.
You're not supposed to do that.
- So I ate a burrito.
The recovery period.
I have boobs that are large enough
to be jiggling if I'm in a car.
And so any movement like that hurt.
I remember my brother had just gotten a new car
and so we went for a drive in it.
We went around the block.
I was like, "You have to drop me off.
"I can't ride in this car right now."
'Cause it was hurting.
And so it was constantly having an icepack there.
And there was something a little bit embarrassing about that
because if friends or something were coming over,
I didn't wanna be like, "Hey, Kristen. How's it going?"
Where I am currently, I probably wouldn't care.
But at the time I was an 18 year old girl
who didn't have a ton of body experiences.
- The most recent surgery I had was a laparoscopy.
I had a cyst on my remaining ovary.
I only have one 'cause the other one
was removed in a different surgery.
We waited a full year
to see if it would shrink and it didn't.
It got bigger.
It was a little scary
because there was some risk of losing the ovary.
And there was some risk
of not being able to remove the cyst.
When you only have one ovary left,
it's like, "Got my last chance!"
They checked me in, brought me to a bed,
and they had me get into a gown.
And then they asked me, "You didn't eat anything?"
And I was like, "No."
'Cause I left signs all around my apartment
in case I woke up in the middle of the night.
'Cause you can't eat or drink anything before surgery.
- You have to fast.
- Yep, or else you will choke on it.
And then I got an IV
and that's when they started my fluids and stuff.
And after I had the IV,
in bed with my little surgery jammies.
Literally the first time a nurse asked me how I was feeling,
I burst into uncontrollable sobbing.
It was embarrassing.
I had to hide under a blanket.
I was crying so hard.
I felt really stupid 'cause it's like,
"These people see this all the time."
They had to rush IV me 'cause I had to go get Brian.
'Cause I was just like, I could not stop crying.
I think I was really, really worked up about this
for a long time 'cause I knew,
starting June of last year, that it was a real possibility.
And then September, October,
I knew it was definitely gonna happen.
And then I had two months to be like, "Hope this goes well."
I spent way more time in the buildup to it happening
than the actual recovery.
I was also worried about waking up during surgery.
And she was like, "Do you have any concerns?"
And I was like, "I worried about waking up."
And she said to me, "Have you ever had any issues
"with any sort of anesthesia whatsoever?"
And I was like, "No."
And she was like, "That never happens."
And I was like, "But I saw this Lifetime movie
where it happened to eighty people!"
She was like, "It's so incredibly rare."
And so because it's so rare,
it's not a good reason to not get
something done that you need to get done.
And then the anesthesiologist was very nice.
She said to me, "So where do you wanna go today?"
And I was like, "Feel like I'm having surgery,
"so that's where I'm gonna go."
And she's like, "No, 'cause I'm gonna put you under.
"Where do you wanna go?
"Do you wanna go to Hawaii?"
And I was like, "I don't think you're gonna send me there,
"but all right, sure."
I think it's supposed to be like meditation.
It's supposed to be very soothing.
And they kinda roll you into a room
that's very metal and very scary.
And then there's lots of people in there
and they're all like, "Hey!"
And you're like, "What's up?
"I'll never see any of you again."
- But here's my body.
- Here's my body!
And then they lift you from one gurney
onto the surgery table.
And then they say, "Okay, we're gonna put in the stuff now."
And then (snaps fingers)
I won't remember anything after that.
By the time I actually remember waking up,
people were no longer relieved
and they were starting to get annoyed.
So when I woke up I was like, "Do I still have an ovary?"
And Brian was like, "Yes."
And I said, "Great."
And then five minutes later I asked him,
"Do I still have an ovary?"
And he said, "Yes, you do."
And I said, "Great."
Ten minutes later, I was like, "Can I see the doctor?
"I need to know if I still have an ovary?"
And he was like, "You do!
"The doctor's gonna come."
And then she came and then she told me.
And then I was quiet for seven minutes.
And I was like, "Brian, do I still have an ovary?" (laughs)
And that's when I remember him being like, "Yes!
"Do I need to write it down?"
I was like, "No! You don't have to get mad at me!"
And then they have to wheel you out
'cause they won't let you walk out.
I was feelin' good on the way home.
And I felt good for the first half of Saturday.
And then I felt like ass for six days.
- It takes a while for the anesthesia to fully wear off.
But when they do wear off, you feel it.
Since my tumor was benign, I was very, very thankful.
There were many people who do have tumors
that are not benign like mine was.
And so it just made me think, "What if it was malignant?"
And so, it was from that point forward where I was like,
"Oh, if I wanna do something
or if I'm scared to do something, I'm just gonna do it."
- I think a lot of people put off
having surgeries that they may need
or may avoid seeing doctors because they're afraid.
And we're here to tell you, we have come out the other side.
- Don't be afraid to do something
if it's what your body needs.
- Mm-hmm. Just do it.
Do it, do it, do it, do it. - Do it, do it, do it.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
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That was my part.