It’s time for Surgery

Well guys the last time we spoke we were literally 2 weeks before surgery, I had my All Hands meeting with my family and all info has been given to my job, church, and friends… All prep has been done, shopping, packing, and preparing for the hospital at 4am 8/2/23 is completed. The final item I needed to get done was my Living Will and DNR notifications notarized. All of that was done and put in place and given to the John Hopkins Hospital, and to my Cardiac Surgeon’s office. Again we are packed and ready 8/1/23 my auntie comes by my house to visit me that night just to have a talk with me to see how I am and if I have everything ready… when she arrives I am laying across the bed with my little momma Eden watching one of my favorite movies The Pilgrim’s Progress, and side note here if you have never scene this movie you are missing out of some awesome stuff, so please check it out. Now when Aunt Dora came to sit with me I had gotten to the point that again everyday I am extremely fatigued and exhausted. I wake up everyday tired, but again still pushing myself to move and get things done. Time is moving quickly and It’s about 7:30-8:00 pm while laying across my bed just chatting and giggling with my auntie she get’s serious with me and says you need to be sure you have all of your things ready for tomorrow, I told her I was ready and as soon as she left I am going to hop in the shower and do my 1st pre-surgical wash with the cleaning agent that they gave me to use. Then I have to get right back up at 2:30 am to do the 2nd wash and then get dressed for surgery. So after a few more laughs she says ok she’s heading out because she has to be up at 3:30am as well to get ready for the ride to JHH. Before I go to sleep Ernie arrives and she is hanging out as she can’t go with us to the hospital in the morning so she stays the night to be sure all is well as we head out in the morning. Now yall know I am half out of my natural mind so I packed my work laptop, all of my electronic devices, shoes, and all of this stuff like I am going to be awake after surgery listening to all my playlist that I put together. LMBO!! At any rate I was up, washed, dressed and heading down Liberty Rd. with Ify and Ernie to Aunt Dora’s house to meet the caravan of cars heading to the hospital. Now everyone is at Aunt Dora’s house and ready to go except my Mother… where is she? we are calling her house trying to find out what’s going on? It is now 4:10 am and we have to hit the road because I must be at the hospital by 5 a.m. I am the very fist surgery of the day, she not answering and everyone is starting to get worried.. Ify is a stickler for time so she says come on let’s ride pass your mom’s and see if she’s on her way out the door.. as soon as we pulled in her complex we got a call from Aunt Dora saying to just go ahead to the hospital my mother was just leaving out and they were going to wait for her. So Ify and I hit the highway! On the way she’s praying in the Spirit and singing praise songs all the way to the hospital… she was rolling it appeared as though we got from Randallstown to JHH in east Baltimore in 20 mins or less… there was some major supernatural help involved for sure. When we arrived at the hospital I went to the Surgery registration desk to check in and we were checked in quickly and escorted to the waiting area.. When I arrived to the waiting area my brother Reggie was there waiting for me saying now how in the world did I beat the patient to the hospital with a big smile on his face! He gave me the biggest hug ever and I was so happy to see him! I introduced him to Ify and in a few minutes the rest of the family began to arrive… Aunt Dora, Vonnie, My Mother, and then my brother Ajttim also arrived. Jerome called Reggie’s phone and Tiny called to let everyone know she was on her way she came up from North Carolina and was on her way to the hospital in a few minutes… well time is winding closer and closer to 5:00 am so Aunt Dora says, “ok guys let’s have prayer before they come and get her”. Ify starts praying and then my mom starts praying and as soon as she is about 2 minutes in the nurse steps out and calls my name… Errica Mitchener!! I step out and head to the back to change into my surgery gown. Once I am checked in by my nurse and put in the surgical waiting bed, she tells me she’s going to start letting my family members come back 2 or 3 at a time until I am fully prepared to go into the OR. Before my mom and aunt Dora come back I am given 2 IV’s one in the right arm and one in the left the right arm was also the arm that was going to be used to also have the catheter inserted to do the catherization, and the nurse also let me know that there would be a pic line added to my neck that will give immediate access to my heart. So guys I’m listening to the nurse and then the anesthesiologist steps in the room and introduces himself gives instructions on what’s about to go down… I’m getting a big smile from him and he gets a big smile back from me and a Good Morning Sir! He begins to explain everything that he’s about to do to me before we go into the OR and let’s me know that I will be going back in a few minutes we were just waiting for my surgeon to come in to meet with me for the final instructions. While all of this is going on my family is coming back 2 and 3 at a time… My baby sister made it and my cousin Desi came back and Tkoy, my cousin Vonnie, and Reggie and Ajtiim… I got to see everyone before my surgeon came in and it was just Aunt Dora, Vonnie, and Tiny in the back and he said ok you ready? And I said yes sir I’m ready let’s get this over with he said ok so you guys know we can’t pray out loud but let’s all get quiet and pray quietly to ourselves before we go into the OR… everyone got quiet, I began to smile the biggest smile ever and just say Thank You Jesus! After a few minutes He opened his eyes and said ok let’s go, and I said let’s take this roll… My cousin kissed me and my aunt kissed me on the forehead and said see you in a few hours. I smiled back and said ok let’s roll doc. It was a quick roll to the OR and of course it was freezing in there but thank goodness I had some warm blankets on… When we get into the OR there are several teams of people in the room and I am moved from one table to the next once I’m on the OR table the last thing I hear is I’m about to give you some medicine that gonna cause you to get sleepy… and I want you to count backwards from 100 and I laughed and said awww let me start at 50 so I feel like I made it halfway! Everyone laughed and I said 50 and that was it I was out….

As you guys know I said earlier in the blogs that the surgery was scheduled for 6 hours of procedure and 6 hours in recovery right, but after the surgery I found out that my procedure took much longer than expected. 6 hours in my surgeon came out to give an update to tell my family that I was still open and on the table. He was having a tuff time getting the new artery in where the 100% blocked artery was, so I was in the procedure for 81/2 hours before the completing of the bypass and another 21/2 to close me up and get me off of the heart and lung machines. Oh yeah how could I forget to mention that once I was asleep I was put on what we would call life support because once my heart and lungs were shut down this machine kept me alive through the procedure. Once I was complete I spent about 7 hours in recovery before being awakened. I am taken from the OR to Cardiac ICU as they begin to check my status every 15 mins. and boy oh boy what a process. I can tell you guys I don’t remember any of the recovery room because I was completely out of it. The first thing I remember about recovery in CICU was waking up with the breathing tube still in my mouth so I could not talk and everything was a blur. The first person I saw was my Aunt Dora, my youngest sister Tiny, my cousin Vonnie, and my cousin Tkoy. Now remember, this is the first thing I remember seeing… I’m sure my mom had been back there, Ify, my brothers, as many as the nurses would allow back just to let them know I was ok. It was like I would blink and the nurse would say hello Errica! I would smile LOL! then I would fade out again, I would wake up and see more people from my family and the nursing staff further prepping my body to remove the breathing tube. I am extremely dosed with pain meds or in short I was extremely high… lol each time I opened my eyes I would see my Aunties face smile at me she would ask me questions and I would just agree, but I had no idea what she was talking about.. Well I had no idea how much time was passing as I would blink in and out of consciousness, the next time I opened my eyes my nurse said, “Hey Errica you are doing great! and now it’s time to take out the breathing tube”! Now inside I’m happy because I’m tired of this tube, prior to my surgery I watch lots of Youtube videos about having a breathing tube removed.. so I’m remembering what to do as they remove the tube so I don’t choke. My nurse Mario is giving instructions on what’s about to happen but in my mind I am replaying the video from Youtube… So as he preps and get’s a container for me to vomit in, I’m saying to myself ok girl as he pulls the tube out just blow out slowly don’t fight the process… Now the entire time my Auntie and my cousins and my sister are standing there watching… Now my cousin Tkoy is not ready she can’t handle this kind of stuff so I’m looking at her as if to say it’s gonna be alright cousin. So back to the nurse he’s ready to start pulling and he says ok Errica let’s go… he starts to pull the tube out and I’m blowing as much as I can and I can feel the tube coming out and as soon as it’s out that special container was needed because all the fluid on my stomach came up and out and my cousins face got pale. She said oh no… LOL I said it’s ok cousin are you alright? Now I’m acting like she had the surgery and just had the chest tube removed. Trust me guys I was so concerned about my cousin, I didn’t want her to get sick. Well my nurse adjust my pillows so that I am able to relax a little more and I blink (so I think I’m blinking) and I doze off again… Not sure what’s going on in between blinks guys but when I wake up everyone is gone and my room is quiet, and the lights are dim… I hit the button for my nurse and he appears turns on the light and says yes Errica, are you ok? Do you feel nauseous? I said, “ Hey Mario how are you?” He smiles and says I’m fine… I then say, “ok so where is my family and why would they leave me here?” He looked at me and said, “Errica you are the patient”. I said I am NOT the patient… Listen call my auntie right now and tell her to come and get me… he was moving a little too slow for me so I said give me that phone and I will call her… Her number is ummmmm 410 or 443… man I don’t know it but pull it up on that My Chart thing it’s the first number on my emergency list…. (Now yall I just told my nurse that I’m not a patient but pull up my chart info and she’s the first person on the list for my emergency contacts…LOL I’m telling yall I was soooooo zonked out on pain meds…) I said pull out your cellphone and give her a call cause I need to know why in the world would they leave me here… ( Guys I thought we were at the hospital visiting the sick and praying for patients, this is something my aunt and I would do all the time) He was so nice he just said ok… So my amazing nurse Mario called my Aunt Dora and put her on speaker she answers quickly and says hello! Mario says hello is this Aunt Dora? She says, “Yes is everything ok” I say heyyy Auntie! you did a great job today, but there is one problem… She said what happen what’s the problem? So I said, “Why did yall leave me in this hospital?” (Guys I am laughing just thinking about this craziness) She said WHAT! GIRL! YOU ARE THE PATIENT! That’s why we left you there you had open heart surgery today and we have been at this hospital for more than 18 1/2 hours and I have got to go to the bathroom! We are on 695 almost home now take your butt back to sleep… I said really I am the patient? She said Yes! Now I hear my cousin in the back going I knew I should’ve stayed with her OMG she is there alone… she in the car sounding like she’s about to cry… So I said Ohhhh ok ok I’ll go to sleep. I love yall.. she said I will see you tomorrow. I said ok see you tomorrow.. Mario took his cellphone and put it back in his pocket and said are you ok now… I said yes I’m going to go to sleep now. He smiled and said ok. Guys those pain meds are super serious not a joke, I didn’t even know who I was and what I had just endured. Before I went to sleep I took a look down at myself and saw that my left arm was purple from the wrist up to my elbow, this is where they removed the artery from my arm to replace the left blocked artery in my heart, my right arm was strapped to the bed with a small cylinder attached to my wrist where the catheter was guided through my artery, my left leg was swollen and purple from the knee up to my groin area where they removed my artery to replace the right blocked artery in my heart, and the third artery was removed from my chest to replace the center blocked artery. I could not move at this time but also couldn’t feel anything either I was still dosed from the anesthesia and the pain meds being given to me via IV. Reality was starting to set in and I new from this moment that my life will never be the same again. As always guys there is so much more to tell but my eyes are getting a little tired and it’s time to get some shut eye.. Be sure to join me on our next episode as Always let me know How is your heart?