The surgery itself went as well as I had hoped, but the overnight stay was the worst experience I've ever had in a hospital. Lot longer that I had thought before I got to my stay room: surgery was scheduled for 1230, I was actually in there at 1305. I figured two, maybe three hours for surgery, 1 or 2 hours in recovery. 1700, right? Maybe 1800 at the latest?

I didn't get into my room until 20:40. And then, the recovery room nurse & floor nurse somehow miscommunicated: I saw the floor nurse briefly when I was wheeled into my room, and then not again until an hour and a half later, and even then, only after I made a call to the nurses' station. Security had all my stuff, so I couldn't see without my glasses, couldn't read my magazines I brought with me, it was basically TV or nothing. And I didn't find out for sure what I was allowed to eat or drink until after the floor nurse finally really showed up. And then turns out, I was only allowed clear liquids: at least apple juice counts as a clear liquid. Wasn't allowed out of bed until this morning. The only amusing part was that when security finally did bring me my stuff, the security guy told me he was "afraid" to touch my plush spleen. And my plush brain cell was a big hit in the neurology wing. Got almost no sleep at all, the guy in the bed next to me kept triggering his equipment alarm, or my equipment alarm kept going off (first time for me was the low battery warning because the nurse forgot to plug it in: the other two times were because the equipment was giving a false reading of air in the IV line: the nurse carefully checked, I carefully checked the line, there was no air in it.) For whatever reasons, the was an equipment alarm going off about every freakin' 20 minutes. And then the lights for the other bed only refused to work, so every time the nurses had to deal with him, they had to turn on the whole room lights. And breakfast this morning: their eggs rivaled the Air Force's for awfulness. And they gave me coffee instead of tea.

So, I have follow-up with the neuro-dude in 10 to 14 days. Not allowed to exercise, drive, lift anything over 5-8 pounds, or reach for stuff over my shoulder/head level until then. Neck is still stiff, and because the neuro-dude had to retract my esophagus, it hurts to swallow. Other than that, though, I am pain-free. And very happy about this.

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.