My Story continued... Page 6.
That’s precisely what happened. A few enquiries were made and I was to have the operation on the 20th December.
On the 19th of December at about 2:30pm, I arrived at the Children's Hospital and was shown to my ward, as it was Christmas, decorations could be seen everywhere, it was like Santa’s Grotto and children were running happily in all directions that I looked. It didn’t seem like a hospital, it seemed more like a child’s play area. I loved the place and suddenly didn’t seem so on edge about the whole operation saga.
‘This was it, today was the 20th December’ this was the first thought than ran through my head when I awoke the next morning. I knew that at about 12 noon, I would be in the operating theatre for approximately 5½ hours. I could think about nothing else until finally, my time came, I was very nervous and asked to have a premed, to calm my nerves and to relax me more. I was very doped up and didn’t know who or what was happening, to be honest all I really wanted to do was go to sleep.
The last memories I took away with me that day, before going into the land of nod, were my parents faces, as I was trying so hard not to get upset. This was a brand new experience for me and to tell you the truth, I don’t ever want to experience anything like that again.
I was taken into the operating room, and had one of those silly gowns on that had my bum showing in the back, I didn’t seem to care though, and just went about my instructions as I was told. They inserted the needle into the back of my hand, and asked me to count. “1,2,3,4,5…16,17,18” I was gone, I never thought I was going to get as far with the numbers as I did. The next thing I knew I was being woke up, by my mum and dad, with the sharpest pain in my neck that I had ever had.
The scar on my neck was big, that was another obstacle that I had to jump, it took me two to three days, to finally pluck up the courage and look in the mirror at my scar. It looked much worse, than it does now because it had staples in and stitches; I looked more like Frankenstein’s monster than Aimee.
Altogether, I think I had about 70 staples and stitches in my neck, and believe me it takes a lot out of you, when personal appearance means as much to you as it does to me.
I didn’t have a voice, and that worried me the most because it has taken 1½ months to get it back so far and it still hasn’t fully recovered. When I do get it back to the full extent that it will go, it will be one of the happiest days of my life.
The only advice I can give is, don’t live your life to short, because you never know what awaits you around the corner, it could be at any age, any sex, anyone. I didn’t expect what happened to me to happen at all, but I just hope it can help others with problems that they may experience in the future, or may be going through now.
By Aimee Cotton
