For anyone that plans to get surgery in their life, there’s not really anything to prepare for it. If you plan on it, make sure you read my experience on getting surgery.

On September 14, 2017, I had went to surgery for several reasons. I went to surgery for a labral tear, bicep tear, and rotator cuff tear. Early morning at 6am, I went to Preferred Surgicenter. It was one of the scariest days of my life. My Mother, Grandmother, and my other Grandmother all attended. As I walked into the place, they had me sign several papers. Once all of the papers were signed, they had me go in the back in the bathroom to change into the robe. Once I got dressed, I went and laid on the hospital bed. I was the only person in the room. I asked the doctor could my mom come back, but he said that she couldn’t. Once he told me that, I was so scared and upset. I started to cry because the only way for me to calm down was to see my mother.

As a few minutes went passed, the doctor hooked all the machines up to my body. These machines had IV, anesthesia, and pain medicine. Once he gave me the anesthesia, I felt kind sleepy and very very confused. I was wondering where I was at and what I was doing here. After a while, the doctor put the defibrillator on my shoulder. It made my shoulder jerk on its own. I screamed because I didn’t know what it was doing and it hurt really bad. The doctor told me that he used that to help put a block in my shoulder. As the time went by, I was getting even more tired. He put the breathing mask on me and told me to count down from 10. All I remember then was that I stopped at 7. I was out like a light.

Two and a half hours later, I came out of surgery. It was around 10 am. Once I came out of the operation room, they took me back to my room. I was in really, really deep sleep. After a while of sleeping, the doctor decided that it was time for me to wake up. The doctor told my Mother that the only way for me to really wake up is that she feed me a cup of crushed ice. And so she did. She first tapped on me and I sort of opened my eyes but was still sleep. She rapidly kept tapping me for me to wake up. After a few minutes of tapping, I was finally up to the point where as I can eat the ice. As I was sucking on the ice, I was still falling back to sleep. At this point, the only thing on my mind was sleep.

Once I finished the first cup they urged me to stay awake and I did. I was looking around the room and I noticed my shoulder wrapped up in a sling. I immediately tried to move it and started to scream in pain. The doctor told me that he ordered my medicine and it should be ready by the time I left. As it was time to go, unfortunately, my mom had to help me get dressed. She made me wear an XXL shirt that goes over my body and sling. I was so weak in my body that I couldn’t even walk to the car. My mom grabbed the wheelchair that was in my room and rolled me to the car. I felt so sick to my stomach that I threw up in a car.

When I got home, my Mother helped me into my bed. I was so tired. I slept the whole day away. I made sure that I took my medicine on time every single day. I wanted to feel less pain. For anyone out there that is planning on getting surgery, it comes with a lot of pain.

Like I said before, there’s really no preparation for it. Just make sure that you have the right prescription medicine. I recommend that everyone takes their medicine on time when they’re supposed to. This is because less pain will occur.