Warning: Gross but cool!

The Most Exciting Part of my Day:

I got my stent removed.  This was kind of the LAST foreign object left in or outside of my

body following my tumor surgery.

First let me say...I have never been more NERVOUS in my entire life.  I'm sure it was because I had no idea what to expect.

For those who don't know what a stent is, it is a tubular support inside a blood vessel or canal.  It helps with the healing of whatever it is supporting.  In my case, the ureter.  It's like a cast.  Today, I got it out.  Here's how:

I had NO anesthetic (I know...Wonder Woman.  Actually, they don't give any or I totally would have taken it.)

So, let's take a look at the first picture.

This was the first instrument I saw when I walked into the room.  It is the tool that the doctor inserted into my yingyang.  The white tip on the end is actually a camera.  It takes pictures as it moves through the ureter.  In the next picture you can see the monitor that shows the  pictures.  I was able to watch it all as it happened.

There was also a long metal pick type thing inserted through the instrument.  On the end of the wire was a little "pincher" that grabbed the stent so the doctor could pull it out.

Most comfortable chair EVER!

This is the BEFORE picture.  You can see the light blue cord coming out of the white mass (I'm not sure id that's the bladder or what but I think it's the bladder...correct me if I'm wrong) that is the stent.  The doctor grabbed it and................

VOILA!

The stent is out.  The black dot is actually a suture.  Dr. Lee said that Dr. Soissen did a great job with the reconstruction.

I'm really not sure what went on in there and I'm not really sure that I want to know.

I was bold enough to ask the doctor if I could have my stent.  His nurse cleaned it well and put it in a container for me.

Here it is next to my Big Gulp.  I had no idea how long it was.

The whole procedure lasted about 10 minutes.  IN FACT (and this is hysterical) Terry missed the whole thing because he left to get me a Diet Coke from the cafeteria.  We had been told that Dr. Lee was still in surgery and wouldn't be done for quite some time.  In fact, the nurse didn't even have me get ready.  So, we thought we had plenty of time for Terry to run for drinks.

WRONG!

So, they gave us a copy of the pictures so Terry could see them.

I am so glad it's over.