Kaonashi Ga Suki

Fall, 1993

It’s not every day that your lower back leaks fluid.

When we got to the E.R., the attending physicians did the usual: took a blood sample, checked my temperature, hooked me up to the IV, etc. However, they also took a sample of the fluid that was leaking from the burst bump in my lower back. And I tell ya, the procedure stung like a bitch. I actually yelped a few times. It felt like the nurse was digging in my spine with a needle, but actually he was just swabbing the area as gently as possible.

As it turned out, the area in which the loose bolt was located was fully infected, and the bolt needed to be removed that day and the infection cleared up. They paged Dr. Apel, interrupting his golf weekend (or whatever it is that surgeons do on their day off) to operate on me.

Everything happened so fast, I didn’t fully understand what was going on. Earlier that day I was in an SAT review session, and all of a sudden I was in the hospital about to have another surgery. It was all too surreal. The funny thing is that I wasn’t afraid of the operation this time around. Rather, I was more upset because of the disruption to my school attendance. Maybe it’s because I was already used to the whole hospital and surgical experience, and felt confident that things will turn out fine like the last time.

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When I woke from the operation several hours later, I felt exactly the same way as I did the first time: my throat was sore, and I was extremely groggy from the anesthesia. My mom told me that everything went smoothly, but in the beginning there was a slight obstacle:

Blood.

Or rather, my need of it.

You see, for my first operation my parents were wary of using random strangers’ blood from the blood bank; instead we used my own blood, collected in the months prior to my operation. But this time the surgery came too soon, and I didn’t have enough time to harvest enough of my own blood. Where would I get the rest?

My mom volunteered, but it wasn’t enough. Who else in my family was willing to donate?

My brother spoke up. In spite of his fear of needles, he willingly offered himself as a donor. Brave boy.

In the end, I ended up using a little bit of blood from the blood bank, but my mom and brother’s blood definitely helped.

Like last time, I spent the first night or so in the ICU, then was moved to a private room. Dr. Apel dropped by later that day and briefed us on the surgery.

Apparently the infection had spread so much that he was forced to undo the previous surgeon’s work and remove not only the offending bolt, but the whole rod from my back. He then told us that before he was to work on keeping my spine straight, the infection would need to be dealt with first.

According to the doctor, I was to start taking a series of antibiotics every several hours to clear the infection, and this treatment would continue after my discharge from the hospital, for one month. I was then to return shortly after finishing treatment for one last surgery.

Of course, my family and I didn’t relish the idea of one more operation, especially so soon after this one, but again- we didn’t see any viable options. My back was infected, and Dr. Apel couldn’t take care of my spine until the infection was treated first.

In the meantime, I was to stay in the hospital for about 2 weeks, and spend the month after that on bed rest at home. No school for Toni.

So much for taking the SAT’s. Or senior year, for that matter.