What It’s Like Needing Surgery During A Pandemic
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I never thought anything other than COVID-19 would be a major health concern of mine during the pandemic. But then, an abnormal pap smear led to a cervical biopsy, which found high-grade precancerous lesions on my cervix (you can read more about this here). All of a sudden, there I was with something that, as a young healthy person, was much more threatening to my longevity than COVID-19. Before I knew it, I needed to schedule surgery. That meant I’d have to go to the one place nobody really wants to go ever, let alone when there are so many people in the hospital with a severe respiratory illness right now.
My surgery was minor. The truth is, it wasn’t the operation that was the most difficult part. Preparation and recovery are the hardest parts of any surgery – big or small – and that’s both mental and practical preparation. It’s even harder during the pandemic. Here’s what it’s like having to get surgery during a pandemic.

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An operating date is not guaranteed
Usually, when your doctor says that you need any sort of procedure, you just go ahead and schedule it. It’s pretty simple. For my particular procedure, my doctor told me it was usually scheduled within just one week of discovering the biopsy results that I got. “But, I can’t promise anything right now,” is what my doctor ended up telling me. “What the hell does that mean?!” I wondered. “With Covid, it’s been pretty tricky for me to get an operating room. The hospitals are overflowing. And if they don’t consider your procedure ‘urgent,’ they may not give me an operating room for a while” she explained. I asked, “So now what?” and she replied, “Well, I’ll call the hospital and we’ll see.” So that was it. I left her office knowing that I needed an operation but not knowing if and when I’d be able to get it.

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You may have to go out of your comfort zone
And what if they can’t get you an operating room? In my particular case, my doctor said I should not risk waiting more than a month to have the precancerous lesions removed. If she couldn’t get me an operating room in that time, she’d want me to go to Planned Parenthood. Why could they see me quicker? Because they don’t put you under for the procedure. So you just get to be wide awake while a part of your cervix is cut off and the wound is burnt – like charred – to be closed. Uh, no thank you. I waited anxiously by my phone for days after seeing my doctor, praying I’d see her office calling because that might mean they found me an operating room. I never, ever thought that I would cry tears of joy when my doctor called to say, “Okay, we can do surgery in 10 days.” I never thought I’d be so happy to be going under the knife, but COVID robbed me of the normal phase of resenting even needing surgery in the first place and made me jump to praying I could even have it done.

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You cannot get sick
So now a date was on the books and that meant that I could not get sick. If I was being careful before, I was being super careful now. I was on serious lockdown. If I were to get sick, we would have to cancel and reschedule the surgery that wasn’t easy to get on the calendar in the first place. I was treating my body like a freaking temple (something I probably should have been doing all along). I was meditating, taking immunity-boosting supplements, aiming for nine hours of sleep a night (or ten!). The specimen (that’s me) needed to remain in pristine condition. Nothing could interfere with my surgery.

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Nobody in your house can get sick
Not only could I not get sick, but nobody in my household could either. So that meant that I needed my husband to be on super lockdown, too. Remember that if anyone in your household tests positive for COVID-19 even if you test negative, you have to quarantine. During this time, I would become furious with my husband for so much as sitting on our balcony without wearing a mask. When he wanted to go drink in his friend’s backyard one night, I almost screamed at him. I told him he didn’t care about my health or my life.

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If you must reschedule, it won’t be easy
You have to remember that, if we needed to reschedule my surgery, there was no knowing if or when that could happen. Guidelines are changing constantly. The procedures the hospitals deem “urgent” right now for example might be pushed to the backburner next month if COVID cases rise. What’s worse is that if we had to cancel because one of us got sick, I’d have to wait longer than the month to get my surgery, which was longer than my doctor deemed safe for me to wait. What would that have meant for me and my precancerous cervical cells? This was certainly no relaxing lead-up to surgery.

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Financially, it’s not a great time
My husband and I have been luckier than many when it comes to finances during this pandemic. Nevertheless, things have been tight, too. Our needs have been financially met but that’s about it. Just the basic needs. His business came to a screeching halt for nearly six months during the pandemic. I took a temporary pay cut. Saving money was kind of not happening. And now, I had to hand over nearly a grand for this procedure. I had to pay my deductible upfront, which I hadn’t yet put a dent in for the year as this surgery happened in January – and then 10 percent of the remaining cost. But you know what? It’s a small price to pay to prevent cervical cancer, and I was lucky that I did, in fact, have the near grand to hand over. I felt fortunate when I handed the hospital clerk my credit card. Really fortunate.

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Your support system is far away
This whole time, I wanted my mom. There’s no other way to say it. My body felt so broken, both in the weeks leading up to surgery and in the time after. Before it, I just knew I had this yucky stuff in my body that needed to get out. I felt like somehow this was my fault, and that I hadn’t been a good caretaker to myself. After surgery, I was aware of this chunk of me that had been cut out and felt so fragile. Only a mother can fix that. There’s nothing like a mom’s care to make you feel like you’re in good hands. If it weren’t for COVID, my mom would have been at my home, in the guest room, ready to stay for weeks the moment my surgery was scheduled. But instead, all we could do was FaceTime.

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You have no distractions
Usually, in the weeks leading up to surgery, you’d want some distractions. You’d want to go out to dinner with friends. You’d want to have girls’ night with wine or margaritas. You’d want to go to the movies, or maybe go out of town for the weekend. All you can think about is going under the knife, so you need all the help you can get not thinking about that. But no such luck during a pandemic. You’re just sitting at home, with not much to do other than think about a hot wire shaving off part of your cervix (or whatever the procedure is for you), and counting down the days.

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Hospitals are colder than usual
Finally, my surgery date came. The hospital staff did their best to help me feel comforted. But, hospitals are emotionally colder than usual right now. You can’t see the expressions on the faces of anyone who helps you. Not the person who checks you in, does your COVID rapid test, or puts the IV in your arm. Everyone is wearing masks, of course. The actual operating room was particularly cold and scary. In there, everyone was wearing hazmat-type suits and they kept it extra chilly to prevent infections. When they strapped my arms and legs down, my whole body started to shake uncontrollably. I was surrounded by eight humans, prepping me, but I felt very alone.

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You don’t want COVID during recovery
My surgery went well. And a few days after getting home from the hospital, I developed body aches, a headache, a fever, and lost my sense of taste and smell. I had COVID-19 You know what you really don’t want while you’re recovering from surgery? Covid-f%#*ing-19. But that’s a very real threat right now. Whether I got it at the hospital or somewhere else, I don’t know. But going in for surgery puts you at risk of getting it, naturally, as you’ll be around more people than you’ve been this entire pandemic. I knew it was a risk I had to take when I went in for surgery, but I also didn’t have a choice. I needed this procedure done. This is just what it is to get surgery during a pandemic. This is just what’s happening because people will not stay the hell home.