The Surgery

Had surgery on June 12, 2009…the day before my 40th birthday.  Not sure I can articulate what I planned for today, but I’m very confident it was not this! 

Thought the surgical timeline might be useful for the poor souls behind me.  Arrived at hospital at 6:15 am.  Entered operating room at 8:00.   Rudely woken from the cast being cut (to allow for swelling) at 10:30.  Felt quite poor, but went back to sleep.  Awoke at 11:30 to find my wife next to me.  Left hospital at 2:30.  Got home and slept to 6:00 pm.  I think they gave me too much anesthesia.  It took a while for my O2 to level to get back to normal. 

On vicodin, but does not hurt quite as much as I thought it would.  From what I can tell, tomorrow will be the worst day.     I have three questions I’d really appreciate responses to.

1.  What has been your experiences, good & bad, with any of the hands free alternative to crutches?

2.  Obviously we all want to recover as quick as possible.  I think lying down with the foot elevated is the best.  But for how long?  When should I start to move around to help my mental and physical state?

3.  I had a great season of camping planned with my two pre-teen girls.  They are very dissapointed.  It it possible to do things like that with FWB, but before 2-shoes?  Surgery June 12.  Is August camping trip without hiking, but plenty of limping in the cards?

One Response to “The Surgery”

  1. bigbeef: I bet you will never forget what you did for your 40th birthday. Happy belated birthday!
    I used a roll-a-bout and loved it. I guess I am not known for my upper body strength and it made all the difference in the world to me. I could keep up with my family on outings and I got to talk to a lot of little kids because they all wanted a ride on my wheels.
    As far as time with your foot elevated and staying on your backside, everyone is different. Your foot is going to tell you what you can get away with. I seemed to have been down longer than a lot of people (about 2 weeks each surgery) Some people are up doing things within a few days of surgery. I think it is really important to keep the swelling down. You’ll know pretty clearly when you are swelling more. With that being said, I would bet you could make an August camping date. In fact, I bet you could do a July trip depending on where you go and how much you can get your girls to do. Your girls may have to do a lot more of the carrying and organizing but what a great experience for them. They’ll probably learn a lot more.
    Happy healing and it gets easier every day. Hang in there!

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