Breaking_Bad22: My Achilles Blog

(June 16, 2015)

My Achilles was ruptured, the pain proved it; the doctor’s physical examine proved it,and the MRI only confirmed all the evidence to be true.  I had a complete Achilles tendon rupture and the best way to fix this, and the docs recommendation, was to have surgery.  The surgery was scheduled for five days after the injury occurred.  During that long, well it felt very long, stretch I had done everything the doctor ordered; rest, elevation, wearing the walking boot, and in general, put as less weight and stress on the foot as possible.  The night before continuing into the morning of, I fasted; not eating or drinking, a single thing.  The day was here; my first ever surgery in my life. Time to go!

I was told to arrive at 11:15am for surgery at 1:15pm.  My daughter decided to get pink eye, so instead of her going to daycare and my Mom coming with my wife and I, my mother had to watch her at her house.  We dropped her off in the morning and made our way to the ambulatory center at ECMC.  We were about 20 minutes early, which actually worked out great.  I filled out the paperwork right away and was nearly immediately sent with the nurse to my pre-op/recovery room.  Shortly after getting in my beautiful, and not at all awkward hospital gown, I was hooked up to an IV, answered some questions for the nurse and anesthesiologist, and then was ready to go.  My wife was allowed to come back at that time and we watched some TV and just waited for the doctor (surgeon) to take me back.  It ended up being a couple hours before they came for me; a time filled with butterflies and about three pee breaks (thanks to the IV).

The doctor came in with the anesthesiologist and told me I was up!  The doctor ran down again what exactly was going to happen during the procedure and the anesthesiologist explained how the anesthetic works and what to expect when I woke up after the surgery.  The anesthesiologist put “something to clam my nerves”, that is what she called it, into my IV and almost instantly I felt it go through my veins and right to my face.  My face then started feeling like I just received Novocaine and I got light-headed, but still completely coherent.  I kissed my wife and they wheeled me down to the operating room.  The room was freezing and looked just like something, for those who have never been in one (like me), exactly from Grey’s Anatomy.  I was nervous as they wheeled my gurney next to the operating table and once again they explained that after the anesthetic they would turn me over on my stomach in order to perform the procedure.  For those who never had a surgery, do not Google it, like I did, because that is all I could see, the videos of procedure playing in my head.  Surprisingly, that is the last I remember about being in that room.  I don’t remember the anesthetic, I don’t remember the doctor coming back in, and I definitely don’t remember the surgery, which is obviously a good thing.

My next recollection was me back in the same room I started in.  I woke up from the anesthetic to the doctor and the nurse saying something to me about something, I just had no idea what.  I remember singing “Kumbaya” for some reason, no idea why though and just feeling very loopy, light-headed, and heavy-eyed.  My wife was back in the room shortly after that.  The surgery was almost two hours long, a little longer than expected, and the doctor also said the rupture was even worse than he thought.  He had to place my foot in a ballerina position during the procedure in order to get the tendon closer together.  He said that my tendon was really frayed and my issue almost seemed hereditary.  I received stitches, was placed in a hard splint, and wrapped in two ace bandages.  I was given a set of crutches and a prescription for pain medication and very specific instructions to be a couch potato and put absolutely no weight on the foot whatsoever.  I was cleared to go home and was wheel chaired to my jeep.  My next appointment was scheduled for the 29th, where they will take out the stitches and put me in a plaster cast.

The surgery was complete!  The road to recovery begins!

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2015 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.