Jul 01 2008
First time post-op
I live in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is a town in north central Iowa, with 1 orthopedic surgeon. And since I didn’t exactly trust him to give me the best care, I had my ATR repair done by Dr. Peter Maurus of the Steindler Orthopedic Clinic in Iowa City. Iowa City is approximately 90 miles from Cedar Falls, so we had a bit of a drive ahead of us following discharge. In the course of full disclosure, let me also add that I lived in Iowa City for six years prior to moving to Cedar Falls.
Before the ATR repair, I had never had surgery–no tonsillectomy, no ear tubes, no nothing–and so had never been under general anesthesia. Add to that the fact that my procedure was scheduled for mid afternoon (130PM) and that I had nothing to eat since midnight the day before, and I was RAVENOUS when I was discharged early that evening. My wife (who really should have known better, she of tonsillectomy [as an adult], and 2 c-sections) asked me what I wanted to eat and I said “uh, a cheeseburger and fries.” I inhaled whatever brand of fast food she got me in about 2 seconds flat and went back to concentrating on not getting car sick on the ride home, since I was sitting across the back seat of our car with my foot up on pillows. We were passing through the next big town (Cedar Rapids) on our drive home when I suddenly felt more nauseous than just my normal car-sickness. My wife had to pull over as I lost my lunch, as a result of the general or the percocet I had taken before hitting the road, I don’t know (in retrospect, I think it was the percocet, as the same thing happened to me in bed the next morning). In the end, we made it home and I hobbled up the stairs to our second floor master and collapsed in our bed. Great first time post-op, huh? 
Misery on top of life changing injury, I’m sorry. It should only get better from here, but there will be some excruciatingly long weeks ahead. You can only vow not to let this get you down, eventually you will win, and recover. Sorry to be welcoming you to this club, but it certainly does help to see others experiences here, and the community support.
Dr. Crouse repaired mine at Allen Hospital in Waterloo, 5/21. So far so good, hope to be cleared for fwb of maybe even 2 shoes some week soon. Easy on the food and percocets.
Who’s this Crouse person? I only heard of Knudson and his practice in Waterloo. Plus Chris Scott at Steindler is a personal friend and my wife called his wife Monday night. His wife said that Maurus was the foot/ankle guy in their practice and that he would go to Maurus himself, thus the trek.
I was playing soccer at the Cedar Valley Youth Soccer Association complex down on Ridgeway by the John Deere Engine works last Monday in an adult recreational league. Second time I had played soccer outdoors in 30+ years (I played alot indoors in Europe before we moved to the Cedar Valley). Great to hear from somebody else in the Cedar Valley!
I was starving the next day too. I stuffed down food my wife brought to the hospital and within 5min I was calling the nurses for an anti-nausea IV injection.