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Surgery and the hospital - good times, good times!
November 6th, 2010 by melanie
October 15, 2010
I did something that my surgeon thought was hilarious - but he also said it’s a good idea. I took a Sharpie pen and wrote on the sole of my “good” right foot (upside down, I might add!), “Right foot, wrong foot!” Then I wrote on the left sole (the messed up foot), “Left foot, right foot!” He cracked up when he saw that, and whipped out his phone to take a picture! But seriously - it’s not a bad idea to mark the correct foot, and make a note on the other one as well. Wouldn’t it suck to have BOTH of them cut into? People do make mistakes!
After all the questions, and laughter, they gave me a happy pill, which totally relaxed me. I chose to have general anesthesia, but you can also have a block or epidural if for some reason general anesthesia’s not the best choice for you. Personally, I didn’t want to be awake during the surgery.
I remember cruising down the long hall to the operating room, and cracking some (I’m sure very lame) jokes about Six Flags rides, and I remember them saying, “OK, Melanie, let’s move you over to this table” and they scooted me over, and then they said, “OK, ready? This is going to be very quick.”
And BAM - instant and total oblivion - not sleep, not gradually melting away - but sudden, total nothing. I remember one instant of “Oh, ___, here we go!” and that was it.
An hour and a half later, which seemed like, oh, one second, I heard a faraway voice saying, “You’ve had an operation, Melanie. Time to wake up and go to recovery!” (I think I must have said something like, “What’s going on?” or probably something more stupid sounding than that!) I woke up on my side, because they laid me on my side for the operation. I am quite certain I was drooling on myself!
As soon as I realized where I was (in about five seconds of drowsy confusion), I suddenly started talking and asking questions, and someone said, “Wow, she sure did come alive quickly!” I felt alert and pretty coherent within just a minute or two.
I felt discomfort, like a tight, burning sensation, in my heel and up the back of my leg, but it was not at all unbearable. They immediately asked me if I was feeling any pain, and when I said yes, they asked me to grade it (on a scale of 1-10 it was about a 4), and they immediately gave me something in my IV which worked in about two minutes.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but they had given me something for possible nausea before the surgery. I didn’t feel nauseous at first, but all of a sudden I got a wave of it. They immediately gave me some sort of pill which worked quickly, so I never did actually throw up, and the nausea went away. One weird note though - you would think I would be starving, since by then I hadn’t eaten in 15 hours, but I had absolutely no appetite -then, that night, or even now (the next day).
The doctor came in and talked with me and told me that everything had gone great. He said when he got in there, the damaged tissue was easy to clean out, and that the tendon looked very healthy, except for the tear, which was easy for him to sew up due to the healthy stability of the rest of the tendon and tissues. He didn’t have to do a lot of debridement either. He said that my recovery time ought to be really great.
I could pretty much comprehend what he was saying, but it was sort of like when you’re a teenager and you come home drunk, but your mom catches you in the hallway - you’re trying to act sober and talk straight, but it takes a lot of concentration - and it’s probably pretty obvious you’re not really coherent.
If I had not had an earlier negative reaction to morphine, they would have given me that, but instead they gave me Demerol during my recovery room stay, which worked well enough. The pain abated from about a 4 to a 2 on that pain scale, but I could definitely tell that someone had been doing something to my ankle.
I had another reaction to whatever - the surgery, or pain meds, or something - my teeth started chattering, and my hands started shaking, even though I didn’t feel cold. It was really pretty funny, because my chin was wobbling like CRAZY - but after a couple of minutes of this, it was tiring. The nurse took my temperature and it was 96, even though like I said, I didn’t FEEL cold. She got me some warmed blankets and put one around my head and shoulders and one across my lap. Immediately the chattering and shaking quit. So if this fairly common shaking starts with you - ask for those warmed blankets right away. Heck, even if you’re NOT shaking, ask for the blankets - they feel great!
After the chattering drama was resolved, they moved me from recovery to a regular room. I was feeling pretty chipper and alert. My husband helped me get my regular clothes back on, and the physical therapist came in with (TA DA!) THE CRUTCHES.
I’ll cover those in the next post -they deserve one all their own.
By then I was feeling more alert, but also more tired, if that makes sense. I was ready to go home.
Michael went to get the car and they wheeled me out to the curb. Suggestion - try sitting in the back seat rather than the front. If you can navigate (with some help) into the back seat and stretch your casted leg out across the seat, it feels MUCH better than letting your leg dangle over the seat. I have found that elevation is CRITICAL to keeping the pain at bay. Even a few minutes of lowering my leg stirs up discomfort and pain, which elevation quickly decreases.
After calling me “Miss Daisy,” my husband drove to the pharmacy to pick up the extra strength Vicodin with acetaminaphen, and I fell asleep in the car. When we pulled up at the house, I got my first real taste of the crutches.
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7 Responses to ' Surgery and the hospital - good times, good times! '
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ATR Timeline
- Name: melanie
Location: Kilgore
Which Leg: L
Status: PWB
711 wks 5 days Post-ATR
659 wks 4 days
Since start of treatment
-
3150 AchillesBloggers
She's running the distance!
- melanie has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
Goal: 198 days from the surgery date.
Click here for the Group Marathon Tracker
on November 6th, 2010 at 4:03 am
Yup, elevation is DEFINITELY your friend! (In a few more weeks, you’ll be BEST friends!)
I think I’ve now had 3 surgeries without general anesthesia, including an ATR repair, and I wouldn’t call any of them “being awake during the surgery”! They’ve given me so many relaxation meds and drowsy meds and what-nots, that my experience with “locals” and “spinals” was very similar to yours with a “general” — but without any nausea. Maybe the descent into oblivion was more gradual, but it arrived there nonetheless.
After my one ATR surgery (my first ATR of two — I’ve “done” both sides now, but skipped the op this time), they kept me in the hospital overnight, which I didn’t mind at all. I got to “pump” the Assistant Surgeon AND the Chief Surgeon for information separately the next day, which was interesting for me!
I love your writing style; keep it coming!
on November 7th, 2010 at 10:25 am
I recently had to have a hysterectomy. After all of my Achilles surgeries I was a little bit freaked about going back in to be knocked out for another surgery. To ease my worry I decided that if I took a black sharpie marker and wrote “NO WAY” on both of my Achilles tendons, I could get the hysterectomy done. My procedure required 3 GYN surgeons. One of the 3 had experienced an Achilles rupture and surgery. Pre-op they all 3 stood in my room and he was the only of the 3 that was laughing. The other 2 were trying to figure out why on earth I would do that. There are just some laughs that only ATR clubbers can share. Tee hee
on November 7th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Yep there is nothing quite like this particular surgery to rock your world, is there? I mean, talk about intrusive and life altering!!! Sometimes I am tempted to be depressed but I have to have faith that things will get better. This site is a good place to rebuild that faith, reading all the success stories.
on November 7th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
nice blog very entertaining , love your humor and the why you write more please
on November 8th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Had a look at your bog page, loved the photo from the operating room, but loved your jabberwocky reference even more. Keep up your bogging it’s fab.
on November 8th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
That of course would be BLOG page. Sorry for typos
on November 9th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Bog would have a totally different meaning in the uk. It’s slang for toilet!!!!