mhamay’s AchillesBlog

Surgery and days 1&2 post op

So surgery finally did take place on Monday September 9th.  I got to the hospital at 11am, filled out paperwork and was taken up to the 3rd floor.   Why I had to be there so early is beyond me! My surgery was scheduled for 12:45, but I didn’t even see my Dr. till almost 2:00, as the surgery before mine had taken longer than expected.  I had lovely conversations with the anesthesiologist about how even though the spinal is considered safe for pregnant women, there still were risks.  I was also informed that the only pain killer I would be getting after surgery was Tylenol 3 with codeine.  Ok, this should be interesting.

So a little after 2 I was wheeled off to surgery, of course they put some lovely stuff in my IV on the way to relax me.  They gave me the spinal on the regular bed, then had me help roll myself to the operating table,  They then started washing my leg- which felt really weird as the spinal started taking effect.  I almost asked if there was a camera so I could watch, but the inside of my eyelids were kind of nice too.  I didn’t fall asleep, just kind of rested my eyes a few times. The surgery itself didn’t take very long, I  would say that they spinal and casting took longer.

So now it was off to recovery #1 to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait….. Apparently there are only two types of spinals- short and long, and for this the short would have been too short.  So we were stuck with the long.  My BP, O2 and HR were all great so it left my nurse very bored.  Usually the stay in recovery   #1 isn’t that long, and is usually people coming out of general.  So my nurse broke the rules and gave me food!  OMG it was after 4pm and I hadn’t had anything since 11:30pm Sunday night.  I wolfed those graham crackers and peanut butter down like it was nobodies business.  She asked if I wanted something else- Yes!  Orange sherbet was delightful..  Finally around 5:15 they felt like I had enough feeling back in my legs to be moved to recovery #2.  Now the fun part was that I had to be able to use my good leg if I wanted to leave.  Poor Hubby had been waiting for a long time and as soon as I had seen him for a minute he had to leave to go get our son from daycare.

Around 7:15 I finally had enough control that I could get off the bed and into a wheel chair to go….. yes to the bathroom.  Now the good thing about the spinal wearing off is that I could go home…. the bad was that I started having really bad pain!  Whoo hoo, 2 Tylenol 3 was all the nurse could give me.  This is going to suck I thought to myself, and of course the pharmacy at the hospital closed at 7, as do most pharmacies in our city… Quick search of the phone showed Walgreens was still open. Quick stop there to drop of the RX and then home.

The next day and a half is a blur of pain, sleep and waiting for the clock to show the magical 4 hrs had passed so I could take more pain pills.  I did take an Unisom on Tuesday night to help me sleep- probably the best decision ever.  I did wake up around 2, went pee and took my meds- then blissfully slept till 6 when my husbands alarm went off.  I surprisingly felt way better this morning.

The cast doesn’t feel like it is quite as tight as it was yesterday in some spots and pain is manageable if I take the 2 Tylenol 3′s every 4 hrs.  Hopefully the next few days are going to bring more improvement!  Next steps are getting off the pain meds so I can drive and then back to work.  Next Dr. Appointment is Friday Sept 20, since two weeks is a Monday and a surgery day.  I believe I get my cast changed, and possibly stitches out.

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