Day Two Post-op

I got to the hospital at 8:00 Friday morning and went through the admitting process.  They called me in a little afterwards to change into my surgery outfit.  I was put into a bed and a nurse started asking me a bunch of questions, many of which I had already answered on paper twice and in person to two or three people.  The worst question of all was "are you still having periods?"  Seriously?  Am I *that* old now?  She replied, "I guess so.  I also need to know if you have dentures or wear a hearing aid."  Nice!

At 9:10 they wheeled me into the operating room where my doctor and the anesthesiologist were waiting for me.  I scooted onto a tiny operating bed and before I knew it the doctor was putting a tourniquet on my ankle and a gas mask was on my mouth.  The anesthesiologist asked me to take a couple of deep breaths.  She asked me if I felt anything.  I said I felt nothing yet.  She asked me if I was nervous or excited.  About that time I said I was sleepy.  My next sentence was supposed to be "I'm very sleepy" but I'm not sure the entire sentence came out.

The next thing I knew, some lady was trying to wake me from a very restful sleep.  I was in the recovery room and it was 10:15.  I was home before noon and feeling pretty good.  My ankle block had my foot completely numb but the doctor said to take a Vicodin anyway, every four hours so I took one as soon as I got home.  By 5:00 the block had worn off and the pain was coming on.  I took a pain pill at 4:00 but could tell it wasn't doing anything so I took another one.  At about 6:30 the pain was still getting stronger and stronger.  I took two more Vicodin.  I waited as long as I could but finally took more at 9:30.  I was expecting this to be painful, no doubt about it.  I was also expecting my pain would be managed by the prescription I had been given.  It was getting progressively worse and I was nowhere near being able to fall asleep.  I had taken my maximum dosage of Vicodin already and still had over 12 hours to go.  I was taking 800 mg of Ibuprofin too.  My pain level was a 14 on a scale of 1-10.  I was grinding my jaw and white knuckling the couch!  I knew I wasn't going to make it through the night.  Keith called the advice nurse twice and she recommended I go to the emergency room to get the pain under control.  We decided this was probably the best thing to do.

When we got to the ER I was taken directly to a room.  The nurse came in and evaluated me and then the doctor came in and said hi.  After a short time, I had an IV in me and the nurse injected a very strong pain reliever which took affect quickly.  Thank God.  Half an hour later, he injected more since the first one wore off.  I was feeling no pain and fell asleep quickly.  Right about then they want me to go home.  I was conscious but super drugged up.  Sara got me into the wheelchair and the front seat of the car.  I was on crutches from my garage to my room with Sara in front of me and Keith behind me.  They sent Percoset (sp.) home with me and I took two and fell right to sleep, until 6:30 yesterday morning. 

All day yesterday I took two Percoset every four hours and my pain level has been very manageable (a 3 or 4 vs 14!).  I am getting sharp pains, twitches and uncontrollable spasms but they only last a few seconds.  I have been keeping the foot elevated and ice under my knee (that's what they said) around the clock since I first got home.

I will continue to manage the pain with medication today.  I have my follow-up appointment tomorrow at 5:00 with the doctor.  I'm anxious to hear how the surgery went, if it was worse or better than he thought it would be.

Thank you everyone for your well wishes, prayers, and nice comments.


Until later.............