Sassy must have been feeling left out because she decided to be sick yesterday, too. Vomiting ensued and OMG Becky had two patients to care for. She may be ready to jump ship.
Sassy and I have set up camp in the living room. Me on the couch, her on the love seat. With a couple of TV trays set up next to me to hold my necessities.
Please excuse my make-up less face. I was told not to wear any flammable make-up or hair products to surgery that morning. I figured it was best to avoid all make-up and hair products. The flammability of my products was not really something I wanted to guess at.
Yesterday, I had to be at the surgery center an hour before the surgery was scheduled to start. Once there I had to pee in a cup to do a mandatory pregnancy test. Negative, of course. Then I was taken into my pre/post surgery room. I had to remove all my clothing and put on a hospital gown completely open in the back, no tying it closed allowed. I also had to put my hair up into a fancy, disposable cap. So pretty. I had my IV port inserted, hooked up to some other monitoring machine and all of my vitals checked. Next the anesthesiologist asked me a bunch of healthy history questions and we went over all things that could go wrong with the anesthesia. Fun times.
Then the surgeon came in and we talked about the surgery itself. Found out I would need to stay off my foot for the first two weeks to allow for proper heeling. The doctor also removed the half cast the ER had put on. While he was doing that I told him I had felt like the top my foot was on fire since the cast was put on. Once he got the cast off, we saw why. I had developed a facture blister on the top of my foot. Ouch! Luckily, it wasn’t full of fluid or on what would b the incision sight. Do yourself a favor, do not Google ”fracture blister” images. So gross.
My fracture blister looks a lot like this PG-version I made for you.
He explained that since my break was a fairly, straight horizontal break, screws were probably not an option. They would install a metal plate through a 3″ incision that would then be closed with stitches or staples. I started crying a little bit at those words. A scar, especially one that large, had never entered my mind. He told me they would give me two pain blockers, one below and one above the surgery area. I was told I would need to stay completely off my foot for two weeks with it elevated. The goal is to not bump it all so the bones will fuse back together straight. If I bump it, they could fuse at an odd angle or worse, not at all. Then we might have to do surgery again. As you can imagine, I am trying to be very, very careful. I do not want to go through this again!
After my chat with the surgeon, I was wheeled back to the surgery room. It was so cold in there! Then I was transferred over onto the surgery table. That is the last thing I remember. No counting down, no more speaking of any kind. The next thing I remember is being back in my pre/post surgery room for recovery. Someone was calling my name and saying I was having a hard time waking up. I just wanted to go back to sleep. I hadn’t slept much since the break on Monday. Too much pain to sleep through.
The surgery had lasted just under an hour. My parents and youngest daughter were in the waiting room, watching a screen that showed the patient number assigned to me. It showed where I was in the process. In pre-op, in surgery, in post-op, etc.
Finally, they called my mom in to go over instructions with her since I obviously was in no shape to remember a thing they were saying. The gist of it was I am to double up on my pain killers. They do not want me to wait until I feel pain to take the meds or I will be in a lot of pain and unable to control it. I have set a recurring alarm to go off every 4 hours so I won’t forget. I was told I may be nauseous from the anesthesia and that is common in women. They had already given me a prescription for anti-nausea meds since I don’t do so well with pain killers anyway. (I am allergic to Hydrocodone.) I also need to eat with when I take the pain killers to help with nausea. But I was to avoid spicy and greasy foods. Sad because I really wanted my favorite Chipotle veggie bowl with medium-spice corn salsa. Grrr. But I could have ice cream, the other thing that sounded really good! And I was hungry! I wasn’t allowed to have any food or drink since midnight.
Once I got home, I was ready to go back to sleep. The anesthesia was hanging on. I like that stuff! My mom went on to work. And my dad got me some essentials. My favorite Belfonte Birthday Cake ice cream!
Healthy Choice Country Vegetable Soup.
And then he asked if I wanted him to go to Starbucks for me. YES! Iced White Chocolate Mocha, please!
Honestly, yesterday I didn’t feel much pain at all. Today I can feel a little bit of pain. But it actually hurt more before the surgery then it does now. But that may be a result of the pain blocker still hanging on.
I am sporting a new half cast, an ice pack behind the knee, and a non-skid hospital sock. I’m sexy and I know it.
And this will be my look and location for the next couple of weeks. I have a follow-up with the surgeon this Thursday. then a week after that, another appointment to take the staples out. I plan on talking to him about when I can start activity again and what it might consist of.
I know at some point, the half cast will be replaced with a boot, but not sure when that will be. I also need to visit the DMV office to pick up a temporary disable parking permit for when I am allowed be out and about again. No hurry to be out there anytime soon, especially since we have ANOTHER snowstorm with 6-10″ of snow coming tonight.
I apologize if this post is rambling or repetitive. These painkillers are making me a bit more loopy, as evident in the record number of misspelled words I had to correct in this post. And now I feel like I need another nap. I have been awake a full three hours. That’s okay. I’m pretty sure sleep promotes healing.
What are you doing this weekend?
