Surgery

I was asked to show up at the University Hospital for surgery at 9:22 AM.  I arrived about 15 minutes early, despite the fact that I had to hobble on crutches all the way from the main entrance on 114 Street, across the hospital and up to the third floor.  The day surgery unit was very busy, and despite being early, I was the last of the scheduled patients to arrive.  So, I ended up waiting out in the hallway for around an hour.  Eventually I was brought in and prepped for surgery.  Margarit got a good laugh out of this wire being tethered to my head.... checking to see if there was any sign of a brain I suppose....  She snapped this photo....

Eventually after the indignity of putting on one of those hospital gowns, I was prepped and ready.  They now use disposable gowns in the surgical ward, and it comes with a fitting, much like a shop vac connection, to which they tie on a warm air supply hose.  Apparently if patients are kept warm, they recover faster, with less chance of infection.

When my turn came up I was wheeled into another room where the anesthesiologists take over.  It was decided that I would be given the spinal type, much like the epidural that is given to women in childbirth  It was administered in my lower back, and within a matter of 10 minutes or so I couldn't even feel or move my lower body.  Then it was time for surgery.  I was asked if I wanted to be put on a sedative.  I didn't like the way I reacted to the sedative that I was given when the broken bone was reset, so I elected to stay awake.  I was on my back, with a sheet draped up onto my chest, so I couldn't see any of the festivities... but I could hear everything.  It was entirely pain free and I didn't feel a thing.  When they were yanking on my leg to pull the fracture back together, I could feel the motion transferring into my upper body, but no pain.  

It was sort of like an out of body experience.  I felt as though me knees were up, and my legs pointed to the left.  But when the sheet was pulled down, and the surgeon was putting on my cast, my leg was actually stretched out and to the right.  At first I wondered if there had been an amputation.  It was all very weird.

During the procedure I could hear them drilling holes into my leg with what sounded like a cordless drill.  Then the surgeon talked about different lengths of pins or screws that were going in.... 12, 15, 16... millimeters I presume.  I'm not sure of the final tally, but I think there were five or six of them.  The whole procedure took about an hour, and afterwards the surgeon told me that there was no significant ligament damage so I only needed the one incision to repair the break.

After that I was wheeled to the recovery room for the freezing to thaw out.  There was absolutely no pain, and I could not feel or even move my lower body.  Gradually everything thawed out and after a couple of hours, as it wore off, the pain started.  

I was released at about 4:00 and Margarit, who had spent the whole day with me, took me home.  I just laid around for while, and then went to bed about 7:00.  It's been very difficult to get comfortable these past three weeks so once again I didn't sleep particularly well.  But I dozed off and on and mostly just kept Margarit awake.  But now I can begin the slow road to recovery.  

My leg is casted and I have to put no weight on it for the next two weeks.  I'm getting pretty good with the crutches, but getting pretty tired of them at the same time.  I've already been on them for ten days and now it will be 14 more.  At that time I go in to see the surgeon, get the cast removed, and the whole procedure will be assessed, and the next steps decided.  I'm really looking forward to being able to start walking without crutches, and eventually get my skates back on.