Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Post-op 2 weeks gone

So, when I said I would be blogging more often I did intend for it to be more than once a month. :) And fair warning, this is a LONG ASS post.

I am now bionic. I will now set off the metal detectors in the airport. I now will have to check the box for radiology that says, 'metal implants'. I am repaired!

The surgery went really well according to the Dr., I obviously do not remember much about it. (Whew!) I was really nervous for some reason, not sure why, but just scared. My blood pressure was up to 125/80 or something like that and I rarely hit the 120s. Anyway, that morning I got there at 6:30am and had my blood drawn for my clotting factor. Then I met with the anesthesiologist team, one guy (Joe) was really sweet and he put in the nerve block. (The nerve block basically makes it so you can't feel anything on/in your leg...at all...trippy.) They wheeled me back as soon as they found out I wasn't going to bleed all over the place and started right about 8:35am. T left at that point to take Brodster to be boarded, we needed him nice and exhausted for when we were home together.

I woke up in recovery and was apparently out of it for hours. From my last couple of surgeries I remember that I do not wake up well, I'm cold, disoriented and well...scared...and thirsty. I was there for approx 3 hours and finally I was rolled up to a room, after I made them give me drugs for the vicious headache that just wouldn't go away. They gave me laudanum, which I only know from the movie 'Tombstone.' :) So I was plenty out of it in my room when my first visitor appeared. My friend who is a nurse of anesthesiology and was laughing at me...nice, but seriously it was SO sweet of her to show up. T had to work so he didn't see me until much later.

Have you ever been in the hospital? If not, let me tell you, it is NOT a restful place. They are in and out of your room every 2-3 hours. I was up and walking on crutches that very day! THAT DAY! Can you believe it? I couldn't, I thought the PT guy was stealing my drugs. But with the surgery I had they want you mobile as soon as possible so your quad doesn't wither up and die. Seriously. And of course at this point I still didn't know what kind of surgery I had. Fast forward, T comes by after work, I finally get my phone...my PHONE...my life line. Sad. I took my funny pics for FB. (what did we do before all this technology? Oh yes, relaxed and called and WROTE people...with a pen and paper.) I didn't have breakfast of course, or lunch and so my first meal (hospital meal) was dinner...and what did they bring me? FISH. EFFING FISH. Gross. Okay, well, I do like fish, when I prepare it or have it prepared in a way that I know I'll like. So I had them take that away and the really sweet nurse brought me a turkey and cheese sandwich that lasted me the entire night.

I slept...kind of...for about an hour at a time. Used the bedpan at 3 am...yes, I said bedpan. I hate bedpans, I can't imagine anyone out there who really likes them, but seriously...they suck. And my body refused to 'go' in a bedpan. T came by before he went to work in the am, some more friends stopped by, that was awesome, I had two more PT appts, all this before 3pm! That's when I finally got to go home. I hadn't seen my knee and still didn't know exactly what was done. The surgeon's PA (the one who diagnosed me) checked me out and she said I apparently have a high pain tolerance to have been walking around with a knee like that. I had damage in 3 places, side of the knee, under the knee and the patella, all down to the bone. Rockin.

The first 3 days post surgery were good, I was doing my PT, I was making progress thinking this wasn't so bad and then *BOOM* my nerve block wore off. Holy.Shit.Balls. I woke up and was crying, I don't cry that often, especially from pain. I took a lot of drugs that day. The next day was equally as bad and the day after that was minimally better. The fourth day I was seeing the light, when I didn't have the urge to wake up at 4am, pop a pill and go back to sleep. Fast forward to 2 weeks later, I'm feeling good.

I was weening myself off of the drugs until yesterday when I had my post-op appt. The dr said, "I'll be the first to cut you off if you're overdoing it, but by not taking them you are stalling your recovery." Huh, so today, back to popping pills every 6-7 hours. I have to do PT 3x a day, I generally do it 1.5x a day, I have to do a stim treatment 2x a day, I make it 1-2x as I can fit in, and I have to be on the CPM machine 4x a day. Well, I sleep with it and get one longer session in the afternoon, I figure the hours even out right?

Today was a big day though...I FINALLY got to take a shower. Sponge bathes, not my thing. *shudder*

Okay, so I had a partial knee replacement with metallic implants (or a metallic OATS procedure) and have two metal implants and a plastic patella. It's pretty wild looking. The Dr is going to send me pics of during surgery as well, it was nasty gnarly, but cool.

Alrighty, so I do have more to post about, but it will wait. I've already babbled on for the day. I do apologize if there are a ton of grammatical errors, I am under the influence. I'll be using that excuse for a bit. ;)

Peace out kiddies!

No comments: