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jimsjournal

Getting lots of sleep -- 05/21/10



I've been getting lots of sleep this week.

It's not due to sloth but, rather, to the various medications they have had me on following the surgery I had on my heel Tuesday morning: something to relieve pain, something to reduce swelling and inflammation, and something to fight nausea. (The nausea is probably brought on by the first two meds, right?)

Got up early on Tuesday, had to be at the hospital by 7:30, had stuff written on my right foot with markers (to prevent a wrong site surgical error), had to tell at least half a dozen people my date of birth, my full name, and my reason for being there. Yeah, it sounds redundant, but the idea is to avoid doing the wrong procedure on the wrong patient.

Eventually they wheeled me into another room where I got to say hello to my surgeon and got to meet my anesthesiologist (an anesthetist to those of you who speak British). My heel was going to be numbed with local anesthetic but they also wanted to put me under as well. It was suggested that since I would be lying face down during the surgery and since I would have a tight tourniquet on my leg that might become a bit "uncomfortable," I might prefer a spinal (rather than having something down my windpipe. Yes, indeed, I would prefer the spinal block. So they rolled me over onto another gurney and I felt a light pinch of a needle in my lower back...

... and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back in a post-surgical recovery area. I kept opening my eyes and seeing that five or ten minutes had gone by since I had previously opened my eyes. Lather - rinse - repeat.

During one of those semi-lucid periods an attendant asked me if I was okay and if I needed anything. I said I would kill for a cup of coffee and a few minutes later he brought me a surprisingly decent cup of coffee and cranked up the back of the gurney I was on so that I could drink it comfortably. I think I only dozed off once or twice more while waiting there to be moved to a post-op checkout area. The second cup of coffee probably helped me stay awake.

Eventually I was wheeled to another area where Nancy was waiting for me. A nurse brought me some toast bread and a glass of orange juice (no food or drink after midnight) and they checked my vital signs and let me get dressed and wheeled me out to the pickup area. Got into Nancy's car, she drove us home, and I went to bed with my foot elevated and with an ice pack placed beneath the back of my knee (per doctor's orders).

Since then, as I said, I have been doing lots and lots of napping.

I am also pretty much a klutz when it comes to getting around on crutches. I have attempted to limit out-of-bed excursions from (well-founded) fear of falling and breaking something (especially breaking me). I have been reducing my pain meds from two every six hours to one every six hours and today I took one about 7 a.m. and have not had one since... and I've only had one brief nap today.

My post-op checkup with my podiatrist will be this coming Monday morning. My foot right now is in a cast wrapped in gauze and I am hoping he will remove that on Monday. I've not had any real pain since yesterday (well, other than when I accidentally bump it -- as I said, I'm a bit of a klutz).

I'm hoping to have a quick recovery, but will not do any running until my podiatrist tells me it is okay.




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