Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Surgery Day


It was a long day at the hospital today but everything has turned at well so far.  I finally was taken back to the operating room around 1 PM today.  Within minutes of arriving in the operating room I was out cold.  This was a new experience for me because when I had my wisdom teeth taken out and when I had an endoscopy done it was a different type of anesthesia. On those 2 procedures they put you to sleep but you are breathing on your own and it is not a deep sleep.  Today they put something in my throat to help with my breathing and it was a very deep sleep.  

The procedure took only about an hour but I was in recovery for about 2 and half hours.  I was probably a sleep for 1 and half hours in recovery.  When I woke up I was very groggy and was starving since I had not eaten since the night before. Fortunately I was not in a lot of pain and they did a good job of managing it for me.  They had given me the option of a nerve block needle (similar to an epidural) to help with pain but I was hesitant to mess with my legs and nerves so I just took the morphine and percocete.  The pain was not that bad so I felt good with my decision.  I remember the orthopedic surgeon coming in and talking to me but I could not tell you anything he said because I was not not completely awake.  So he had gone in and talked with my Dad and explained what they found and what they did.
  
The surgeon removed the piece of torn meniscus and took out a cyst that had formed from the torn meniscus.  He gave my knee a thorough inspection and also found bone spurs on the knee cap behind my patella.  We had talked about this prior to the surgery and thought that there may be some there.  So he went in and scraped them off as well.

They put a leg immobilizer cast on my leg from my thigh down to my angle.  It is a neoprene wrap with a 2 inch metal rod on the back to keep my leg straight until Friday.  I am scheduled to go in on Friday to have the stitches removed. Right now I have no idea how many incisions were made and where because I have this cast on.

Overall I have been pleasantly surprised not to have a lot of pain.  I had no idea what to expect after surgery but I am crossing my fingers that the worst has passed and I am moving forward now.  Wearing the immobilizer has been more annoying than any pain that I have because it is cumbersome and itches. I took 1 vicodin this evening at 7 PM and I plan on taking 2 when I go to bed just in case I wake up with pain.  If I don't have any pain in the morning I probably will not take anymore unless I need it.  I do not like to take drugs if I don't have to.

Stayed tuned for my progress and thanks for all your thoughts and prayers today.



3 comments:

  1. I wish you a speedy recovery....I've been following you on Twitter. Take care, take it easy and best wishes from a loyal Hazelnut :-)
    Sweet dreams!
    ViennaSoul/twitter

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  2. Good luck with the rehab process. I hope today ends up being a pain free day for you.

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  3. Glad to hear it went well! The good thing about this kind of surgery is its a quick recovery. Best of luck :)

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