Surgery day: October 13, 2009

Tuesday morning, before leaving the house, I attached my clip-on Minnie Mouse ears. This was totally worth it, really. Sure, I bet a few people thought I was crazy but it certainly relaxed things. Check-in for surgery was painless and we didn't wait long before we were brought back to the pre-op area. From there, I was ignored for an extended period of time (waiting, I think, for Dr. Miller to turn up). Once he showed, things started moving very quickly.

Unfortunately, I once again got an anesthesiologist who thought he knew me better than I did and partially ignored what the last one did, for my last knee surgery. I don't remember a lot, except talking about marathons with one of 'em, and then waking up in post-op. Must have been some VERY good drugs.

Because the person in "my" bed hadn't been discharged yet, I ended up spending a lot of time in the post-op care room level 1. It was fine, more or less, as I was pretty much allowed to sleep. Because of the nausea, which had already started, I wasn't allowed to drink anything, though my nurse did occasionally run a soaked swab around the inside of my mouth. And because of the area I was in, visitors weren't generally allowed. However, she was nice enough that she would let Jeremy in for about 10 minutes of every hour. Now, I mostly slept through this time, but he was there as long as he was allowed.

I was in a decent amount of pain, so I was given frequent morphine, via IV, and Zofran, for the nausea.

Eventually, I was moved to another holding area, where I was allowed to sit up and then given some water (which made me feel REALLY REALLY terrible). At this point, Dr. Miller stopped by. He started out with "Well, Sarah, as you're aware, you're not the tallest person in the world..." so it turns out he had to jury-rig the plate that is in my leg a bit, because it was too long. He told Jeremy, at another time, that the opening wedge he had to make was a bit bigger than he'd hoped for - it is 12mm at the widest spot.

Finally, my bed opened up and I was sent along my merry way (and from here on, I get grumpy and probably overshare) Jeremy went to the car, to get my crutches, and met me at the room. Because I didn't have them, I wasn't allowed up and hadn't been allowed to use the bathroom. I think it was around 3ish? When I finally got to the room and I'd gone in to pre-op at 6am. But because of the meds and the surgery, I wasn't allowed to go far. And I was in a semi-private room (wtf does that even mean? how does a curtain make things semi-private?). So, the nurse and her aide set me up with a bed pan...

...and I just couldn't. Couldn't. Sure, there's no dignity to be had post op. And yes, moving me from my surgery bed into a hospital room bed was PAINFUL... but. No. So, with some complaining, the nurse and her aide set me up on a commode, which was JUST as embarrassing, but I HAD TO GO. And they walked off. I was left, honestly, hanging. Because of the pain meds, I am (still not) allowed to go anywhere by myself. They take my crutches to insure this. But my brace IS basically hip to ankle. The commode had handles on either side, which meant I didn't actually fit with the brace. My recently operated leg was left hanging there... until the aide could be bothered to come back and help me back in to bed.

I dozed, a bit, but started developing a killer headache. Still having nausea issues and I couldn't really hold down water. I eventually asked the nurse (known not so affectionately as "the bitchy one" from her overheard comments about me not using a bed pan) for Tylenol. I got water. I threw up the water. The bitchy one went home. The overnight one came on duty... and, at this point? Not a headache. A migraine. And because I'd been barfing, my roommate had turned her TV on. And her husband was there. They had on every light on their side of the room. Then she took a cell phone call on speaker phone. Oh, and I got a dinner plate... with nothing but REAL food on it. Nothing there that I should have been eating - no broth, no juice, no clear liquids. Wtf?

So I was a bit short with the woman as I begged for the Tylenol I'd requested over an hour ago. I got it, it stayed down. However, the pain pills she gave me were immediately thrown back up and this nice nurse... finally... actually helped me. She got a hold of the resident on duty, to see about better/more effective anti-nausea medications. The Zofran was written for a specific time interval and that was all I had. She got him to give it to me as often as needed and then got two other kinds of anti-nausea meds out of him.

Finally - FINALLY! - I was on my way. Of course, my leg had cramped up, but that was not unexpected, so she ended up giving me Valium, OxyConton, and an anti-nausea med. I was out like a light and stayed that way for most of the night.

But unlike the bitchy one, if I had to go to the bathroom, she would sit and wait for me. She used her leg as a footstool for me, and I was no longer left danging. Before she left, she explained to me what I needed to do to be let out. Simple stuff: eat and keep down food. Pass the physical therapy test. Have the resident sign the orders.

And that was day #1.