It’s been a week and a day since my surgery. All in all, it was a good experience. Not fun, of course, but a good experience. It was my first surgery, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I chose to have surgery at a hospital that specializes in orthopedics and that eased some of my fears.

The morning of surgery started at 4 am, and I had to be at the hospital by 5 am. I arrived as instructed, and no one was at the front desk. After waiting for ten minutes or so, I saw someone walking down the hall still dressed in their coat and carrying their bag. This woman ended up being the registration person, who was apparently running late. A few minutes later I got to go back into the registration room and get the admitting process started, but the patient system was down with some sort of technical issue. The lady called tech support and started getting a little irate with the person on the phone because now the waiting area was full of patients waiting to register for their procedures. Fifteen minutes later, she finally just had me sign some paper consent forms and I was on my way back to the pre-op area.

Pre-op was pretty standard fare from what I know from family members who have had surgery. Vital signs, weight, a few routine tests, and an IV line were all taken care of within my first half hour back there. I changed into a gown and I was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and had wires going everywhere. After that, it was a bunch of questions about my health and then a lot of waiting until about 7 am.

The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me about what to expect in the operating room and did a quick assessment. He then told me they offered nerve blocks for the procedure so my foot would be numb when I woke up. I agreed to the procedure, and then my room got really full of people. I wasn’t expecting to have five people suddenly surrounding my bed. They put my leg up on this platform and brought in an ultrasound machine. My nurse gave me something through my IV to help calm me down, and I felt drowsy for a split second, but I was too determined to watch what was going on to give in to sleep just then. The anesthesiologist gave me a shot to numb the back of my knee where he was inserting the nerve block catheter. It didn’t hurt but it burned a little. After that, I didn’t feel him slide the tubing into my leg, but it did feel like I got a cramp in my calf when he started injecting the medication. The same procedure was completed midway up my thigh, and again I didn’t feel anything. A lot of people must not be able to handle the procedure because all of the nurses called me a “tough lady” because I didn’t flinch at all.

While the anesthesiologist was finishing up the second block, my surgeon came in to make sure I didn’t have any last minute questions. I couldn’t think of any because I was preoccupied with what was going on with the nerve blocks (and feeling quite exposed in front of the good-looking anesthesiologist). My surgeon signed his initials on the leg he was operating on and then left. Just five minutes after that, I was being wheeled into the operating room.

The OR was freezing cold, and one of the nurses put a warm blanket over me once I moved over onto the table. I just laid there for maybe thirty seconds and the anesthesiologist asked if my fingers and toes were starting to tingle. I said no, and then someone put a mask over my face and told me to breathe. After three breaths, my memory is blank until I woke up in recovery.

It was strange waking up after surgery. I could hear my surroundings and people talking around me, but my body felt so heavy that I couldn’t even open up my eyes. I felt pretty nauseated, but I don’t remember if I threw up anything. I just remember a couple of strong waves of nausea and then I fell asleep again. I woke up to my nurse telling me that she’d let me wake up for fifteen more minutes and then she’d bring my family back. I was still really drowsy and kind of confused. I remember asking for a sip of water, and the nurse told me it took so long for me to wake up that the ice was gone. I didn’t really care at that point; my mouth was so dry that even warm water was fine. She just let me have a small sip because I was so nauseated and told me I have the “anesthesia curse” because I was so drowsy, and because even though they put a nausea patch behind my ear and pushed more medication to prevent nausea before my surgery, it didn’t seem to help. Now I know that for next time.

About two hours after my surgery I was allowed to be discharged to home. They sent me home with my nerve blocks still intact and a bag with a continuous infusion set to last me several days depending on how high I ran the dose. I also got sent home with a wedge pillow for elevating my leg and a cooler that holds ice water and connects to a special ankle wrap that fills up with that ice water to help keep the swelling down. I was told I could only get up 15 minutes each hour and the rest of the time my leg has to be elevated above the heart until my follow-up appointment.

One nice surprise I found with my discharge instructions was a card signed by all the nurses that took care of me and hand-written messages wishing me well. It certainly made me smile. I’m looking forward to getting the details of my procedure at my follow-up appointment; I was so out of it after surgery that my surgeon had to go into his next case and couldn’t talk to me. All I know is what he told my family, but I want to know more.

So, until then, I hope everyone has a good week!