Search This Blog

Friday, March 7, 2008

greys anatomy, bed pans, and ice machines.

well, yesterday i had ACL surgery #3.
everything went smoothly, but they found some meniscus damage as well which they weren't expecting. most of it got cleaned out, but some of it was jagged in a really tight place so the Doc couldn't reach that part...he said when i start running and playing basketball again it will probably bug me a little bit, but when i get a new brace they will design it to take pressure off of it. so thats kind of a bummer because he said it will probably induce arthritis sooner than usual, which is already true of my other knee....but i know God has that all under control.

i was really scared going into surgery. my mom and i went together thursday morning and my dad came a little later from school. i got the IV in right away which always makes my arm ache, and i layed in the bed for about an hour before the anethesiologists (sp?) took me to the block room. here i said bye to the parentals...always a scary time.

in the block room my straight from Greys Anatomy (really really good looking) anesthesiologist explained how they were going to block the nerves in my leg. they used an ultrasound (kind of felt like i was pregnant for a sec...kinda weird) and found a nerve in my groin and one behind my knee and shot both with numbing medicine to numb my whole leg. right before that they had given me an IV of Verset...a "calming" drug...so i was with it but pretty relaxed. soon i couldnt move my leg at all because it was completely numb. my nurse in that room was really really cool and i talked to her for about 45 minutes while i waited for surgery to start...so was explaining me her job and talking me into it....she made $150,000 her first year out of school and only works 3 days a week....WHAT?! amazing...

so by about 1 i was ready for surgery and got wheeled into this TINY room with crap alllllll over the place. it was really weird...like it looked like a storage closet...i was thinking, hmm, i dont know about this. there were a ton of nurses in there and they moved me onto the operating table and strapped my arms off to the side. then they put an "oxygen" mask over by nose and mouth and told me to just breathe regularly....

next thing i knew it was 4pm and i was waking up with a STRONG urge to pee. so here i lost all sense of decency as two grandma aged nurses "bedpanned" me right there. i just went with it...haha. what can you do right? interesting experience though...

but i woke up from surgery shaking really really bad. like i couldn't stop myself and the nurses were kind of worried about it. so they wrapped me with this bubble wrap type stuff that inflatted with hot air and wrapped me in blankets until i stopped shaking...all my muscles are really sore today now because of how tense i got during that. massage anyone? :-) haha...

so anyways...once i was awake enough they took me into the outpatient rooms and moved me to a recliner where my parents came back to see me. i ate some Saltines (not what you want when your mouth and throat are completely dry) and took some pain meds while the nurse finished my paper work. after a quick bathroom break again (they really pump you with fluids) and the nurse almost hitting my foot on the door frame i made it out to the van and home.

everything went great and i feel great. i kept falling asleep yesterday sporadically and just layed around. today some friends stopped by to keep me company! that was really sweet of them! :-) but for now im just taking it easy....my leg doesnt really have much strength in it right now. im on crutches for about a week and have a full leg brace while im trying to get my range of motion back. no driving or anything for a while either...

thank you SOOOOOO much to everyone who has been praying for me and thinking about me. it totally got me through a lot of the anxiety and worry. but now is the hardest part...just pray that my energy keeps up and that i have the motivation to keep pushing myself even when it hurts! love you all.

<3

1 comment:

  1. My favorite part was "everything went great and i feel great." And my least favorite was when you said you "bedpanned it." Thank you for that wonderful picture :)

    ReplyDelete