One day post op

Well, I'm one day post op. I wanted to post something yesterday but I didn't feel like getting on the computer. I really don't feel like being on here now, but I'm trying to get my mind off of my pain.

My block started wearing off around 7:00 this morning. I woke my husband up just to show him that I could BARELY move my toes. He said I was moving my head as I was trying to move my toes. LOL I just thought that I hurt yesterday, but around 8:00 this morning I started hurting in places that I didn't hurt until the block began to wear off. My whole foot is hurting, but mostly in my heal. It feels like someone has a vice on my heal and is squeezing it real hard. I knew it was going to hurt, but I never imagined it could hurt this bad. I'm taking my oxycodone and phenergan every four hours and alternating with extra strength Tylenol every four hours in between. That means I'm getting something in me every two hours. They told me I could only take the Tylenol for about 3-4 days that way so I hope the pain gets better by the time I have to stop the Tylenol.

When I went back to the nurse (her name was Linda) yesterday she was talking very highly about Dr. Womack. She said he does a lot of these surgeries and that he is one of the best foot surgeons at that hospital. She asked me if I minded if medical students observed my surgery. I told her I didn't mind but just don't let them touch me. Linda also told me that all of the interns love to shadow Dr. Womack because he is such a good doctor. She said he usually has a little posy following him around. She really helped me to know I made the right choice in my doctor. She was a really good nurse too. I'm going to request her when I go back to have my right foot done.

Usually they have a hard time running my IV's. I warned Linda about that so she started with my left hand. She put the tourniquet on it and popped my hand a few times and said let me see your other hand. She popped my right hand a few times and said "man you were right you don't have cooperating veins do you"? LOL She decided to go into my left hand that had the tourniquet on it. She told me she was going to give me some numbing medicine before putting the IV in. I told her that hurt worse than an IV because it stings really bad. She said she didn't have to give me that if I didn't want it but I told her to go ahead because they usually have to dig to get my vein. After she numbed it she told me "here we go" she noticed I was holding my breath and she told me not to do that. She told me when you hold your breath it closes off your veins and makes them go flat so the needle could go right through the vein and make it collapse, which is what usually happens with me when I get an IV. Well now, why couldn't all of the other nurses that have run IV's on me tell me that and I may not have had problems in the past. She told me to take a deep breath in through my nose and let it out slowly through my mouth as she was putting it in. Well wouldn't you know that worked. We were both so excited. LOL She said she couldn't believe as small as my veins were that she got it in the first time. I told her I knew she would because I prayed for her. hahaha She told me she prayed for her too.

I got to speak to the anesthesiologist after she ran my IV. I told him I wanted him to put me completely to sleep. I didn't want to hear anything, feel anything, heck I didn't want to remember anything. I told him if he could put me to sleep until next Tuesday he would be my VERY BEST friend. LOL Well, he did a good job because I don't even remember going in to the operating room. They gave me a sedative in order to do my nerve block. The last thing I remember is turning over on my stomach so they could put the nerve block in the back of my leg. I heard him tell Linda to go ahead and give me the sedative. I asked her how long it would take to knock me out and she said not long then BAM...I WAS OUT!!! That's the way I like it though. Next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery. That nurse was really sweet too, but I can't tell you her name because I was still drugged up. She did call me a while after I got home to make sure I got in OK. I thought that was really sweet.

When my surgery was over Dr. Womack told my husband that it took a little longer that he thought it would. We knew my tendon was laying in my ankle but he didn't know until he got in that it was covered in scar tissue. He said that a tendon should be white and mine was all yellow and covered in scar tissue so he had to cut out that scar tissue when he took the tendon out.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before in another post, but my doctor told me before my surgery that they would put a guide wire in my foot first and take an x-ray to make sure the screw was going in the right place. He said it would be much easier to move the guide wire than the screw. The screw he used has a hole through it so it just goes in over the guide wire. I thought that was a pretty clever way to make sure the screw is going in the right place. They also took an x-ray once the screw was in place to make sure that it was threaded through both bones. He gave me a nice little souvenir x-ray of my screw to bring home with me. It shows the screw and you can also see where he cut my bone. I'm going to try and figure out how to post it on here. He drilled a hole in my navicular bone and thread my new tendon through that and stitched it together. He also made three incisions in my Achilles tendon to lengthen it and put it back in place. I think that about does it...not sure if I missed anything cause I'm getting kinda loopy from my oxy and phenergan. LOL

My little three pound Yorkie Mollie has been taking GREAT care of me. I also have some pictures of her to post on here. She has been stuck to me like glue since I got home from the hospital. I guess she realizes something is wrong with me and she's trying to comfort me. She's a GREAT little mother. hahaha

This seems like a long post, but it's two days worth. I'll stop for now and post more later.