Got my screws out today. It was a long day. My surgery was scheduled for 4:30 pm so I had to be at the hospital at 2:30. I couldn't eat all day. Miserable. I got to the hospital on time and the lady registering me was having problems with her computer. Ended up taking about 20 minutes but I was finally led into my own room for pre-op at about 3. The hospital did a major addition about a year ago and they ended up converting the old ICU to outpatient care and the old burn unit to pre-op. So, all the rooms are pretty huge and only one patient per room. Kind of nice. Anyway, the nurse came in right away and ran through all the usual questions. She made me change into this new kind of gown that seems to be made of paper. Then she connected a tube to it that blew air right into it for temperature control. Very fancy. Think I prefer the old way though. Right before she left, she mentioned that my doctor was running about 2 hours late. Sweet. I was sooo hungry at this point. The anesthesiologist came in at about 4:30 to start my IV and said my surgery was probably going to be at 6:30. He also reviewed the nerve block procedure. Since he was going to be in a different surgery at 5:30, he wanted to do the nerve block a bit early rather than risk there being a delay. He came back in at 5, gave me some valium (Versed) and did the nerve block. Very simple and painless. What was different this time is that he block a second nerve as well. The first was behind my leg, just above my knee. The second was in the front, just above and to the right of the knee. The block slowly settled in and my foot kept getting more heavy. At 5:30, my doc came in to review everything and make sure I was comfortable. He then left to perform a different surgery. At about 6:15, the operative nurse and another anesthesiologist came in to take me to surgery. The operating room was pretty cool, it's only a year old and had some very fancy equipment. Anesthesiologist gave me some more versed and had me start breathing through a mask. About a minute later, I was out. I woke up at 8 pm in recovery and was very groggy. Was there for about an hour and then was wheeled up to my room. Unfortunately, I never found out what my doc did to my foot. He called my house to inform my mother and she didn't ask many questions. It took about 2 hours for me to become less groggy and started feeling better around 10:30. One thing that is really strange is that I began to develop a burning pain in my shin (maybe a 2 out of 10). There is no way the nerve block should be wearing off so fast! The pain was getting worse (4/10) so the nurse gave me a couple of oxy at 10:30. Didn't do anything for the pain. At 11:30, the top right part of my calf is no longer numb and the pain in my shin continues to escalate (5/10). The nurse called Ortho and they said to give me dilauded and valium. I held off until 12:30 am and had to take it. Pain was about 6/10. It has helped a little but not much. Kind of concerning. So, now it's 1:30 am and my shin still hurts. I can't move my toes yet and the left side of my calf is still numb. Really hope this is a temporary pain. If the dialuded isn't helping for this, I'm really nervous when my heel fires up.
So, long rant. As mentioned, I'm on the dilauded so excuse typos or if this doesn't make sense at all. Will update again tomorrow.
Oh, I did get my screws. They're probably a good 2" - 2.5". Crazy.
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