January 14th of 2010
My surgery day!
I couldn't eat anything as of midnight the night before (or I would fully morph to match my gremlin feet?).
My surgery was scheduled at 9am but I arrived early to fill paperwork. The nurse was so sweet and settled my nerves a bit. She taught me how to walk in crutches before the surgery began and explained how I should be icing every 15 minutes after surgery, take a 20 minute break, then again as OFTEN as possible ALL DAY. Also, I should be elevating my legs (This proved immensely helpful, it really INSTANTLY relieves discomfort!) When the doctor arrived, she went over what we were doing and marked up my feet. I wouldn't know until after my surgery whether PINS or SCREWS would be used (luckily, I needed none at all!). I was told Iwould be in and out consciousness during surgery - wait ONE minute, I don't think so! So I asked to be knocked out entirely. And I was!
I had to put my glasses away BEFORE walking to the operating room(no contacts allowed either) and anyone who wears glasses knows this makes us very nervous! I walked in half blind, all I could see were lights. I told them I was so scared. My doctor held my hand and said 'squeeze!' When the anesthesia was being administered, I got really nervous because i knew I was about to go under. I felt the "serum" reach my face like pins and needles, wow I wasn't prepared for this! Before I knew it, I was out... and then just as fast as blinking, I was awake and done! Wow! I was in surgery for like 2 hours!
Waking up from anesthesia, all I felt was pressure in ONE toe. The one I call the cashew. I immediately said I felt pain and wanted anesthesia in that toe. My doctor came over, shot the toe and all was well from then on out. After about an hour I was in a cab on my way home. I NEVER felt groggy, dizzy, drugged up. Just numbness in my feet and some burning, like heat. Most of my discomfort came from desperately trying to keep my toes from touching anything. Because commonsense told me it would hurt my incisions. Overall, surgery was worse in my imagination than it was in reality. The fear of pain is so strong, but realistically, the fear of having something hit your feet is much greater than any pain I felt.
I just got my 2nd toe done last week on the 22nd of December. I didn't get both feet done because my left foot doesn't bother me, my right one is the one that everyone says that I am flipping them off with the thing lol. It was just under half and inch longer then my bog toe. Anyway, I am going to comment through your process on mine so far lol.
ReplyDeleteI have had a couple of different operations, as I inherited my toe (although mine is much longer then anyone else's in the family), I was also lucky enough to inherit bad knees and have had both operated on and a couple of years ago I broke my left ankle and had to have that fixed up, FUN! Anyway, the point is that I was lucky that I was not nervous and din't have the stress, bc that is so true that you make yourself more stressed then you need to be. I am glad you had such a good doctor to hold your hand and make you feel comfortable, that is great! I love my doctor and he is the one that did my ankle surgery.