Surgery Day

Disclaimer: I'm still groggy from anethisia and taking lortabs as I write this post. Hopefully I don't write as scattered as my brain feels right now! :p

I'm up from sleeping most of the afternoon away. I wanted to makes sure I tried to post today, while I still remember some of what happened.

So, today was surgery day!

Starting last night, I was not allowed to eat/drink past midnight, the usual. I certainly obeyed the instructions as I have a history of getting sick from anesthesia and know how important this really is.

Of course I woke up super early. I'm still not adjusted to the time change. I think I woke up around 5am which is much better than the 4am I woke up the last two days. This was good because it gave me some time to putter this morning. The girls stayed at my parents house last night, since we had to be up and out fairly early.

The first thing we made sure to do on our way to the hospital was VOTE! I was number 30-something at 7am and proud of it :)

The surgery was being conducted at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), in Buffalo, NY. While this hospital is on the other side of town, it is very cool because it is actually the ONLY level 1 trauma center in New York State! It is a huge hospital and there is tons of stuff going on. It feels a bit like a factor but everything was managed very well.

We arrived at the hospital a little before 8. It was nice to get there early because I was finally able to see the office where Brian works and some of his co-workers. It was great to have the surgery where Brian works because he knows all the Drs. and a residents, so he was comfortably knowing who was who and what was going on.

At 8am we had to check into the Ambulatory Surgery Center. I waited no longer than 10 minutes before they had me all checked in and into the back.

The first thing they had me to was a pregnancy test. I found this ironic because I had to pee in a cup when I wasn't allowed to even drink a sip of water since the day before. Anyways, I managed to make it happen, probably because I was a little nervous/anxious.

After that, I was given the usual hospital gown and told (my favorite quote of the day) to "get naked like the day I was born!" Ha ha ha :) It was super cold in the room so I was bundled up in blankets. That is when we took the picture I posted earlier.

They immediately started an IV with a sedative. It was very, very slow (I think they just wanted it started but surgery was still nearly 2 hours away, so they kept it slow). During this time there were lots of questions on my medical history.

I saw both the Resident Anethesialogist and Anesthesiologist. I can't say enough of how amazing they were. This surgery was my BEST experience ever in terms of anesthesia. After my first foot surgery, I woke up nauseous and shaking. During both my c-sections I was very nauseous and with Nora, vomiting the entire time. They took this into consideration and made sure they had drugs lined up in advanced. If I ever have to come back for another surgery, I really hope I get the same Dr. He was just so open and understanding and really talked things through with me. He also kept visiting me while we waited which was nice.

My Dr. and his team performing the surgery were also amazing. Although I didn't see my favorite PA, Karen, I did get to meet a new PA Jeff. Jeff and Dr. Ritter both came by multiple times to discuss what the definitely knew they had to do, and then what they might potentially have to do. They examined and talked about my foot again and made sure I understood everything before signing off. As I said before, they "got my foot" more than previous Drs. I had seen. There is no greater feeling that to be able to totally trust your entire surgical team prior to going under!!!

So, my last memory is around 9:45. In my IV I was giving something that made me feel like I had a few drinks of wine... really fast! After about 10 minutes, my mind goes blank. Brian says that I was still totally awake and chatting away, when I was wheeled off at 10, but I don't remember anything at all! (Last surgery I remember getting wheeled into the OR and breathing in the mask... this time, it's a blank!)

Apparently I was in surgery for nearly two hours. They thought it would only take about 1 hour, so I was very surprised to hear this. I have yet to see the Op report, so I will find out the details when I can get ahold of that.

The next thing I remember was waking up around 1:30. Wow, and I just woke up like I woke up from a nap! It was the greatest thing ever. I wasn't cold, nauseous or anything! I was so excited and I think I kept telling the nurse how happy I was about this. She let me have two big glasses of water right away.

The next thing that I was surprised about was that I had a cast! The plan was that I would have a splint after surgery for two weeks and then get a cast. Again, I'm surprised but very happy about this. Having a cast gives it much more protection from some unruly toddlers that I know...

Before I woke up, I had already been out of surgery for and hour and a half. Brian was then able to come in and visit. He had spoken to the Drs. and got the report. At this point, they were ready to get me out. I wore stretchy/comfortable clothing so it was easy to get dressed and they wheeled me out to the car.

So, what did they do?

When they got in there, they learned that my tendon was in a much worse state than they had thought. This is probably because of my past issues and the fact that this is my second tear. A good portion of my tendon had to be removed. They also found a cyst on the tendon that had to be removed.

So, the decision was made that they would "transfer" an existing tendon in my foot (the on that connects to my baby toes) and help stabilize the posterior tibial tendon that was left. In order to do this, they drill a hole in one of the bones and thread the tendon through, in order to run them parallel together. This helps give the existing tendon support, since it will likely never heal to how I need it to be.

As a result, I'm probably going to be loosing some mobility in my toes. My future activities will be limited - I can no longer climb trees and I definitely will have to retire from any kind of running.

The good news? They did NOT have to take the bone from my heal and rebuild my arch. Although I was showing some symptoms of this, they decided not to perform the procedure. I'll find out why in my post op appointment. I'm thrilled about this since that procedure would probably have added another few weeks to my "non-weight bearing" timeframe.

This is about all I know at this point, in my special, non-medical explanation.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm happy with how things went. My foot is hurting ALOT and I'm maximizing on the painkillers right now. Hopefully within a few days I can go down to just Ibuprofen, since I hate feeling out of things. This afternoon I slept, at homemade mac 'n cheese my mom made, slept and ate again.

Thank you to everyone who has left me such nice messages on Facebook and sent me Texts. I really appreciate all of your kind thoughts!