I didn't know what to expect. Would the pain be long and difficult to manage? Would it linger for days on end? Would I want to sleep for the better part of a few days? How much time would I want to spend in bed?
To maybe no one's surprise, everything surrounding the surgery has been far better than anticipated. Which is definitely a good thing! But I'm barely a week removed from it so I'm sure the challenges will come in waves, much like everything else.
Megan offered to spend the night on Wednesday night so that she could take me bright and early to the surgical center on Thursday morning. She has had a couple of surgeries herself there and was familiar with the process. She explained all the things to expect and that certainly helped as I navigated unknown territory.
My surgery was scheduled at 7:00 a.m. so we got there at 5:30 to check in and begin all of the pre-op stuff. They had me sign a few forms and I sat in the waiting room for just a few minutes before I hugged Megan and they took me back. I was then weighed and they took a urine sample to ensure that I was not pregnant.
In the pre-op room, they had me change into a surgical gown and put a singular compression sock on my good leg. The nurse explained a cool little trick with the plastic bag to get the sock on easier, but I was able to get it on without it. We enjoyed a laugh about how it was like putting on pantyhose.
She then put an IV in on my left hand and soon, the anesthesiologist came over to give me the nerve block. They clearly had given me something to relax at this point because while I remember being stuck in the leg repeatedly with a very fine gauge needle, it was far less painful than the stick to my hand. I watched the sonogram to see what he was doing, but the relaxing meds really created a brain fog. I do remember the doctor coming in and asking me what we were doing that day. I guess I answered her correctly because they were then wheeling me into the operating room.
I saw people moving about for maybe 30 seconds and then the next thing I knew I was waking up in a different room. There wasn't even a countdown!
Within seconds of opening my eyes, I felt like a nurse was right there talking me through things. I felt zero pain. Everything was just kind of soft and warm at that point in time. Eventually, she got me to sit up and I very quickly realized I needed to pee. She helped me get to the bathroom in a wheelchair and then I sat there while I waited for Megan to come get me. I started to get more and more lucid as I sat there and was surprised at how alert and awake I thought I felt. It was only later when I was trying to recall what they said to me that I realized I was unsure of my own memory. I thought that I asked about the cartilage repair as that would mean I was going to have to be 6 weeks non-weight-bearing. But then I wasn't sure of what the response was. And I never saw my surgeon after the surgery to ask questions about how it went.
Megan got me home and into the house. We luckily had a stairlift installed for Adam in June so I rode it upstairs and crutched myself to bed. When we bought our Sleep Number bed years ago, we went ahead and got the head and foot lift option which I was very grateful for in this moment. I tried to nap, but really wasn't very sleepy. I closed my eyes for maybe 30 minutes trying to sleep, but gave up and decided to just read instead.
To no one's surprise, I loathe lying around in bed if I am feeling even the slightest bit okay. I convinced Megan and Adam that I should go downstairs so we could all watch the new Ted Lasso episode together and have dinner. I wasn't in any pain yet though I was having a lot of burning/tingling in my toes.
I went to bed at a fairly normal time, but didn't sleep all that great due to the burning/tingling, my foot being elevated, and the cast on my foot. They put me in a cast that has a hard outer shell that runs along the calf and sole of my foot. The portion touching the top of my foot and the shin is cotton and the whole thing is wrapped in an industrial elastic bandage. It stays on for 2 weeks until I go into a removable boot. It's kind of weird to not know what the incisions or wound looks like. I can feel pain on the side of the ankle where the procedure was done, but it's impossible to pinpoint if it's skin pain from the incision or from all of the work that they did under the skin.
The next morning, I was feeling good enough to go downstairs and do some Legos at the kitchen table with my foot propped up. I received a call from the surgeon's office to check in on my pain and at that time I was feeling pretty good. I also spoke with the medical assistant and they confirmed that I did have both the internal brace surgery to repair the ligaments as well as the cartilage surgery that meant I would be non-weight-bearing for even longer (six weeks!).
Megan and I ordered lunch from Chicken Salad Chick, which is one of my favorites. As we were finishing up lunch, that is when the nerve block must have worn off. I had just taken a hydrocodone (I was taking 1 every 6 hours), but my pain ratcheted up to probably an eight out of 10. I was extremely uncomfortable for the remaining part of the afternoon and couldn't even nap because it was keeping me awake. I'll note though that the pain was still far less than when I rolled it horribly in March and had to drag myself out of the woods for 6 miles so perspective is everything.
I took a shower late that afternoon as a distraction and wanted to make sure that I could handle doing that without any help. I did let Megan put the shower seat in the shower, but otherwise I was able to do everything independently. I bought a silicone sock thing from Amazon that goes over the cast and allows for it to stay dry. It still is super awkward and it's very hard shower with one leg, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Luckily, the pain started to subside in the evening and I got a little bit better sleep that night. On Saturday, my pain was moving between a 2-4 all day. I Lego'd, I watched TV, and read.
Sunday was more of the same and the pain seemed to be manageable enough to cut down to just a half dose of everything. I really didn't want to be on the prescription medication if I didn't need to be so I switched to just taking the over the counter stuff during the day and only a half a Hydrocodone at night. By Tuesday night I was ready to just do over the counter stuff. I tried doing a bunch of things independently around the house to ensure that I could keep myself, Adam, and the puppies fed and alive over the following weeks. I was already getting restless!
On Monday, I returned to work, which luckily is just downstairs for me. I had a huge presentation to get ready for on Tuesday so it was nice to try to ease into things for a day. I tried to keep my leg elevated as much as possible at my desk and was grateful that I could be in comfortable clothes while I was otherwise uncomfortable.
Megan helped us out that morning and Adam had a doctor's appointment so I was alone for the first time in a few days. Luckily, nothing exciting happened. My sister came over that afternoon to help us through at least Thursday. I was initially feeling good enough that I thought maybe we could handle it without her. But I knew I should just take the help and try to not be superwoman.
And in hindsight, I'm very grateful that I didn't change my mind because on Tuesday afternoon, our downstairs air conditioning went kaput and I needed her help for a lot more! It was getting increasingly warm and at first I thought it was just the unit couldn't keep up on a hot August day. But then I realized the upstairs one was working just fine so clearly something was wrong. Tasha did a bunch of troubleshooting, going in and out of the attic and checking out the outside unit. We tried all the tricks we knew and then Adam called someone to come out to look at it the following morning.
The good news is that the upstairs one was working and that is where we sleep. But both units were original to the house when we built it in 2008 and the likelihood of the other one going out in the next couple of years was very high. We talked about getting both replaced just to save ourselves the pain of going through this all again. The repair person basically told us that we could put a $1,200 bandaid on it, but it was not going to fix the ultimate problem and it was going to have to be replaced anyway. So very quickly, we ended up deciding to just have our entire system replaced with new ductwork and furnaces. They could come do it the following day thankfully.
This was Wednesday. So I'm not even a week out of surgery yet. That night, I decided to see if I could help Adam independently to get ready for bed. This involves getting him undressed and swinging his legs into bed. We'd kind of practiced before I had the surgery just to see if it was even possible, but obviously it's a little different when you know you have full use of your legs. It definitely took way longer than usual, but we figured it out. I did the same thing the following morning and we felt pretty okay with having Tasha go home that day so she could escape our chaos and get back to her family.
I was very grateful for her cooking, helping Adam, and the billion hours she spent cleaning my yard up. She found a hole in the backyard near the foundation of the house where it looks like water was pooling. I'm hoping that it's just that we need to have our gutters cleaned and nothing more serious. She offered to go check the gutters, but after getting on the ladder and barely above my shoulders, she agreed that it was not a good idea. Also, what morons we must've looked like with me in my cast “supporting" the ladder from a chair. Our mom and grandma are the exact same stubborn, do-it-myself people. She'd scold me to stop doing things on the scooter or crutches, but no one knows my toxic independence better than her.
Luckily, Megan has a gutter person and hopefully we'll resolve that issue THIS week.
The HVAC team came out on Thursday to install everything and they were here for nearly 12 hours, but they were able to get everything fixed and operating smoothly. I was very happy that they stayed to complete the job, but I was so physically and mentally exhausted by the time they left that I just wanted to shovel my dinner in my mouth and go to bed.
But, for the first time in a week, I didn't have any help. So we slowly and manically laughed about our current state as I helped Adam get ready for bed and myself as well.
I should also mention that the Target and the Target Optical that Adam works at has been going through a store renovation for the last couple of months and their grand opening was Friday. So his week at work has been extra chaotic as they have been trying to get the store ready.
Life. Be. Wild.
This was certainly one of those weeks that I totally understand bald Britney with an umbrella.
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