Operation!!

I loved that game! G

Surgery was Friday 6/4/10. Bill dropped me off at 12:15. Yep, just like someone dropping their dog off at the vet. Thing is, we wait for our dogs! Even on surgery days. Would you leave your children?? In Bill's defense, I told him to go back to work. What a waste of vacation that would be!!

They'd changed my surgery time 3 times since Tuesday. At first it was 1 PM, then 2:30 and finally they settled on 2:15. Bill went with me to check in and promised to be back by 3:00 in case my surgery didn't take the whole 90 minutes.

They took me promptly back to "lucky room #7". The nurse, Connie, had my plastic bag of "goodies" and I had my tote bag with a book and sweatshirt. I know those places are cold!!! Of course I had to ask if there was anything Orange in there! Nope, just blue and gray!! BORING!!

She left me to change and was the first thing I turn loose in the hospital...but a stink bug! That made me laugh out loud. I can't seem to get away from those little buggers! I open the curtain and sit in the chair with book in hand. I'm not getting in that bed any sooner than I have to.

Enter Dr. Psky, he's a nice guy! He tells me what they are going to do and explains I might end up with some external hardware if he can save all my little carpal bones. He wouldn't know until he got in there. I asked "When can I go back to work" (we'll see), "When can I ride again" (we'll see), "I have an agility trial tomorrow, can I run a dog?", finally he says, "Can you at least wait until I get the stitches out?" He asked if I had any more questions, I had just one. "So how much pain will there really be?" He said that since I was sitting in a chair reading a book that I shouldn't have any problem at all. EXCELLENT!! He marks my 'cast' with a P (so they know what they are working on) and leaves.

In comes Connie. She makes me get into the bed. RATS! On the plus side, she gives me a "Teddy Cuddler" - this plastic cover that fills with warm air! I WANT ONE!!! She also wraps my left arm with a warm towel to 'pop' my veins. I'm snug as a bug in a rug. Hum, speaking of which....wonder where that little stink bug went?

she takes out a little insulin needle and explains it contains lidocaine, it stings. So I'll feel a little poke and a big sting. After she's done she says, "Well you should have felt a big sting". I told her it did sting, but what could I really do about it. She just laughed. So then she pulls out the needle for the IV! I told her, WOW, now there's a needle! I wouldn't stick that in my horse! She thought that was pretty funny too and told me, "see why I gave you the lidocaine"? GOOD JOB HER!!

She takes my vitals, BORING!! BP 114/72, pulse = 56. She helps me fill out my extremely boring health history. She said they don't see a lot of "boring" patients anymore, so I was a treat! WOW! Now that's something I don't hear every day! Next I get this antacid reducer stuff. She called it the sweat tart without the sweet. It was really tart. I drank it down and told her it was really good. She said no one had ever said THAT before. I explained that it was probably because I haven't had anything to drink since 9PM the previous evening.

Next came the anesthesiologist, Nancy L. She said that they were ahead of schedule so I'd be going in early. YIPPEE!! She looked at my chart, declared me 'boring' and asked if I got motion sickness. I told her no, but my friend Martha does! She just smiled and told Connie that I didn't need to have the "sweet tart stuff", Connie told her, "Too late and she liked it". This made Connie's eyebrows go up. Yep, I'm scary!

Now, Jeff told me to really look forward to the pre-anesthetic, watch a clock if possible and when the clock starts to shutter back and forth, that means it's working! It's really cool!! Well, Dr. Nancy said to just 'skip" it as they didn't need me any calmer. So they told me a couple stories about the people they had to retrieve from the ceilings. G

Into the Operating Room we go. It's cold and OMG!! Is that the Beatles?? I move over to the next bed and ask, "Is that what we'll have to listen to?" The tell me it's whatever the doctor chooses and what would I prefer? I respond, "Five Finger Death Punch" and someone turned out the lights! HOW RUDE!! I didn't even get to count!

Next thing I remember, I' in recovery, putting on my clothes and attempting to walk. I guess I didn't look too stable as they wheeled me out. It was after 4 by now and I'm sure they wanted to go home! Probably saved them some water vomit in the new Parking Ramp too.

Bill said Dr. Psky said I did a good job of smashing it up. They could fix a carpal bone or two, I'll find out which ones when I go back next week. Sounds like I could loose some flexibility, but considering I'm still on the right side of the grass, that's not that big of a deal. I found a little diagram that shows all 8 little bones so I'll know exactly what's missing. I have a Titanium plate and 10 stainless steel screws. It needs to stay in a year or two and then could come out if it's bothering me. One of the most difficult things for me will be no lifting of heavy weight with this hand for at least one year. He has yet to define "heavy", so I'm not sure what that really means yet.

If you check the dictionary under "Good Patient", you will not see my picture. G That being said, if you look under positive attitude, good sense of humor and determination, there you will find me!

So I'm home, meds are good, driving restriction bad. Typing one handed is frustrating, although I hear they made one handed keyboards. The dogs LOVE the afternoon naps! Looking forward to things getting bad to normal! Whatever that is.