texans on the autobahn

I don't ever want to do this again!!!

My surgery is over and it was more complicated than the doc had anticipated. What should have taken 30-45 minutes took almost 2 hours because I had a complete rupture of the meniscus. Dr. Buehler also cleaned up some of the “fibers” from my torn acl. However, as it turned out, I didn't need my own robe, as this time I was provided a surgical gown. Thank God!

I had thought that Robin would get to be with me up until the point they took me into surgery but he didn't. I waited in the "staging" area for about an hour. I think I was the doc's 2nd surgery that day. I wished Robin had been able to stay with me before the surgery because I was alone and of course everyone was speaking German, andI didn't have my ipod to listen to because it was in the locker.

I crutched myself into the surgery room. That is so weird. When I had Joe I walked myself into the surgery room too. It's just a weird experience. I think they should put you to sleep then wheel you into the surgery room. So I get in there and I hop up on the table, not an easy thing to do in my condition. I was really nervous. The anesthiologist started talking to me telling me I would start to feel light headed and dizzy and before you knew it, I was out. . .that was so weird, so weird, so weird.

I woke up in the recovery room really groggy and thirsty. The doc came in a little while later and tried to talk to me, but that wasn't happening. He later told me that I had looked green when he had come to talk. I think my blood pressure was really low. They had me sipping some tepid tea and then they had me drink some water that had drops of some medication to bring my blood pressure up.

I still had pain, but it was in a totally different location and just different. The pain of the ruptured mensicus was gone, the pain I had was from the drainage tube/needle in my knee. I finally got to go home around 5:30. We had planned to be home sooner than that, but since the surgery took so much longer. . .it took me a while to get out of the place, because I was still groggy and on crutches. They had me sit down on the couch and drink some more of the water with drops.

We got home and I was hungry, but I found out that eating was a mistake. I only ate a few saltine crackers and some cranberry juice with water and got sick. Not pleasant. Poor Robin! I know he can't wait for this to all be over and he can get back to a normal routine. But I couldn't ask for a better husband! He commented that we had reached a new level in our relationship!

The day after the surgery I went back to the doctor's office. I had not slept well at all, with all the queasiness, and discomfort. We thought the doctor was going to remove the tube but he decided to leave it in until tonight. Sam and his friend Zach, thought the flask type thing draining all the blood and fluid from my knee was "cool", but I finally decided to cover it with a sock so I didn't have to look at it. Because there was so much fluid, the doctor said if he took it out too soon and my knee swelled up, then he'd have to drain it, and I definitely didn't want to do that again. While we were there however, I got to hear a lady scream when her drainage needle was removed. I made the doc promise to be gentle, though I'm not so sure you can be so gentle that it won't hurt.

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 3:15 PM