It is surgery day.\u00a0 Kammy and I awaken at 5 AM.\u00a0 I\u2019m filled with nervousness tempered with impatience and even a bit of happiness.\u00a0 It is actually time to move forward!<\/p>\n
Kammy makes coffee (none for me) and we stumble around the house, gathering what we need: Crutches, my knee brace, insurance card, camera (yep photo geek), one credit card.\u00a0 I leave any jewelry behind including my wedding ring.\u00a0 We get in the car and make the 20 minute drive to Tria uneventfully.<\/p>\n
We go right up to the third floor and its just 6 AM, right on time.\u00a0\u00a0 There are two couples ahead of us, one already waiting, and one with the receptionist.\u00a0 After a few minutes it\u2019s our turn so we walk up, hand over the credit card (to cover copay and the pain meds they\u2019ll send me home with) have a quick chat with the receptionist and then take our pile of paperwork to the waiting area.\u00a0 By now both of the other couples have moved along so we have the room to ourselves.<\/p>\n
Before we really even get seated a nurse comes out and calls my name.\u00a0 Nervousness wells up in me\u2026here we go.\u00a0 She leads us back to the pre-op room; it\u2019s a three walled room off a wide corridor.\u00a0 She hands me a gown, grippy slippers, and a bag to put my clothes in and gives directions.\u00a0 She closes the curtain that makes the 4th<\/sup> wall of the room and leaves while I change.\u00a0 As soon as I\u2019m lying down on the bed two nurses come in and get to work.\u00a0 First there\u2019s an EKG with some easy-on, easy-off electrodes, then they stick some heavier-duty electrodes to my chest and arms (those are gonna hurt when they come off\u2026).\u00a0 Two more staff come in and get to work.\u00a0 One introduces herself as the anesthesiologist and starts discussing with me whether I prefer General or a Spinal + a sedative that will \u2018make me sleep\u2019.\u00a0 She points out that with the General I will have to go on a breather and that this surgery is done about 80% of the time with spinal plus sedative.\u00a0 I feel good going with the latter to avoid some of the complications and annoyances that General anesthesia causes some people (nausea, sore throat, etc.).<\/p>\n While this conversation is going on the IV nurse comes in and gets to work.\u00a0 I tell her that I have \u2018squirmy\u2019 veins that a lot of people have trouble with (I immediately wonder if I jinxed her by saying that.)\u00a0 Suffice it to say that two nurses and several pokes later the IV is in and my nervousness is giving way to some pretty strong anxiety.\u00a0 They apologize profusely for having to try so many times (It is pretty typical for me so while I don\u2019t like it it\u2019s not a shock) and I say not to worry.\u00a0 Then one of the four staff in the room says \u201cWhat do you think\u2026does he deserve a 2+2?\u201d\u00a0 One immediately replies YES!\u00a0 I can\u2019t say for sure but I think it means they gave me a bit stronger dose of Fentanyl than they might have otherwise.\u00a0 Within under a minute all anxiety\/nervousness was gone.\u00a0 This was very good because now the anesthesiologist was getting ready to give me a Femoral Block. As she\u2019d explained a few minutes earlier, the Femoral Block is a shot they give very high on the groin area (big needle) which goes a long way to helping with the post-surgery pain I\u2019d otherwise be feeling.\u00a0 It also meant absolutely no weight-bearing on that leg until full feeling was restored.<\/p>\n Then my surgeon came in and talked with us for a few minutes.\u00a0 First order of business:\u00a0 Verify who I am, what\u2019s being done and where.\u00a0 They were all very diligent about asking me my full name, my date of birth, what was I here for, and which knee.\u00a0 Both the anesthesiologist and the Surgeon wrote on my leg to REALLY make sure everyone was in agreement about what was being operated on, and what was being done.\u00a0 Then he went on to reiterate much of what we\u2019d discussed during the two consultations: risks, concerns, and outcomes.\u00a0 After a few minutes discussion he said he\u2019d see me in the Operating room and left.<\/p>\n A nurse put an oxygen mask on me and said that if I started feeling sleepy I should just go to sleep.\u00a0 They wheeled toward the operating room\u2026the next thing I remember was being shuffled from the gurney to an operating table and lying down, tried to look around\u2026now sit up for the spinal\u2026<\/p>\n The next thing I recall is that I\u2019m waking up.\u00a0 More specifically I am trying to wake up, sort of like I\u2019m a marshmallow in a bag of marshmallows trying to get to the top\u2026but not trying too hard\u2026I can see my nicely bandaged leg\u2026I\u2019m in a new room I haven\u2019t been in before, more like an \u2018area\u2019 where a nurse could keep an eye on several post-op people like myself I presume.\u00a0 Someone talks to me (the Surgeon\u2026 a nurse?) and I agree that I\u2019m ready to go back to my pre-op room\u2026then I\u2019m in the pre-op room and Kammy is there\u2026we talk a bit\u2026a nurse asks me how I feel\u2026.OK\u2026no, a bit of pain starting in my leg.\u00a0 Someone hands me my first Percocet, pain subsides quickly?\u00a0 Now I\u2019m getting dressed (well Kammy is dressing me)\u2026here\u2019s a wheelchair\u2026I\u2019m getting in it\u2026I\u2019m getting in the car\u2026we\u2019re half way home and I\u2019m uncomfortable\u2026now I\u2019m at the steps.\u00a0 They seem impossible.<\/p>\n We live in a 110 year old Victorian house in Minneapolis.\u00a0 There are 5 steps to the porch, one more step over the threshold, four steps to the landing then 12 steps with a 90 degree turn for the last 5 steps.<\/p>\n I ask Kammy to walk behind me and steady me as I crutch up.\u00a0 It takes forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is surgery day.\u00a0 Kammy and I awaken at 5 AM.\u00a0 I\u2019m filled with nervousness tempered with impatience and even a bit of happiness.\u00a0 It is actually time to move forward! Kammy makes coffee (none for me) and we stumble around the house, gathering what we need: Crutches, my knee brace, insurance card, camera (yep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greg.lyonkingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}