The purple is from marking my foot before surgery, just to let you know.
Sorry for not writing this sooner…
So, the surgery on my foot was last Wednesday, August 12. I was told to be at the hospital at noon for a 2 o’clock surgery. We arrived at noon and had to wait almost half an hour before being taken to a room and told to change into a hospital gown. Luckily there was a fish tank right next to me, so I spent the time watching the smiling puffer fish swimming laps from the top of the tank to the bottom and back up. Puffer fish make me smile. 🙂 Anyway, once I was in my gown, it was another 20 minutes or so before a nurse finally came in to the freezing room to check my history and my vitals. I had to wait again before another nurse came in to stick an IV in me. That nurse saw that I was freezing and hooked up a heater hose thing to my gown to warm me up. It was kind of bizarre, but very cool, and it did a great job of keeping me warm. After almost an hour had passed since I had been sent back, my mom and Alyce were finally allowed back to see me. For some reason they weren’t allowed back before then. And so we waited… and the TV died… and waited… and waited. At some point Mom and Alyce went to get food, since they hadn’t eaten yet, so I read. For future reference, if you are fasting or for some reason not allowed to eat or drink, do not read chapter 27 of Eat, Pray, Love. Hearing Elizabeth talk of going to Naples to eat the best pizza in the world, which she describes almost sensuously, isn’t something you want to hear when you haven’t eaten in almost 20 hours. It’s not as if I’m especially fond of pizza, in fact I’ve recently found it rather unappealing, but oh, those descriptions… And so my grumbling tummy insisted that I stop reading.
While Mom and Alyce were still off getting food, the nurses wheeled me to another room which had a working TV, so I found House and watched that.
It wasn’t until around 5 that my doctor finally came in to see me and finish prepping. Apparently the surgery two ahead of mine had taken 4 hours instead of the anticipated 1. Luckily, my surgery was quick and uneventful and I was able to go home around 7.
The first night, I couldn’t sleep at all. Since then, though, I’ve been sleeping pretty well (some nights better than others) and haven’t felt much pain at all. I’m supposed to keep my foot elevated, and I’m not supposed to walk for 3 weeks. The crutches haven’t hurt me, but I find them annoying when trying to maneuver around puppy gates or wish to carry something from one location to another.
The first few days on the pain meds I was really tired and couldn’t do much of anything, not even read. I stopped taking them after a while because a. I wasn’t feeling pain and b. I wanted to have energy to do something.
So… there you go. I’m doing fine. It’ll be nice to walk again.
Amanda's College Blog 