Well, yesterday was my surgery, I did it! Since I have quite a bit of time on my hands, I'll recap as best as I can.
We arrived at the surgical center at 9:15, with the surgery scheduled for 10:30. I was calm, but a little anxious every time someone else came into the room. My mom had arrived the night before, so Mark her and Mark's mom, Lily were there with me. They took me back around 9:30 and got my IV going. Then they told me they were running and hour behind. Ok. So my mom came in and hung out for about 30 minutes, then Mark came in. At around 11, they came in and told me the surgery was ANOTHER hour late. Boo! At this point, I just wanted to stop waiting and get this show on the road. So Mark, being the amazing fiancé he is, started reading me articles out of Cosmo, being as girly as possible, of course. This helped ease my nerves a bit.
Finally, the surgeon and anesthesiologist came in and went over all the details of the surgery and the nerve block. After I signed the paperwork, they kicked Mark out and got to work. I was nervous about the nerve block, especially since I was going to be awake for it. But they gave me happy drugs which immediately made me feel like I had about 9 margaritas. They said most people don't remember a thing after this point, but I remember it all. The anesthesiologist inserted a needle in my groin, which made my knee twitch uncontrollably. This was so strange, but kind of cool. Before I knew it, they were wheeling me into the operating room. I moved myself onto the operating table and I remember trying to crack a joke about forgetting not to have all those margaritas before I came in. Then they put the oxygen mask on me and I was out.
Next thing I know, someone is telling me that I'm out of surgery and not to rub my eyes. Then I dozed off for what felt like 5 minutes, but I guess it was about an hour. I finally regained some sort of consciousness, because I remember the surgeon coming in and telling me the operation went well and that he had to stitch up my meniscus. I don't think I cared at the time, but I'm pretty bummed about it now because it means 3 more weeks on crutches. Next thing I know, Mark is in the room, holing my hand. I don't remember much, except being really hot. I think I told Mark I wanted to see my Mom, cause he left and she came back in. The nurse came in and asked me about my pain. I was expecting my entire leg to be paralyzed, but I was definitely feeling pain. This was because the nerve block didn't take as much as it could have. So she gave me an injection into my IV for the pain and I immediately felt a very heavy, drugged up feeling going through my veins. It made me feel a bit better, but the feeling of heaviness was awful. A bit later, she gave me another injection and an oral pain medication. This immediately made me sick and didn't stay down. Great. But I blamed it on the lack of food in my stomach and the hole in my straw. A bit later, after I got some anti nausea meds kicked in, I was able to keep down the pain meds.
Then slowly, and painfully, I started to get dressed. I got wheeled out to the car and into the backseat, which was excruciating. I was bawling for most of the way home. Getting inside the house was equally as fun but once I got into my couch nook, I was able to get comfortable. I spent the rest of the evening sleeping and nibbling on the insides of the French bread. mmm my favorite. Waking up and trying to get to the bathroom was an awful experience, especially in the dark, half awake and drugged up. I ended up throwing up my dinner and crying again because of the pain. Back to bed and off to sleep. At least until the next round of pain meds.
