Friday, September 11, 2009

WARNING......Some photos may be graphic!!

Well the surgery was a success! According to my doctor, I am quite the light-weight when it comes to anesthesia. He came out after the surgery to let Matt know how it went, and he said they barely had to give me anything, and I was out! Ummm you want me to go into a deep sleep after 19 months of lacking sleep......NO PROBLEM!! And as you can see from the picture below, I woke up in NO PAIN AT ALL!! WHO HOO!! Now I know why M.J. had a stash of that stuff locked away in a secret place! :) Oh and the Sprite I was drinking tasted like the first drink you get after being lost in the desert with Bear Grylls for 7 days, not the mention the scrumptious graham crackers.....they even gave me 2 packs!!!

It was very strange for the nurse to say it was fine to WALK to the bathroom immediately after having surgery on my foot! Hmmmm! But it was fine.
Above is a picture of my bunion before surgery, and you will see an after pic below. I'll warn you it's a bit graphic! Before the surgery, my doctor and I discussed my options for pain management. I have a high pain tolerance (if I do say so myself), and didn't know if I needed the "hard stuff." I DO NOT deal well with pain medication, and it usually ends up coming back up (if you know what I mean) before it even has a chance to take away the pain. The doc reassured me that Vicodin (yes VICODIN) would be fine and tends to be easy on the stomach. He said to make sure I took the medicine every 4 hours like clockwork for the first 24 hours due to the pain I would be in. The day of the surgery I wasn't too nauseous due to the anti-nausea medicine I was given during the procedure. However, day two was a different story. Yep, up it came! He changed my medicine and even included anti-nausea meds, and you guessed it, it came up also!! SWEET!! How people can get addicted to that crap is beyond me! So needless to say, I have been taking Tylenol since the Friday morning after surgery. I've only had to take Tylenol a handful of times since then. I can't believe how little pain I've been in overall! YEAH!!
Then came our next "incident." I can't get my foot wet for 2 weeks so I was instructed to double bag my foot when bathing. And if it gets wet, I need to call him immediately. I have a great set-up with our garden tub that allows me to prop up my foot without a chance of getting it in the water. This worked out great until Labor Day. I was getting out of the tub and consciously thinking about how awful it would be if I had to call Dr. Percer on Labor Day when it happened.........I dunked it in the water!! I couldn't believe it after all that was EXACTLY what I was thinking about!! I may have only just touched it to the water, but it was enough that the gauze absolutely soaked it up! After mom and I tried drying it with the hair dryer for several minutes and realizing we were getting nowhere, I knew we had to call him! So what does any person do who is obviously thinking clearly?? Make Matt call him OF COURSE!! The good news is the doc acted like it wasn't too big of a deal, and told Matt to re-wrap it.......yes I said Matt! Let me tell you people, he did a FANTASTIC job! While I was laughing hysterically during the process, I managed to snap a few shots for you below. Before he started, he washed his hands thoroughly, put on rubber gloves (that I had for cleaning purposes! Come on people!), and cleaned off the scissors with alcohol. I was as good as new thanks to Dr. G!! And no I don't have Flinstone feet......it's swollen! I also hope you enjoy my yellow toe nails since I always wear polish and had to remove it for the surgery! Funny how now I'm conscious of what my feet looked like after they way they've looked for the past 30 years!! hahaha
























What a tool!!
Grace hasn't been too interested in my foot other than saying "ooowie" when she sees it. She's completely content having Nana and "Maga" here to play and read books! So now I have 5 days left (not that I'm counting) until my follow-up appointment when I FINALLY get to start doing things on my own!! Next Wednesday cannot come fast enough! And if you're lucky, I might pass along a few more pictures!! :)
We have been EXTREMELY lucky to have some extra help over the past week!! Mom was here from Tuesday night to Labor Day, and she passed the baton to Barb who will be leaving us tomorrow. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for us!! They have taken on the role of sole parent not to mention the cooking, cleaning, laundry, chauffeur, etc. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for everything!! It is appreciated more than you know!!!
















1 comment:

  1. Looks like Matt might have found a new profession! Haha, I'm glad you are doing well.

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