Waking Up Is Hard To Do

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in post-op with someone asking me to wiggle my fingers. I did and said my arm hurt. The voice asked me to rate my pain and I gave it a 7. She put some meds in my IV and asked me again about 15 minutes later how my pain was. The pain was still bad so she gave me another injection. After 4 injections, some anti-nausea meds and a percoset, the pain finally went down to a 4. By now, I'd been in post-op for 2 hours and apparently Jeff was starting to get worried because they called up asking about me. After a bout of losing my stomach because of all the drugs, they finally took be back down to recovery.

Once back in recovery, they finally let Jeff back to see me. He helped me get dressed but I was still nauseous so they wouldn't let me leave yet. I kept my arm elevated and tried not to puke when I sat up. Finally, after a couple more hours, they went ahead and let me leave even though I was still sick to my stomach. I was wheeled to the car and off we went, vomit bag tightly in hand.

Once we got home, I crashed on the bed I'd created the night before on the couch, keeping my arm elevated. After that, I just slept, waking only to take Percosets every 4 hours whether I hurt or not. Staying on top of the pain was one of the best pieces of advice I received and I even set my cell phone to wake me in the middle of the night to take more pain meds. I also used ice packs on my elbow which helped too. My hand was very swollen and I really couldn't move my fingers much at all.

After my first night, my husband had to go back to work but my 7 year old son, Rhys, was home with me. Mostly I dozed on the sofa or watched really bad daytime television. Lunch was difficult with just one arm but Rhys helped out and we managed to get fed. That night, my mother picked up Devyn from pre-school and brought over dinner since Jeff had to work late. But all in all, the first day wasn't too bad. Wednesday was pretty much the same.

I really didn't have any bad experiences until the Thurday after surgery. I went to sleep on the sofa at around 10:00 after taking a percocet. Around 11:30, I woke from a dead sleep and was nauseous and faint. Weird to wake from a dead sleep just to feel faint...I mean what's the point? I managed to get to the bathroom and called for Jeff who luckily was still awake upstairs (there's no way he would have heard me if he was asleep). He came barralling down the steps and found me laying on the bathroom floor, ready to pass out. After a few minutes, I felt able to get back to the sofa and Jeff sat with me. I was in a lot of pain at this point, the pinkie side of my wrist burning really bad. I took another percocet at midnight but it didn't really help. I was starting to wonder if I needed to go to the emergency room which would have been a real pain since we live about 30 minutes from the nearest hospital and we would have had to take our 7 year old and 4 year old with us.

Jeff sat up with me watching television while I writhed in pain on the sofa. Finally at about 2:00 in the morning, Jeff decided to go back to bed and I took yet another percocet. At around 2:30, I finally fell back asleep. The next morning, Jeff called off work and stayed home with me because we weren't sure if I'd need to go into see the doctor. At 8:00, I called the doctor and talked to his assistant. By now, I was feeling better and since I didn't have a fever, I was advised to just monitor how I was feeling and call back if the same scary symptoms returned. Basically, what probably happened was that my body suddenly caught up with itself and went into a mini shock. It was very scary but only lasted a few hours and was the only really bad time I had until the sutures were removed 12 days later.

Living in the arm splint for 15 days wasn't really so bad. I did pretty well at most tasks on my own. At first I asked for help with my socks but after a week, I was able to manage them on my own. I very wisely tied my running shoes very loosely in advance so I could just slip them on and off without untying or tying them again and threatened my husband with grave injury if he untied them. I pretty much lived in track pants or pajama bottoms and t-shirts the whole time so I didn't have to deal with buttons or zippers. Showering required assistance with tying a trash bag over the splint with a spare shoe lace and then Jeff stood outside the curtain and would squirt shampoo, conditioner or body wash when I thrust my hand out the curtain at him. Drying was a bit hard but managable.

Preparing food was difficult. With the Guyon and Carpal surgeries, my hand was completely useless. I couldn't open a jar or spread or cut anything. Trying to make eggs was laughable. I had to have the waitress at Bob Evans cut Rhys's pancakes for him. Driving was managable but probably not recommended. I had to reach through the passenger side to start the engine with my left hand and used a pillow on the middle console to prop up my elbow when driving.

I went back for my first post-op check at 15 days. By then, the splint was getting uncomfortable because the swelling in my elbow had gone down and it was rubbing and just didn't fit right anymore. The resident who'd assisted in my surgery, Dr. Mickelson, was the one to remove the splint and man did it feel weird! I get light-headed really easy anyway so when it came time to remove the sutures, I laid down. The elbow sutures burned but the hand hurt like hell! WOW, did having those suckers out ever hurt! And I was completely shocked to see only one incision in my palm. I had expected another incision for the Guyon Canal decompression but I assume they were able to do both the Carpal and the Guyon through the same incision. Dr. Mickelson kindly told me that he had been the one to do my hand and it only took him like 7 minutes. That didn't really make me feel better.

Dr. Millard inspected my incisions, put my wrist in a hard splint and told me not to lift anything heavy and to come back in 4 weeks before sending me on my merry way. I was amazed at how completely useless my hand was at this point. My elbow felt sore, like the muscles had been really badly bruised and the area around the elbow felt numb like novacaine.

Six days later, I returned to my job. My hand still felt pretty useless so I spent most of the first week using it sparingly and mostly typing left handed. By the second week back, my hand was improving and after the 4 weeks it was feeling fairly good. All in all, at the 6 week point, I felt pretty healed although I know it can take months or years for nerves to heal.

Surgery

I've already figured out that typing left handed is hard to do!

Surgery was Monday and now it's Friday evening. My husband, Jeff, and I arrived at Grant Hospital at 7:30 am. The nurses had called me the Thursday before and said my surgery was being pushed from 9:00 to 9:30. When we got to the hospital, we pulled right up to valet parking which was free for surgery patients. We went upto the second floor and right to a reception desk. The receptionist verified who I was, put on my hospital bracelet, and gave Jeff a card that had an ID number on it. When they were done with my surgery, they'd flash a message up on a tv in the waiting room to let him know I was done. The receptionist then callled back to the nurses and sent me right back.

The pre-op area was super nice. They weighed me and had me pee in a cup and then put me in a little room. I changed into my gown and footies and lay down on the gurney. The nurse asked me all sorts of questions and took my blood pressure. Another woman came in and took my ID and insurance card and then the on-call doctor came in. He listened to my lungs and asked me about my medical history since he'd be the doctor in charge of me after I got out of surgery. There was a struggle to get my IV started and eventually a second nurse had to put it in the back of my hand. While I was signing my consent forms, Dr. Millard and his resident, Dr. Mickelsen, came in. Dr. Millard asked me again if I knew what they were going to do to me and then nicely initialed my right arm. I guess he was claiming me as his own.

Dr. Millard left to go get changed and Dr. Mickelsen asked me some more questions about my history of symptoms. Then I was joined by the anastesiologist who asked me more questions. Jeff left at this point, taking my glasses with him so I was blind. Finally, I was left with the surgical nurse who was going to wheel me upstairs to the OR. All in all, I think I saw about 10 different people leading up to surgery time.

The trip to the OR was surreal. It was like on TV. The halls were empty and we just went up a surgical elevator and then right into the big brightly lit OR. There were a couple people waiting and they had me scoot over onto the operating table. As I was doing so, the nurse put something that burned into my IV. I lay back on the table and they put the mask over my face and someone asked me where my favorite vacation spot was. Then I was gone. Nothing.

Time for surgery!

Surgery is a little less than 2 days away. I'm not nervous yet, probably because I have too much to do! I finished editing my husband's cousin's wedding photos so I can get them into the mail. Now I'm doing all the things around the house that need to get done. Laundry, changing the sheets on the beds, vacuuming, etc.

We'll send Rhys to spend the night with my mom so she can drive him to school Monday morning and we'll drop Devyn off at daycare on our way to the hospital. We have to be at Grant by 7:30 in the morning. Surgery was pushed back half an hour or we would have had to be there by 7:00. I'm sure I won't sleep the night before and of course I'm not allowed anything to eat. The hospital has already called me twice, once to pre-register me and another call from the surgical nurse asking me about stuff like allergies, medical conditions, etc. Looks like this is really happening!

I've read a few really good blogs from other people who've had surgery and they've really helped to give me a good idea of what to expect (as well as you can from just reading anyway). But there are a few things that will be different for me. For starters, they were all men. There are just some things that a girl has to deal with men just don't understand. For example, it's going to be very difficult to put on a bra and shave with only my left hand. The other difference is that none of these guys had carpal tunnel and guyon canal decompressions at the same time as their cubital tunnel surgeries. So I'll be dealing with the added pain and recovery in my wrist/hand as well as my elbow.

I'll try to update the blog after surgery to let everyone know how things are going. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! They are much appreciated!