Official commencement of surgery freakout
Editors Note: This blog is probably going to be shifting over for a few weeks from "Lisa's life" to "Lisa's knee."
Tomorrow I meet with my surgeon to talk about things. When I scheduled this appointment, I was pretty chilled out about the whole thing. Sure, talk about things. I imagined it would be like this:
Doctor: So, we'll put you under. Aaand then you'll wake up. Aaad then you'll lie in the recovery room probably eating a popsicle. Aaand then you might not be able to walk for a few days so that'll be a good time to get all caught up on Mad Men. And questions?
Me: Can we make that TWO popsicles?
Doctor: [laughs] Oh Lisa. Of course! And a bowl of ice cream.
Unfortunately it seems like it might not all be so simple. For starters, when you go under anesthesia you can't eat for like 12 hours before hand. That's going to suck. Oh, speaking of general anesthesia? You have to choose spinal, general, or epidural. Holy cats, I don't know!
Another choice is if I want my new ligament to come from my own hamstring or a cadaver. I'm actually about to faint just even typing that choice. Ew cadavers. Ew my own hamstring. Ew bodies. Grody grody grody.
NO THIS PART IS GRODY: they put screws in there! And this girl I know had one that she could feel through her skin and sometimes she cut herself shaving. On a screw in her leg. Gross me out of town. Vomitrocious. Barf-a-roni. (My lexicon is huge in the slang-synonyms-for-gross department.)
I'm sure my surgeon is going to be a smart girl/guy who knows what they're doing and will help me make good, informed decisions. But it's scary. Things go wrong and even if everything goes right you still have to do rehab and you can't run for a few months and some people say when it's cold they can feel it. Hello, I usually live in Canada. I don't really want something to hurt when it's cold outside.
Hey bee-tee-dubs, check out this hilarity.
Yes, the leg brace is officially part of my tan.
My mom is flying to Texas (where I am now) so that I don't get surgery alone in a foreign country. But some people have said they only waited 2 or 3 days after meeting with their surgeon. SO THIS COULD BE LIKE, THIS WEEK.
</freakout>
15 comments:
I'm sorry you're freaking out about your surgery! Speaking from (lots of) experience, get the general anesthesia, avoid getting anything stuck into your spinal fluid sac (that can cause a lot more problems after your surgery). Using your own body parts means another scar, but the highest chance of your body accepting it. And don't worry about the screws, you won't really notice them later. It'll be over with before you know it and you'll be back to 100% in no time! I'll be thinking of you.
The shaving injury due to screw in leg part made me say "ew" outloud. That is definitely vomitrocious. My fingers are crossed that there is an armfull of popsicles at the end of the surgery!
Your surgery will be fine. It WILL. Also, I've never heard of picking your own anesthesia. I would expect the anesthesiologist to make that choice, not the patient. If they do have you choose, I'm sure they'll provide lots of guidance.
Anytime "cadaver" pops up in a conversation with your doctor, things get wiggy,
By the time I got knee surgery, I was mostly just relieved, because by that time I had been crippled for TWO YEARS. So surgery in a week is totally lucky!
Get a patellar tendon graft, and then we can be real knee twins!
your so funny! i heart ur blog. Even when your in a forign country about to undergo leg altering surgery. I will be thinking of you.
my exbf needed acl surgery shortly after we started dating. he was told that a cadaver tendon is "better"... but often you have to wait around for one to.. uh... show up.. that will work, whereas if you use your OWN tendon you can get the surgery done asap/when you want.
i was SO happy to read your mom is coming down. i all upset thinking about you getting knee surgery all alone in a foreign country. this is MUCH better :-)
oh doll...i'm freaking out with you! but i say you should be proud of that fact that you can even blog about it, because it shows you have some awareness that the freakout is, actually, really funny, which means you've still got a sense of humor about the whole thing, which means for SURE you'll be better off than people who don't think knee surgery in a foreign country is funny...
LISA! You can do it! I have faith in you! It will all be fine! Love you.
For the record:
- I had an epidural
- I had auto-patellar (a bit of my own patella was used to make the new ligament)
- I have two BIG titanium screws in my knee and I saw them once in an x-ray and they look super hardcore! And no they don't set off the airport security thing nor have I ever felt them and the shaving thing is weird. You're going to rock this so hard, sista.
i hope you said your own hamstring. at least its not foreign!! and gah that is grody-licious! at least your mum's coming!!
this is exactly why you should not play sports.
Please go with general anesthesia. The others require needles and that frightens me for you. :)
It's okay. You're a badass. You'll be just fine :)
Do any of those anethesia options allow you to be away during the surgery and watch? 'Cause that would be waaaay cool.
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