I entered Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, N.Y. on Tuesday March 30, 1999. After checking in I was escorted by a volunteer to Surgery and at my appointment time was called in. I didn't have to wait, which was nice. I was greated by a nurse and put in a bed outside a nurse station. The beds were separated into small "rooms". The nurse took my pulse, blood pressure and ask me a number of questions. I was put in a gown. The nurse put an IV in my left forearm. It was painless. Although I am not nervous about needles and IV's about 60 seconds after the IV was put in I began to feel flush and sweaty all over. I quickly became nausiated. The nurse and others noticed and gave me a warm blanket. Within a few minutes the feeling passed and I again felt fine. The nurse then put these bootie like things on my feet that had an air compressor hooked up to them. These booties, every 30 seconds or so, expaned and pushed on the bottom of my feet. They felt a bit funny. She explained they helped with blood flow and fought against blood clots in my legs. Little did I know how much they would work on my leg the night after surgery, then.
When it was time for surgery three separate people came and spoke with me about anethesia and what was going to happen to me next. I was asked standard questions about whether I was nervous about surgery, did I have false teeth, etc. I decided on a spinal because I wanted to watch as much as I could of my procedure. I sometimes get the feeling people don't believe me when I say this, but it is true. I would watch the entire thing if they would let me, but they never do. (This is my third knee operation).
After being wheeled into surgery I waited the normal 10 minutes while everyone got everything in order they needed. I was given a spinal , which was painless and placed on my back. Within seconds I was tested and could not feel anything really above my belly button. One of the OR staff lifted my left leg and asked me to watch. I could see my leg being lifted but couldn't feel it. In fact, it felt as if it was still on the bed. He explained to me this was normal and that the brain thought stuff was still in the last place it remembered it.
During surgery I was very comfortable. I watched would I could on the TV monitors. They had TV's that showed X-Ray like pictures whenever they were asked for. I could hear and feel them throughout the procedure, but there was no pain at all. I was never nervous or not at ease. The procedure took a bit longer than expected so the anestitist asked me to let her know if I started to feel pain. I did begin to feel more and more of what they were doing, but it was nothing near pain. It was like someone was scratching my leg actually. It felt good, not bad.
After the procedure I spoke with Dr. Elting briefly. He was the surgeon that performed my surgery (sort of). He had another doctor with him that did a lot of the work under his direction, but I don't know her name. He told me all went "excellently". This was certainly welcome news, but I doubted he would have said anything else, even if it was not the case. I was wheeled to post op and immediately given some morphine that immediately made me feel sick again. The person on duty took care of that somehow and I felt better.
After a bit I was taken upstairs to my room. I appreciated the fact I was not groggy or sick. I felt perfectly fine actually. It amazed me that I could be feeling so good and have do little pain so shortly after surgery. I was not "drugged up" either. I was given a couple of pain killers and little did I know those would be the last ones I would need. I felt hungry and asked for some food (it was now about two hours after surgery). I tired some jello, but immediately threw it up. After this I felt much better and was able to eat half a turkey sandwich and some milk.
That night I was comfortable. I didn't need any pain medication and slept about as well as can be expected. My room mate was not doing well and the normal nurse traffic to check on us kept me awake but not my leg so much. I of course had to "perform" by producing the urine sample before midnight, but that to proved to be no problem.
The next morning I took to pain pills (will tell you what when
I can look it up) so that when PT came up I would be ready. I
really didn't feel I need them. I ate a good breakfast and felt
fine. I was looking forward to getting home. PT came and went
over my exercising routine and then they made sure I knew how
to use crutches. I was very familiar with both of these steps
from previous knee surgeries. I went home feeling very good (and
very pain free thanks to the pills).
Rehab