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Thu, 20 February 2003
Well I had my surgery today. It went very well.
Before we left the house, I put two temporary tattoos on my right knee -- the doctor gave me them so that they wouldn't work on the wrong leg. Kiron also wrote "Not this knee :-)" on my left leg, just to be sure!
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 | Got to Rex Hospital by 6am. By about 6:30am, they took Kiron and I back to the pre-op area where I changed into one of those very attractive surgery gowns. At least it did up at the side. I also put on a surgery stocking on my good left knee. They also shaved the area around my knee
They poked a needle into me with some sedative, so after 5 minutes, things started to get a bit fuzzy. They also put an IV drip into my right hand which was feeding some type of saline fluid into me. My mouth started to get very dry -- they told me that was an effect of the drugs I was getting. About 7:55am, I bid farewell to Kiron and they wheeled me into the operating room. There were about 6 people there, including Dr Kobs (how about that!). They all said hello.
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 | They jabbed me with a needle in by backside (I think I got the needle in the operating room and not in the pre-op area, but I'm not certain). It was about then when I went to sleep.
The next thing I know, I was back in a recovery room. It was about 10:40am or so. Kiron came in a few minutes later, so it must have been Recovery 2 (they told us she couldn't see me until then, and not Recovery 1). I already had the brace on, so someone must have put it on me while I was asleep. The doctor handed Kiron photos of my knee during the surgery.
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 | Over the next few hours, I drifted in and out of sleep. They gave me pain medication and some anti-nausea medication. The pain medication was working well. They brought me some Ginger Ale and some graham crackers to eat. I also had one of those automatic compression devices on my good (left) foot to keep the blood circulating.
We left the hospital about 2:30pm. I'd attempted to leave earlier, but felt a bit nausea, so they gave me more drugs and waited for them to leave. They wheeled me to the car in a wheelchair. It was fun getting into the car. The brace meant that I couldn't bend my knee (not that I wanted to), so I had to have the seat all the way back and the seat back tilted as far as possible. I then slip up the seat back until my leg was in the car.
Kiron took excellent care of me. She put me in bed and brought me water, and some cheese and bickies (crackers). I had a bit of trouble swallowing -- I guess the drugs were the reason for that.
I woke up every few hours and had some water. Kiron also brought me some grapes. I took some more pain drugs. They prescribed Oxycontin (for pain) and Oxycodon (for "breakthrough" pain).
So here we are. The pain's not too bad (maybe a 4/10) but the brace prevents any movement and I haven't moved it much.
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