It's been 12 days since I got my ACL reconstructed, so I thought I'd share some insights.
First, my anesthesiologist was really cool. I told her I absolutely hated needles and would freak out if I saw one coming at me. Once I hopped onto the OR table (with a never-seen-before style, she said), which is hard and cold, they covered me with warm blankets and had my arms stretched out on the side (so this is what it feels like to be on a cross, i thought.). She numbed the area with a butterfly needle first and then put in the IV line. I was probably the only person who'd whimper with a butterfly needle. Then she joked that no wonder I didn't like the needle cuz dental people like us just gas our patients. Before I could think of a come back, I passed out.
WHERE'S THAT MOMENT OF EUPHORIA I'M SUPPOSED TO EXPERIENCE!!!! I was robbed of that first hand experience of stage 1 and 2 of anesthesia!
The next thing I knew was waking up in the recovery room and someone looking like my surgeon was telling me everything went well and they didn't need to use a cadaver graft (apparently my height's the cut off for having unusable shorty tendon...)
And thank goodness of the femur block she gave me, post-op pain was somewhat managable. BUT, the side effects of the anesthesia, pain killer and antibiotics were horrible. I threw up whatever I ate the first two days. The only thing that managed to stay was plain yogurt with a little bit of honey.
When I was worshiping the trashcan, throwing up all the congee from that night, my
mom made me speechless saying,
"You look like you're really used to this trashcan hugging thing, must be all the drinking eh." ... uhm.. thanks for pointing that out, mom.
And then there's this whole thing with my pain medication. Before my surgery, I had several requests for my leftover oxycodone. Now after being on it for a week, taking it every 4 hours at worst, I still can't understand why. All I got from is was dizziness, nausea, and I'd pass out for two hours if I decided to lie down. man.. where's my euphoria?!! Oh, and the pain. THE PAIN!!
After few days of dosing myself on the clock (literally. I set the alarm for every 6 hours to down that narc and antibiotics.), I decided to tough it out, prn style. Not a good choice cuz the local anesthesia was starting to wear off. It was the worst pain of my life, as if several uterus (uteri?) were giving me the worst cramp ever.
that's it for now, more to come. (and I'm walking with 1 crutch now. whee!)
