Surgery day attempt #1 12/8/15

Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday morning with a chance of having my case bumped earlier. I was asked to be at the hospital by 9:15, so I had not been able to eat or drink since midnight. SO and i got up around 6 and he ate and i got ready, packing a small overnight bag in case i needed to stay due to the nausea & vomiting. We were planning on starting out to the car at 7:30 when my phone rang at 7. It was my doctors nurse calling. She did not know i had not gotten the message last night. basically what had happened was that when the doctor reviewed my CT scan, he found some loose bodies that had been created by the dislocation. not uncommon but the easiest way to get to them and flush the area was going to be arthroscopically. that is with a couple of tiny incisions and a camera to guide him. there is some part of the machine that is not kept in the hospital-apparently none of the hospitals "keep" them and the company has to be called to bring it in for the day of surgery. They tried very hard with the short notice to get the machine here but were unable to so surgery for Tuesday was canceled. My doctor doesn't usually do surgery on Wednesdays-it is an office day, but they were rearranging some appointments so i could be booked for Wednesday instead. so the coffee was brewed and breakfast was eaten and another day of rest was taken. It worked out rather well because all of the activity from the day before had taken a lot out of me, more than i thought.

Day 2&3 Sunday and Monday

So Sunday was a whole different world. I felt great finally being able to eat and drink and my pain was under control with Ultram and Advil for breakthrough. I rested and elevated and watched Netflix. SO brought down his daughters twin bed and I was set up in the living room. I was not going to see the 2nd floor for quite a while. 

Monday morning I immediately called my hospitals best ortho/sport medicine doc and got an appointment for 3pm that day. I also was able to borrow from church a walker instead of crutch. Have I said how i hate crutches? 

I switched to a wheelchair when we arrived and we were taken back very quickly. Nurse intake as usual then Dr. C came in. He reviewed my x-ray disk and was extremely happy with the reduction done. He hates it when the ER waits and leaves it for the ortho and causes more damage. He explained the breaks and damage and that I was going to need a plate and screws for the spiral fracture on my fibula. He did not think it necessary to repair the read of the malleolus and the prices was not that large and would not take a screw well unless he created an additional fracture line. I was doing fine with all of this until I asked about recovery and he said that only 1:4 are back to normal in a year. That made me loose it.  He talked to his scheduler and surged was going to be the next day-Tuesday. Yikes! 

I was sent to radiology for a preop CT and them went to visit co workers and show my bosses that I would not be back tomorrow with an air cast. 

So we headed home and got the call with my OR time on the way. Arrived home and got another call asking if I could come in earlier then previously asked as the case before me was on the fence and I might be able to go in sooner.  Sure no problem. Another call with a garbled message came later and when I tried calling back the office was closed. I figured they would call back if it was important. 

So that evening, SO and I discussed all my fears. I had never in my 43 years really broke anything or had any surgery except oral as a kid for braces song was scared. 

I did not sleep great and in the early morning had myself a pity party cry about it all and my loss of independence. 

Who I was before...and then the accident 12/5/15

  So a brief history of me.  I consider myself fairly active. My family and I take long walks on our local rail trails and in the Catskill Mountains. I love spinning and have been doing the at least twice a week. I should have been going to the gym more but lifting to me is boring. I have done two Warrior Dashes (last one this past summer) and The Insane Inflatable. Also, I and "fluffy".

My hospital job is primarily sedentary but I get up and move and avoid the elevators as much as possible. That was until now. Fast forward to the wee hours of 12/5/15. 

  I woke around 2 am to use the bathroom and then could not get back to sleep. Not wanting to have a cranky boyfriend in the morning I took my phone, pants and pillow and headed down to the couch at 2:50am. Bad move. I missed the last step and down I went. I knew right away it was bad and it was confirmed when I saw the angle of my ankle when he came running and turned on the light. Having many stairs there was no way I was getting to the car so while he got dressed I called 911. 

The tile floor was freezing and I was shivering so bad but the paramedic got a line I and gave me some

Morphine and loaded me up. 

At the local ER it was confirmed I had a dislocated left ankle and 2 fractures. Using conscious sedation they reduced the dislocated and splinted me to above 

my knee. We were home my 7:30 am. Being this was a Saturday morning, my ortho consult was going to have to wait until Monday. 

So I tried to rest Saturday but with all the pain and drugs I could not keep anything down. So Saturday evening he drove me to my hospital and hour away for vomiting and dehydration. I had had no pain meds since 10:45 am.  By the time I got there I was so worked up my entire body was pins and needles. There I receive 2 liters of fluids, IV morphine, reglan, protonix and Benadryl.  Benadryl gives me restless leg so my leg was jumping in the splint. No fun. Went home by midnight and slept so so.