Just off to theatre now....see you later.
I did indeed have my op and arrived at a place they grandly titled Theatre Reception at 13:00. I was most disappointed to discover they did not have buckets of popcorn.
I was asked to check through pages of info. Then into the anaesthetist's room.
It has been 10 years since I was here for a broken bone and I had forgotten just how much was involved in the preparation before going into theatre.
The first procedure was the nerve block. This was an incredibly intricate time-consuming process.
First, the outside of the thigh was carefully scanned with ultrasound, identifying the groups of nerves running down the leg. Next, a local anaesthetic was injected around the group of nerves to the foot, followed by a long-acting anaesthetic. I could see the nerve bundles on the screen and the effect the anaesthetic was having on them. These nerves are buried deep underneath the muscle and I found the injections very painful. This whole procedure was then repeated for the other side of the thigh.
Next, the spinal block. I normally have a spinal block as I have Sleep Apnoea, so the surgeons normally like me to be awake during the op to avoid any breathing issues.
Again, more local anaesthetic, then needles into the spaces between the bones.
This was also incredibly painful and, despite me having had it done successfully prior to several previous operations, the anaesthetist decided to abandon ship and do a General Anaesthetic instead, despite the risks.
As I write, I have just seen the anaesthetist on the High Dependency Unit and apologised to him saying that I feel I had let both him and myself down, but he told me not to worry about it.
I think I went into Theatre Reception just before 13.00, so was in Theatre a lot longer than I imagined I would be. I was in recovery for ages and when I started coming round, my addled brain convinced me that I was in some bizarre showroom for hospital products where I was modelling the bed....the weird things your brain does!
It took me a long long time to come round fully and by the time I was wheeled into the HDU it was 20.00
I'm very happy it is over now. I had a very comfortable night and am looking forward to physio and recovery from now on.
I broke my right leg on November 14 2014.
I broke my left ankle on November 23 2024.
I am going to do a John Lennon and plan to stay in bed for the whole of November 2034......
I'm trying to get pictures of my post-op X-ray, but in the meantime, here is a picture of something I have never seen before.
Not terribly clear, but it is a cannula in the radial artery in the wrist. In this case being used for taking bloods and supplying the machine in the HDU with continuous BP readings.
