Post Surgery Journal

Surgery

Foot patterns in room the leg patterns

Day of Surgery

Preliminary work

Woke up a 4:00am as I was the first surgery at 7:30 am. Had to be at hospital by 5:30 to check in. Molly Flowers was with me and was to be my advocate, the person to ask the questions that I forgot about. Advocates are very important!

After check in we went to a room with the pre-op nurse who was to get me ready for surgery: Gave me medications, shaved my leg, and got an IV needle in me.

It was interesting that she had trouble getting a good spot to get a needle in me because most of the time in my past it has been easy for them. I also was getting cold and starting to shiver. My theory is that since I had been telling my subconscious not to bleed during surgery, I was vasoconstricting already. I think this might be why my blood pressure was a higher than usual (although going into surgery could raise most peoples blood pressure). I have not heard from the surgeon if bleeding was an issue or not so I have no way to validate any of this.

Next the anesthesiologist came in and explained her procedure. We were going with an spinal for the legs and something else to put me in the twilight zone.

The Operation

I was wheeled into the operating room It was nice to see the seriousness of the operating room. Nurses and PA stretching and physically getting ready for the day.

The spinal was given, I was rolled on my back. I had my iPhone in airplane mode and my HemiSync recording set up. I got the noise canceling earbuds in my ears, was trying to adjust the volume and was instantly out.

The next thing I remember being conscious of was talking to a group of people in a space with no walls. I was trying to figure this out when all of a sudden I woke up in the operating room. I woke up clearly to the bright lights and color which I thought was odd. It was an incredibly fast shift on one place to another. They said all went well and moved me into the recovery room

Recovery

While laying in the recovery room I placed the HemiSync post op recording on. Slowly the feeling began to come back to my feet and I was able to move them. As I was in there for a while until I got more sensation back. While I was lying there I allowed my body to spontaneously do some non-directed movement as described by Marilyn Beech in her book Unexpected Results: Exploring the Edges of Consciousness. I could feel my spine wanting to readjust by doing some very small intrinsic movements. Basically you just allow your body to move while you witness it without controlling it. My spine started to unwind itself for about ten minutes. It felt great.

Out of the Recovery Room

I was then moved into a room and Molly joined me. I was told that all went well and I was kind of amazed at how good I felt. Slowly the epidural ran its course and I started to feel my feet first. I could move my feet as a unit, then as the spinal wore off I could move the toes and finally the toes independently. Soon I was able to do the Structural Awareness foot patterns. It took longer for sensation to come back into my upper legs and hips.

Rescue Remedy anecdote:I had Molly place a drop of rescue remedy Bach flower essence on my forehead. According to Molly I was out of it and my complexion was yellow. As soon as my the rescue remedy hit my head my forehead became pink and then in the next 15 minutes the rest of me looked more pink.

I got hungry so Molly went to Chipotle and got me a Burrito Bowl. So far so good.

PT and OT came to check me out see how I moved and got me to stand up, use the walker, and showed me how to go to the bathroom. I was really surprised at how my foot and ankle worked under my much straighter leg. I was also surprised at how much I was able to move. The feeling was still coming back to my hips and legs.

Next went to X-ray. They wheeled me down to get X-ray of my knee. But before they wheeled me down I started to feel a full crampy feeling in my lower abdomen. I had no idea what it might be but I though if a guy could have menstrual cramps then that is what I was feeling.

After the X-ray was taken I was left for a while waiting for someone to wheel me back to the room. Then I noticed I was lying in a wet spot. Cramping problem was solved. I could feel a full bladder but the nerves that tell me I needed to pee where still sedated.

So then they ultrasounded my bladder to see how full it was. Then I peed again and it was empty so that was considered a success. Soon the awareness of the need to pee came back online.

More PT and OT: Since I peed my pants I was shown how to put on pants with a bad leg. Then I walked down the hall with a walker, and up and down a flight of stairs. Was quite amazed at what I could do.

It was decided that I could check out and go home. The drive home was fine. Was able to get out of the car and into the house just fine.

Iced and went to bed

Sleep was like an hour on and an hour off with standing up and lying back down.

Day 2

More swelling Stiffer. More pain but still able to get around. Felt a little more out of it than the day before. Lots of short naps. Constipated from the opioids. Drank lots of water and took the senicote to get things moving. No result except for abdominal cramping. Got some prunes and started to snack on them.

Home Nurse and PT came to evaluate me. Everyone though I was doing fine.

Day 3

Was still blocked up in the bowel area, so I solved that problem. It was amazing the difference I felt. For more of that story READ THIS. I also started drinking a tea consisting of hot water and dried Mango slices and a Prune or two.

relearning how to walk/re-education lecture

Prune and mango tea

Pt and nurse

Ice

Noticing habits

Day 4

Stretching out the oxy

Rain and sleep like a champ 5hrs straight Catch up on sleep more sleep

Great PT session

Bowel success

Day 5

Massage and lymph drainage Cville