When I had my surgery to fix my broken ankle I had a dream. I didn't really know that you could dream while under anesthesia, but I guess you can. :0) During the surgery I dreamed I was at a lovely garden party. There was nice slow jazzy music playing and we were in a beautiful garden with lots of tables where people could sit and chat. The weather was cool and I was having a lovely time sitting at my table watching and listening to people enjoy themselves at this garden party. When I was moved to recovery and the nurses were trying to wake me up, I opened my eyes a bit and saw the nurses and the hospital and the thought came into my head, "Which world do I belong in?" Having opened my eyes and seeing the hospital and nurses I thought, "I don't want to belong to that world, I want to belong to the world with the lovely garden party." I closed my eyes to go back to the party and just as I was starting to hear the music again, I heard the nurse say, "I guess she's sleepy today, let her sleep."I thought, "Wait a minute! This world is not the real world! I need to go back to the other world even thought it won't be fun." I tried harder to open my eyes all the way and then I woke up all the way.
As I contemplated this experience, I realized that my lovely garden party was really just the operating room. I remembered that as they had wheeled me in there some really nice slow, jazzy music was playing. I remember the nurse saying that the anesthesiologist had brought his own cds to put on. I guess the people chatting were the doctors and nurses, and operating rooms really are quite cool in temperature. I think maybe the beautiful part of the "garden" was the fact that I was in a brand, spanking new hospital and my husband and I had both commented as we came in what a beautiful facility they had. I did have to laugh to myself to think that I had preferred the garden party to what was coming after the surgery however..
Thursday, April 4, 2013
GIVING ME A BREAK....
My father passed away about a month ago. I went to another state to be with my mom for about a week and a half before the funeral. The day before the funeral we had a bad snow storm come through their area and as I was leaving her house to go to my hotel (since other siblings were staying at her house) I slipped on some icy snow and promptly broke my ankle in 3 places. At the time I thought (hoped?) that it surely must just be sprained, although it was so painful when I first fell that I refused to let my 2 brothers help me up until I had sat there. When I did get up, it wasn't because I wanted to, but because the seat of my pants was progressively getting wetter and wetter sitting there in the snow. The had to literally pull me to my feet, but then I hobbled to my truck and even "made the jump" up to the running board and drove to the next town (15 miles) to my motel. (All motels in my mom's town close in October for the winter.)
Sometime after midnight I began thinking that maybe it really was broken. I made it through the night by sitting in the office chair in our motel room and my husband pushing me to the bathroom when needed. He got up the next morning and went to the drug store and bought crutches. We went to the funeral where I propped it up on a chair during the viewing and funeral. I declined going to the cemetery. After the funeral, the graveside service and the luncheon we went back to the town where our motel was and went to the emergency room. At that time they had only found 2 breaks. The doctors told me it would need surgery and I could go back to my state on Monday. I got in Tuesday to an orthopedic surgeon who scheduled my surgery for Thursday. By the time Thursday came, my foot was swollen twice the size and the top of my foot was completely black from bruising. I thought for sure the dr wouldn't do the surgery and he hesitated but decided to go ahead because he felt he needed to "get in there and see what was going on". After surgery he said they found a 3rd break. I broke the small bone of my leg in a spiral fracture, splintered the end joint of the larger bone and dislocated the large bone (it had slid off of the ankle joint). He put in a steel plate on the spiral fracture, pulled the large bone back into place on top of the ankle joint and put 2 long screws to hold that in place and put 10 screws into the plate.
I went to back to the doctor on Tuesday. He took another x-ray of my foot and found a bone fragment.
Looking at the xray he couldn't tell exactly where the bone fragment was so I have to have a CT scan. If the bone fragment is on the front of the large bone then I have to have more surgery to have it removed. If it's on the side then it can stay there for 8 months until I have the screws removed. He also added 2 more weeks to me not putting any weight on my foot at all, for a total of 8 weeks - 8 1/2 if you add the days from the accident until the surgery. :0+ Here are the xrays of my ankle. When I saw it at the drs' office, I asked the nurse if she'd print me a copy of it because I thought it was kinda cool . :0)
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Sometime after midnight I began thinking that maybe it really was broken. I made it through the night by sitting in the office chair in our motel room and my husband pushing me to the bathroom when needed. He got up the next morning and went to the drug store and bought crutches. We went to the funeral where I propped it up on a chair during the viewing and funeral. I declined going to the cemetery. After the funeral, the graveside service and the luncheon we went back to the town where our motel was and went to the emergency room. At that time they had only found 2 breaks. The doctors told me it would need surgery and I could go back to my state on Monday. I got in Tuesday to an orthopedic surgeon who scheduled my surgery for Thursday. By the time Thursday came, my foot was swollen twice the size and the top of my foot was completely black from bruising. I thought for sure the dr wouldn't do the surgery and he hesitated but decided to go ahead because he felt he needed to "get in there and see what was going on". After surgery he said they found a 3rd break. I broke the small bone of my leg in a spiral fracture, splintered the end joint of the larger bone and dislocated the large bone (it had slid off of the ankle joint). He put in a steel plate on the spiral fracture, pulled the large bone back into place on top of the ankle joint and put 2 long screws to hold that in place and put 10 screws into the plate.
I went to back to the doctor on Tuesday. He took another x-ray of my foot and found a bone fragment.
Looking at the xray he couldn't tell exactly where the bone fragment was so I have to have a CT scan. If the bone fragment is on the front of the large bone then I have to have more surgery to have it removed. If it's on the side then it can stay there for 8 months until I have the screws removed. He also added 2 more weeks to me not putting any weight on my foot at all, for a total of 8 weeks - 8 1/2 if you add the days from the accident until the surgery. :0+ Here are the xrays of my ankle. When I saw it at the drs' office, I asked the nurse if she'd print me a copy of it because I thought it was kinda cool . :0)
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