April 11th. Surgery....

I arrived at the surgery center at 0930. After I was registered they took me into the preop area where they took all of my cloths, had me put on a beautiful hospital gown and my OR bonnet, and then the RN started an IV. The Anesthesiologist came over and did a quick assessment on me and informed me that I was going to have general anesthesia. I would be intubated and put on a ventilator during surgery. Sometimes the Anesthesiologist will perform a spinal for these types of surgeries, but since my Physician was doing a nerve repair, he wanted to be able to assess my neuro status afterwards.

Next came the PA (Physicians Assistant) who works with Dr. L. She asked me some general questions regarding my health history and medications. She also prepped my legs and marked them for the surgery. Shortly afterward Dr. L came by and asked me if I was ready. He reminded me that he was going perform two incisions on each leg. He would perform a fasciotomy on my anterior and lateral compartments on both of my legs. On my left leg he would attempt to release my superficial peroneal nerve from the scar tissue that had built up since my surgery in 2002.

My wife was allowed to come and sit with me in preop before I went in for my surgery. When the time finally came for them to wheel me in to the OR suite it went very quickly. I slid over onto the operating room table. As the nurses started to put equipment on me (blood pressure cuffs, grounding pads for electrocautery, etc...), the CRNA put an oxygen mask on my face and after about 30 seconds told me that he was going to put me to sleep now. That is all I remembered. This was at 1130am. Next thing I remembered is that I woke up in the recovery area at 330pm. Now for those of you who have never had surgery, it is a very weird feeling to wake up from anesthesia. It can be a little confusing at first. The postop Nursing staff will be asking you many questions regarding your pain statis. They will be taking your vital signs every 5 minutes. I had a plastic warming blanket on me to counter act the effects of the anesthesia which can often times make you very chilled and shaky. The warming blanket feels great. I did not have my glasses and I could not see. I had all these people asking me a million questions and all I cared about was seeing my wife. My legs hurt, and I could not see them since they were under the covers. The pain was not excruciating, and I think that they gave me some Morphine while I was in recovery. After a short while, when my pain level fell below a 5 on a 1-10 scale, I was taken to my room.