Arthroscopic Knee Surgery: Post Op Day 1
It seems that I had little to be nervous about. Today’s surgery was fairly uneventful. Here’s what I recall from the day:
We were up promptly at 4 AM, and right on schedule, we were out the door at 5 AM—on our way to the hospital. I think it took us 15 minutes to make what would normally be a 30-40 drive in traffic (just one of the benefits of having such an early surgery). And it was just a couple of more minutes before we were inside and at the registration desk.
Check-in at the registration desk took just a couple of minutes, and then we were on our way to Day-Surgery. Once in Day-Surgery, we were taken immediately back to a room, were I got into a hospital gown, and began the wait. Various people came in and asked questions, recorded vital signs, and kept us informed on what was going to happen. Julie and I passed the time with some Sudoku, and TV. Aside from having to be in a gown and nothing else, it was a comfortable wait. Finally, between 6:30-6:45 AM, I was taken up to the holding area to meet with the anesthesiologist.
Once in the holding area, I met the nurse working with the anesthesiologist, the anesthesiologist, the operating room nurse, and finally the doctor stuck his head in to mark up my right knee. The anesthesia nurse did most of the work in the holding area, hooking up my IV, and giving me a nice cocktail to take the edge off. The only trouble was very minor—the nurse was not able to get the IV to thread in the back of my hand, and had to put it in my forearm—not a big deal. With the cocktail, it was off to the OR.
Within about 30 seconds of starting the trip to the OR, I began to feel the cocktail. It was not quite a drunk feeling, but more like a nice buzz. Once in the OR, I moved over to the operating table, got an oxygen mask, and had various monitors connected to me. Within a few minutes, I noticed an weird smell in the oxygen mask. The anesthesia nurse mentioned that I’d be smelling something, and that she was giving my the rest of the anesthesia. The next thing I knew, I was waking up as I was being wheeled into recovery.
Once in recovery, and a little more aware of what was going on, I immediately felt pain on the outside of the knee. Since the MRI showed a medial meniscus tear, I was expecting pain on the inside, not the outside—I felt nothing on the inside of the knee. At the first chance, I asked the recovery nurse if she could tell me what ended up being done…she mentioned so loose cartilage and tissue on the outside of the knee that had been trimmed/removed. She didn’t mention anything about the inside of the knee, but her answer certainly explained the pain I was feeling. Recovery was pretty uneventful—I just waited until the cleared me to go back to a day-surgery room…I think the total time in recovery was just over one hour.
Back in day-surgery, I was finally able to see Julie, and have a little something to drink and eat! I also received some vicodin. After 60-90 minutes, we were heading home!
Since getting home, I’ve been resting, with a lot of TV and a little napping along the way. So far, so good—I was even able to go for short walk (using crutches, of course) late in the afternoon. I will provide more details about what the doctor actually did in my next post. For now it is time for bed!
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Bryan
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12:12 AM
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Health and Fitness
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