Hospital Operation - away for a while

[MadBeaver]

You made the right choice about first class. I went economy from Maine(US) to Santiago Chili 18 hours not including the layover in Atlanta(HELL). If it wasn't for Valium I don't think I would have made it.

P.S. Hangover + Air travel = Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad

[Moira]

I think so too .... my Dad went over this year first class and he had a 6' 6" bed to sleep in. Honestly, we met him when he came home and he bounced through Arrivals with no jet lag whatsoever - and he's 81!

[d00dz Attackin]

I'm in the UK .... but the guy doing my operation did a minor op on me four years ago and I came out OK!

Just think, maybe one day you'll be doing the very operation I'm having - sewing back someone's achilles and doing muscle grafting it just beats me how muscle grafting works do they scrape off some muscle from elsewhere, in which case how does that part cope, and do they then sew it onto each end of the ragged tendon? I can't help thinking Mr Siddique has got a very difficult job on his hands ..... wonder how long the operation will take. Nobody's told me anything about where the muscle will come from even, just that it will be the same leg.

Oh, and I've managed to scare myself witless reading up about anaesthesia! Sounds like a scaled down version of the lethal injection. They're bound to give me an injection of something like succinylcholine chloride if they want to cut some muscle away and I just don't like the thought of literally being paralysed and unable to breathe by myself it really is a case of your life in their hands.

Dr. Siddique indeed has a very difficult job on his hands, depending on which tendon he decides to use. The most difficult, would be to use a graft taken from a cadaver (this procedure restores the most strength in your leg). Or a tendon can be taken from the back of your leg or big toe (on your foot).

Update me

[Moira]

A cadaver ??? A dead body ? Do you mean to tell me he might have put parts of a corpse inside me ?!?

Dr. Siddique indeed has a very difficult job on his hands

Thank you. Actually we call surgeons "Mr" over in the UK, medical doctors are known as "Dr". The guy seems to be well respected, so hopefully he's skilled enough to make a good job of it! At any rate he seems to be the best in his field around here. I'll try and look at the clock when I go down and again when I come back onto the ward to see how long it's been - but I may not be too compus mentus when I'm just back from theatre. I'll update you as soon as I can - which will be when I get back over here after spending the first few days with my Dad, so you're looking at a week tomorrow, at the earliest.

[Ouroboros]

Good luck and godspeed on the road to recovery. A severed achilles is one of those injuries that I can't hear or think about without shuddering.

Hope to hear good news from you soon! Take care.

O

[d00dz Attackin]

Yeah... This is why we don't really tell you what we are doing, unless you ask. I highly doubt you'll have this particular procedure done.

[Moira]

Hope to hear good news from you soon! Take care.

Thanks - I started another thread to say I was back again. I still have such a backlog of email and haven't started on any of the projects I had planned! I still seem to get tired after about 2 hours on the computer and can't bear any more, preferring to be tucked up on the sofa with a book

Oh, I can't remember who was asking but of course I didn't look at my watch on returning to the ward! However I learned later I'd been away a good 6 hours. I was first on the list and apparently the bigger, longer surgical cases are scheduled first so it must have taken some time.

d00dz Attackin I'm sure they also lie about procedures. I was commenting to the anaesthetist that I didn't like the thought of being paralyzed and unable to breathe unless someone did it for me and he said "oh don't worry, we have newer drugs nowadays". Well, I woke up with quite a sore throat and to my knowledge they don't have any alternative to stuff like succinyl choline and how else could they make sure all your muscles stayed totally still without whatever they used affecting your diaphragm too? And why else would you need to be put on a ventilator?

I'm sure hospitals only tell you half the story!

[JPnyc]

It's my understanding that at one time Curare was used for that purpose, to make sure muscles remained perfectly still during ops.

[gore]

Of course they don't tell you everything, if they did no one would do anything. Only takes a couple times of hearing about a Dr forgetting his scalpel inside you or watching how liposuction is done to to turn you away from letting someone open you up.

Most local anesthesia has always been Cocaine based for numbness, but as for being knocked out, China White, the street name for Fentanyl, is a very good one. It's an Opiate. The risk of abuse is over stated fairly bad because using that for anything but knocking someone out is just stupid, I've now had it once and can say even I was shocked how fast it worked and how well it worked.

I was out like an MCSE at an IQ contest.

[Moira]

Yeah, I've heard of curare, but wouldn't it still require you to have someone artificially breath for you? Curare used to be a poison from what I remember, and would be very effective!

I'm not sure what was used to initially knock me out, but by god it was fast! I had one injection put in the line that was set up into a vein, then something which made my mouth go dry which I remembered from last time, followed by around 2mls of a clear liquid. That's all I remember until someone said "you're in the recovery room", and after that I remember nothing until I was back on the ward. I wasn't even told that what was being injected would put me to sleep! There was no counting to 10 or anything, it seemed instant!

I had a local anaesthetic block which was incredibly effective. It didn't wear off until the following day so I got no pain at all. I'd been a bit worried about this knowing I'd have a high opiate tolerance from my arthritis drugs, but it wasn't a problem. I had morphine piggybacked onto my drip, slowly giving a constant supply and 4 times a day, my arthritis painkillers (methadone), so with this block as well, I was really comfortable. The only pain was, they insisted I breathed in oxygen while I was getting morphine, which I hated.