(I shall write about this on my ‘blog!)
First off, thanks to Beez’z suggestion, it’s time to change the Twitter hashtag from #BustedWrist to #RepairedWrist, after all, we have the technology – we can rebuild him.
0900: Arrive at Pre-Operative Care Unit. Nervous.
0932: Change into gown & housecoat. Anxious.
0951: seen by intake nurse, she takes pertinent info like weight, temperature, allergies, etc… Nervous wreck
1013: Lead to my lounge chair, chat with some other people waiting for their procedures. Keeping it together, mostly.
1021: anesthesiologist comes to discuss the procedure:
Leads me down the hall, past all the other ORs – where I peek in every window 🙂
Get to a pre-op procedure room where they have me lie down on a bed, attach monitors, start sterilizing my neck & shoulder while trying to start an IV, which she couldn’t for a while. Finally she does and pushes “two” of midazolam which immediately ends all of my anxiety. Calm.
The anesthesiologist then began ultrasounding my neck and showing the medstudent how to locate the nerve bundle. I couldn’t figure out the 2D display… They shot the nerve bundle up.
Sensation in the fingers faded almost immediately, but not completely. It took a good ten minutes for things to really go away. In that time they left me alone… So I started watching my vital signs on the monitor… And screwing with them – until I tripped an apnea alarm when I held my breath too long… I stopped experimenting after that. Then they came and checked on my because I was wiggling my feet in time with my heart beat. So they poked me with a pin. It still kinda hurt.
Dr v.S came in to say hi, asked me how my wrist was doing, I complained about how when he popped my wrist it really interfered with my ability to play guitar… He did it a few times to me but at that point I couldn’t really feel much of it. His medstudent didn’t seem to enjoy it when he did it to her though!
Minutes later they hoisted me onto another stretcher and wheeled me into the OR.
Next thing I knew they were putting a sling on me and Dr v.S was asking me where I live and when did I want to come back… He said the procedure went well. My arm was warm and in a cast, my brain was foggy but slowly coming online.
1305: I was wheeled up to recovery, where a nurse named Svetlana tended to me. I groggily explained that she shares her name with a brand of vacuum tube. I don’t know why I felt the need to tell her that. I assume was the drugs.
1430: Dad comes and picks me up, gets me some really good drugs. I take some.
1500: Back at hotel, laze around doing not much and watching TV
That’s it.
I go back next week… I don’t really know anything else!