Hardware Removal--Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Seventeen months ago I knew that I wanted my hardware out, if possible. Just having it, knowing it is there, was something I wanted to fix.

My big date was October 18th. I was to report to Kaiser at 7 a.m. I was scheduled to go off at 9 a.m. Well, nothing ever goes on time, but they wheeled me in at 9:20 p.m. The surgery was supposed to go on 65 minutes, which to me seemed pretty fast. But I digress.

Al tells me that Dr. R came out to talk to him about 50 minutes after I went off, which means it must have been an easy time of it. My first memory after the surgery was the time, since they have clocks everwhere. It was 10:50 a.m. and I sure was feeling groggy. So tired and so disoriented. I had no clue where I was when I woke. I thought maybe I was on the airplane, or maybe still in Argentina. I was hoping they would let me go back to sleep but they told me I would be going home in less than an hour. Are you kidding? Where was I again?

Alfred came by to see me early in the recovery and then came back maybe 40 minutes later. I'm happy to report that Al said I looked way, way better in just that short time.

I got home fine and pulled out my crutches from the garage. I tried using two of them, but found that one crutch worked better for me. My pain level wasn't bad at all, but of course, I was on the Vicodin. They bandaged my leg up pretty well so I am not able to see how bad the incision is. Dr. R was able to give me one piece of my hardware as a souvenir. At Kaiser they normally don't do that, and I was very curious to see how it looks. I'll post a photo soon.

Now it is almost 24 hours after and my leg is much more sore today. With the bandages, I can't tell if it is swollen, but my guess is that it is. I've been using ice to keep it down, as well as keeping my leg elevated. I decided to try without the Vicodin this a.m. just to get an accurate assessment of my pain. It hurt indeed! Time for the Vicodin again. The leg feels sort of battered and I can feel tugging of the incision. I can bear weight on it, but can't really bend it with any weight on it.

We're really early in the game, so far so good!