After operation and recovery

16/08/16

Hi all

Well I had my nerve operation on Saturday 13th had to be at the hospital for 7:30am so was up for 6am. There shouldn't be two 6oclocks in the day!
So got there and had to wait until 2pm to finally have my operation! They knocked me out with Ketamine this time (I'm sure that's a horse trank) I was so nervous, i didn't want to wake up with trapped nerves or throbbing pain or anything.
So my surgeon, Mr Dewar told me he was going to tuck the cut nerves back up my thigh. I pointed out that I was worried he would put them too far up and they would be trapped when I put my false leg on at the top underneath. He assured me it would be fine and he also shortened my sciatic nerve.
So I woke up a bit stoned, they were concerned that I had low blood pressure, but wasn't life threatening so after having some toast and a pee I was allowed home. I nearly threw up in the taxi but managed to get to bed.
I was really exhausted but my head was buzzing like a million thoughts going through my head or twenty tvs on at once. I just couldn't relax so I ended up watching telly till 4am and finally got a couple of hours sleep and got up at 7am.

The pain killers wore off half way through Sunday, but I didn't have any throbbing nerve pain or my leg twitching, which I thought would happen. Instead my leg was/is just very sore where they have cut me open and stitched me, especially around the top of my thigh underneath. I suppose because I'm sat on that applying pressure.
My mum did stay the night Saturday, and once happy I was ok and everything I needed was in reach she went home. I then took this opportunity to unwrap my bandages, as she would have gone nuts.
I have done this on previous operations only because, you can feel yourself its tight and feels wet and theres obviously a blood pool there that needs sorting out.
Or like me you move around a lot in bed and having a cone shaped leg the bandage slowly works its way off your leg, so it looks like you have a dwarf hat flopping off the end of your stump.
So its not covering the stitches at all and not doing its job so needs sorting now rather than waiting the 5 days till my appointment with the dressings clinic.
So I got my bandages, wipes, tape and plasters ready in the bathroom and as soon as I pulled down my pjs the noddy hat came off with it.
What they had done, and I don't know why they do this every time. They put tape over the stitches, then swabs, then 10 layers of cotton wool bandage and finally a normal bandage. They then tape the top of the bandage to my leg. Of course the cotton wool bandage was full of blood and became too heavy and just slid off my cone shape leg taking everything else with it.
So I used a sterile wipe, cleaned my skin. (I didn't remove the tape holding my stitches together, just wiped over the top gently. Then stuck giant plasters over the stitch areas and gauze, and taped this all down then added a clean normal bandage. Which I also taped down and around the edge of my thigh.
This felt so much better, and clean and I only have the cut healing pain now. Which I'm taking just paracetamol and ibuprofen for. I'm trying to avoid codeine as it just bungs me up.
I hate being back in the pram again and already my mood is low and I don't want to see anyone or go outside. I'm hoping it heals quickly and when I do get to put my leg back on I wont have any nerve pain, or put on weight!