Good evening CLL Fraternity Mates, (ha ha).
As update - I had my nail removal surgery this past Thursday. I have summarized below:
Pre-Op Visit with Dr. M
During my initial pre-op appointment two days prior to surgery day, Dr. M summarized the procedure and was very confident that everything would go well. He went over the basics as far as preparing for surgery, etc. Lastly, and most importantly Dr. M emphasized that the surgery is not a simple procedure and there can be complications. I have listed some of the potential complications below:
1) Infection
2) Stryde Nail can break
3) Screws can be stripped
4) Fractures can occur
95% of the time all will go as planned, but there is a small volume of procedures that may have a complication. The doc will do all he can to mitigate the situation; however sometimes these events will happen. Be aware and ready but also know that success in this surgery is more than likely.
Surgery Day: I arrived at 5:30am at the hospital and was promptly checked-in and then directed to a surgery preparing area. I must admit it was surreal to be back in the same hospital where I had the nails inserted. All kinds of emotions were inside of me as I was basically following the same steps as the first procedure. While in the preparing room, I met with a very kind nurse and she proceeded to ask me pre-surgical questions regarding my general health and medications. Lastly, she set me up on an IV and wished me well! Shortly after meeting with the nurse, I met with Dr. M and the Anesthesiologist. Dr. M was his normal laid back and professional self. Very encouraging and made sure I was good to go forward. Anesthesiologist was very detailed and I appreciated that. Once all pre-meetings we're wrapped up, A nurse shaved my legs and rolled me into the surgical room. AGAIN, this was surreal to me. I was remembering the nail insertion surgery and couldn't help but to feel a rush of emotion as a result. I was a bit nervous, tad anxious, but mostly...to be honest, I felt excitement that I was FINALLY getting the nails out of my body and would be 100% me again. I'll go into more detail about the psychological impacts of CLL in a future post; but I will just add for now that the entire CLL experience for me has been borderline transcendental for my life. The pain and struggle of CLL is something that I would never wish upon anyone; but once you ultimately get through the CLL process successfully you are transformed into an individual who is stronger and smarter. You feel enabled and empowered like never before. Having gone through such a mentally and physically traumatic ordeal; you appreciate your life more and you might even find that you begin to tell a more accurate story about who you truly are. For many, it simply frees one of height dysphoria, an awful neurosis that can be resolved through this miracle of a process known as CLL.
Now back to the matter - Once in the surgery room, Dr. M started to associate with the surgical team and my anesthesiologist began to work on putting me to sleep. "That was Easy", I knocked out in a few minutes. Before I knew it; I was awake. A kind nurse was putting ice on my legs and greeting me as I started to awaken. My first thought, not even kidding was..."MY LEGS!" The last time I was in recovery my legs were ultra packed in ice and my legs felt like they weighed 100lbs each. Well, not this time. I was able to move my legs up and down, side to side, I could even do a partial bridge. I turned to the nurse and asked her and I'm sure she could sense the half-sleeping excitement .. "How am I doing? How did it go?!". The nurse replied. You did great, all went well. Surgery was a success!" I heard the Halllllllllllllllllllelujah music come on...(just kidding); but my goodness I was so relieved to know that all went well and to top it off, I was not in any kind of bad pain. I felt soreness at the incision areas as expected. The nurse then proceeded to ask me who she should call to notify that everything went well and that I was resting well in recovery. I alerted her of a family member and I overheard the great news....once again. "He did great during surgery and is now in "recovery".
Once I was packed with some ice, another nurse rolled me back into a short-stay hospital room where I was able to rest a bit. What was my next thought you ask? "The Catheter"....Oh no!...I looked down and YESSSSSSS! no Catheter. Ha Ha. If you read my diary at the beginning, I had one of the most awful experiences one could have. I won't rehash on that. I'm just glad that I did not have to deal with any catheter action this time. I rested some more and begin to experiment with my legs and wow, i could move them all around and was experiencing very little pain still. The moment of truth of course would be when PT comes by to help me up. Once PT did arrive it was none other than the same PT that I had 2 years ago after my 1st surgery. A great fellow and it was wonderful to meet again. Moment of truth, he helps me to my feet and to be honest, I grimaced with anticipation of my feet touching the ground; because all I could remember was the last time I did this during the 1st surgery. It was tough. Well this time...As my feet hit the ground and I began to apply my body weight, I was ecstatic to realize that I could fully weight bare and.........................WALK. I was taking steps on my own power and unassisted. The walk was quite slow, soreness felt in the incision areas, especially the hips, with slight sway, but all in all, I felt very little pain when walking. I was able to WALK out of the hospital unassisted and on the same day as surgery.
First night at home after nail removal surgery: When I arrived home, i focused on resting and icing up. From time to time I would get up and test the legs out. First night at home, i felt soreness around the incision areas so it resulted in a slower walk and I was careful standing up and sitting down. My main thing is to just make sure that the bandages stay clean and in tact over the next several days until Dr. M;s nurse can remove them. Pain level was very low. I did use the cane from time to time for balance assistance since I did tend to sway in order to compensate for the pinching like pain in the hip incisions. Pain wasn't too bad at all. I was able to get into bed without any issues and fell sleep on my back, just like old CLL times, lol. I wanted to make sure I didn't damage stitches or aggravate surgical areas. I slept very well, little to no pain when resting and only pain that I did feel was when pressure was applied to the incision areas and again it wasn't that painful...the pain wasn't sharp; just a sore, bruise or pinching like pain. No big deal.
Day 1 after nail removal surgery (Today) As to be expected, your muscles, especially your back hip/buttocks area will feel a bit tight when you first wake up after surgery. After a few warm up steps you're good to go. My walk was slow; but a bit faster today and I was able to move around without any assistance all day. I continue to be careful when I sit and stand, by holding on to some support. This is mainly for safety Additionally, I am able to go up and down the stairs easily but I do hold the railing for support. It's hard to tell when I will feel "back to normal" but at this rate, I imagine a couple of weeks I'll feel close to normal and then by week 3 or 4, I'll likely feel back to what I was before the surgery. Only time will tell, and I'll keep you updated on each day. The fact that I am able to ambulate (walk) around and easily use restroom, get into bed and even drive if I wanted makes me very happy.
Guys, I'm not using any pain killers other than tylenol and Dr. M advised that aspirin is a fine blood thinner for this procedure. All in all, I feel good and I'm very pleased. I'm in virtually no real pain and I can get around just fine after a pretty serious surgery. What else can a past CLL'er hope for? I'm happy.
I'll keep you updated and please feel free to let me know if you have any feedback and/or questions!
All the Best,
IFS
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Topic: Diary - January 2019 - In Full Stryde with Dr. Mahboubian of North Hollywood. (Read 149855 times)