Another Day, Another Surgery...

 

I have to tell you I am really getting tired of surgeries, but I understand that the good Lord above has his reasons for everything we go through whether we realize it or not.  It's taken me a few days to get used to this voice recognition software and it's not perfect so I have to do some one handed corrections but it is what it is and they say slow and steady wins the race.  I had surgery on my left hand on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at Fort Wayne Orthopedics surgery clinic on West Jefferson Boulevard in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I can now completely understand the term "Drive Thru Surgery".  I got to the clinic at 750am.  I wasn't taken back to prepare for surgery until 8:30.  Everyone in there seemed really nice and the nurses listened to me.  I mean I told them right up front no IV in the back of my hand so she never tried.  I was given warm blankets and made comfortable as I answered the same questions over and over that it seems to me I've answered twelve thousand times.  I had told both the doctor and the nurses at the hospital that I knew my body and that I wanted Vicodin to take home because it works for me.  I told them I would freak out if I woke up in surgery.  The anesthesiologist   told me that he understood and had no problem with that but that it would all be up to Dr. C.   Out of courtesy for the doctor I will not put his name in here past the Dr. C.  Dr. C came by to check on me a after 9:45 and marked my hand for surgery.  He seemed very caring as he tucked me and told me we needed to keep me warm and that he'd see me in surgery.  Now for a little back story on this, it had been like pulling teeth to get much out of the doctor in the first place.  He had sent his nurse practitioner  in to see me when I did my follow up after surgery.  She barely said two words to me walked out and in came a nurse to schedule me for surgery.  I took a step back and started asking the nurse questions.  She didn't have answers and went to get the nurse practitioner who also didn't have answers so they went and got Dr. C who I was supposed to be seeing in the first place.  I asked him a bunch of questions and my understanding when I left was that we were going to remove the cyst, fix the carpel tunnel and nerve and release the trigger thumb.  I would be off two to three weeks and that was that.  They actually wanted to set me up for same week two days later for surgery, but I had to get things ready and give work a little notice so I went for the next week.  So back to the surgery.  I was wheeled into the surgery room at 10:45am.  I remember them washing my arm and not being able to feel it.  It felt in my mind that it was laying on my stomach but I was watching them wash it so I knew it could be.  I saw the doctor walk in and then there was nothing until I woke up at 11:10am in surgery.  I was disoriented and I noticed the clock and then I noticed the blue curtain out to my left.  I was so very cold and I started moving my feet trying to adjust myself on the bed.  The doctor who had put me to sleep stood there to my right and kept asking me what was wrong.  I told him I was cold and freaking a little bit.  He told me to lie still and that they were almost done.  I remember them removing the curtain and putting this heavy object in a sling and placing it across my chest.  It was my arm, but it felt so heavy almost sand bag like.  They wheeled me out of the OR and to a room with lounge chairs.  A nurse helped me off the gurney and into a chair and put a blanket over my lap and raised my legs.  She asked me if I would like something to drink and proceeded to get me a diet coke.   She came back with a basket of snacks.  I took a pack of Lorna Dunes and she opened them for me.  According to the clock on the wall it was 11:25.  My dad walked in a couple of minutes later and the nurse told him to pull the car around.  By 11:40 I was in the car and on my way home.  The nurse said they had seventeen surgeries scheduled for last Tuesday.  So in and out quickly.  When I got home I opened the pain meds and the doctor had not listened to me, which didn't surprise e considering he hadn't listed to me from day one.  I had Tylenol Codeine 3's.  I had never had them so I thought why not I will give them a chance.  Well they barely touched the pain and I barely slept so I called and they wouldn't prescribe me anything else unless I went in to see them, which to me was OK since I had these blisters that had come on the three fingers on my left hand.  They hurt like burns.  It did aggravate that the doctor didn't trust me but I figure someone had burned him.  I went in to see him the next day and he acted like he had never seen blisters like the ones on my hand.  I couldn't believe that but I went along with him.  I knew he was lying to me.  That isn't something you really want a doctor to do now is it.  I mean from my research and asking three different nurses I know I found out that these blisters are common in orthopedic surgery.  Dr. C told me I was probably allergic to the dye.  Hello you used that on all of my arm and only on my fingers?  I knew that was a crock.  So he called over a lower dose Vicodin than I asked for a 325 mg  and I'm used to 500.  I told him I only really wanted them to sleep.  Again big sigh... so I took two at night before bedtime and one once when my hand really hurt.  I didn't take any yesterday and I still have lots.  I am not a junkie.  I just wanted a doctor to treat me the way I should have been treated.  The hand looks good and it looks like he did a good job with the exception of the blisters which probably came from tape or from circulation loss and swelling.  I'm just not sure what to think of this guy.  I think he's a good guy but I hate doctors who don't listen to their patients.  Yes there are crooks and cheats out there but to just assume that I am one?  I would probably never use him again for that reason alone.  I trust my doctors and I want my doctors to trust me and when I go see them I respect their titles and the hard work it took to get there but they work for me when I go seem them and I think I deserve some respect from that angle myself.  Anyway here's hoping there are no more surgeries in my near future.