Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The end of the ankle saga!!!


A wee bit over a year ago I managed to break my ankle. AND I DID A GREAT JOB!! No little crack for me ...oh no I had to break every bone and tear the tendons. DO NOT WEAR flip flops on the streets of San Miguel de Allende. OH and the Margarita's were a bad idea!

While it has been a long year in many ways, 4 months of no weight on the leg, jumping around on a walker and staying in my downstairs with no shower it has passed.
Believe me when I tell you that you have no pride left when you beg your housekeeper to pour buckets of water, hopefully warm, over you while you sit in a plastic chair near your water fountain because it has a drain!!! Tons of fun. Sorry I don't have any pictures. :-)

Well two weeks ago I finished the ankle process with the removal of the screws and plate. Again not fun but easier than I thought.
I must tell the story of the removal. I remember very little of the placement of the hardware!
Except how high my cell phone bill was and I don't remember making any of the calls!

June 30 2009
My day started with a great friend driving me to Hospital de la Fe at 7am in the morning. Let's just say my friend and I were not aware that there was a 7AM in the morning.
After handing over my Credit Card... no credit no surgery... I was taken to the Emergency room. Okay we all know this is not an emergency but it seems this was the only extra room with a nurse who could prep me. (12 bed hospitals are small)
Pretty much laid there in the bed wearing the standard lovely gown (they are the same the world over) and sleeping for the next hour. ( THANK YOU VALIUM) So as not to have to worry about my civilian clothes they were left on my bed ON TOP OF ME...
When the anesthesiologist deemed it was time to arrive ( don't think he knew about 7 in the morning either) things finally started to happen. Since I consider the anesthesiologist to be the most important part of the team I did not mind waiting. ( Thank you Valium)
Things started happening in the fact they got me up, put booties (fit for an elephant foot) on my feet and had me walk to the operating room. GUESS the one wheelchair was busy.
The booties were so huge that I kept stepping on them and the nurse kept catching me... finally I walked with my legs as far apart as I could get them and sort of shuffled. Was afraid if I fell they would be putting in NEW screws and not removing them. Those booties might be a fund raiser for the hospital!!
I climbed up on the operating table and tried to relax... (valium was leaving my system).
This table had to be the smallest table in the world. I am NOT thin but in no way FAT. My cheeks were hanging off the sides of the table. This was not fun and at this point I am the only person in the operating room. A few minutes later people began to appear. The nurse who never wore gloves , the anesthesiologist with his drugs.... (I love him)... and the surgeon with his assistant.
Have you ever tried to roll on your side on the smallest table in the world? I did ask what they did with oversized patients.. they said it was not easy. The next thing I know everything below my waist no longer belongs to me!!

Then the real action... ( I am again loaded on Valium) I look up and there is this leg straight up in the air. Looks like mine but I sure can not feel it. Trust me when I tell you I knew my hip was going to hurt in the morning as my leg has not been that high in years. I decided I did not want to watch this any longer so I ask them to block my view.
Not a problem the anesthesiologist grabs the bottom of MY GOWN... clips one side to the lights with a clamp and then clips the other side to the IV post.. Okay now I can not see what they are doing but they sure have a clear view of EVERYTHING... (under ware is not allowed in surgery). Thank you Valium, I laugh...
About 3 minutes or so later the nurse comes over with a paper towel and two pieces of tape. She covers my privates... that was because the xray tech was coming in to take a picture of my ankle... guess he was not as lucky as everyone else!! In fact at this point I figure I would be on the next house and garden tour!!!
The sound of the screws coming out will be with me forever!!

Lucky for me they did not make me walk back to the recovery room... ONCE again the emergency room. I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping it off and praying that no one with a real emergency would come in!
Another wonderful friend arrived with a taxi and got me out of there... (after signing the credit card slip) Lucky for me the wheel chair was available.

It was an experience, but really not all bad... sort of funny (thank you Valium).
My ankle is great and the stitches came out today. ( that hurt worse!!) BUT the ANKLE saga is over!!! Everyone was really great to me... it was just different and thanks to drugs pretty funny. OH and most of this was in Spanish... adds a certain thrill to the adventure when you really don't know what anyone is saying!!

OH I did forget to mention that the day before the surgery I broke my little toe... but the good news is, it is on the same foot as I had the surgery on.. at least I didn't mess up both feet.

IF you made it is all the way thru this blog you are either a good friend or have no life!! :-)

HUGS....

No comments:

Post a Comment