Well, I've been laid back in bed for the past 2 days, and I am finally off the morphine and general anaesthetic that was coursing through my body and making me sick, so of course, what do I do instead of study the material I've missed? I BLOG!

 

Okee dokee, so I had my surgery at the Grey Nun's Hospital at 11am, and so when I got there, the physiotherapist came and showed me some exercised I should do, and how to properly use crutches... YES, they were at the WRONG height from when I got them from the ER back in September when I tore my ACL! No WONDER I was in such pain from the crutches and wondered how people could get along for a few weeks in them. Anywho, I just read a book for a while, they inserted an IV, then brought me to the pre-op area. There, the anaesthesiologist came and asked me about allergies, previous expereinces (I had none), and whether I wanted general or just a spinal block. He described the spinal block, and told me the risks, and I got kinda scared, chickened out, and picked general. (I wanted to watch my surgery by having the spinal block, but yeah... too scared when it came down to it.) They wheeled me into the OR, and spread out my arms onto little tables, and put an oxygen mask on me, then the anaesthiologist said "We're going to give you something to sleep now"... a few seconds later the room started spinning, and BAM I was out... SO cool... I never really understood what my friends and brother told me before about how you just conk out without knowing... I thought I would be able to recognize that I was going to sleep. Rather, I got really confused, wondered why the room was spinning, and then I woke up seemingly instantly after that, all comfy, warm, and drugged up. My throat was sore, since they had to intubate me to help me breathe while under the general anaesthetic (jeez, I hate typing that word... it's difficult!).

 

I've attached some pics of the steps in an ACL reconstruction.

 

They wheeled me back to the Day Ward, where Chris had JUST arrived, and I was just so tired from the drugs that I slept. I had a lot of fluids given to me, as well as antibiotics, through IV, and I realized that I was also very dizzy from the morphine. When I tried to sit up, I would feel like throwing up. The girl next to me had her surgery after me, and had left WAY before me because she was fine. I was also itchy from the morphine all over my body, but I didn't get a rash like some people do. My whole body was numb, it was kinda cool. Chris read a book while I slept, and when I woke up, it was already 7pm!! I had no idea, and so I tried to go to the bathroom, and got REALLY dizzy then, but the nurse was trying to get me to feel better since the Day Ward closes at 9. They gave me IV meds for the nausea, and then wheeled me down to Chris' car. We drove home, picked up a prescription for T3's and Ketorolac (an anti-inflammatory agent). I stayed at Chris' house overnight (since I have to be with somebody in case I react to the morphine or something. He slept on the floor on cushions, which must have not been that comfortable.

 

The next day, I stayed in bed all day, and Chris skipped out of class to stay with me (just like I did when he had his surgery), and I took tons of meds and was still dizzy. The pain was pretty bad, and seemed to stay the same no matter if I took pills or not. My hamstring also hurt a lot, since that's where they got the tendon for my new ACL (the tendon will lose its integrity and be more like a ligament, however, since it takes time for a blood supply and tissue to form around it). Heidi came over last night, and we all watched Spiderman, and then Chris and I watched Spiderman 2, in preparation for Spiderman 3 which comes out May 4 right after our final exam, w00t!

 

I woke up this morning in pain, not wanting to take T3's in fear of constipation (yeah, I'd rather go through leg pain than that!), so I'm just taking the anti-inflammatory pills now... I'm in a lot of pain, but it's okay... I'm sitting on a chair right now, which is more painful, so I will lie down after this. I also attempted a shower this morning after duct-taping my leg into a bag. Man was that shower interesting... gruellingly slow and painful, I must say. But really, I looked awful and needed that. After this, I will study some Toronto Notes on pulmonary.

 

So, on a completetly different note, I am acclaimed as Vice-President Internal of the Medical Student's Association! w00t! And I will be voted in as VP Volunteers for the HUB Community Association Exec this week too... I have to remember to vote, though... gah. I am now really lazy with my bum leg. Meh. I also got the summer Resident Assistant in HUB, as well as a 1 day/week job with Dr. Mereu for the ACCCORD study. So, with those 2 jobs, plus the VP Volunteer position, I will be making quite a bit of money... and I'm still waiting to hear from 2 full-time research applications (1 is actually the STEP Grant that I'm waiting for... I got the job itself). I'll be living in HUB over the summer, and it looks like also for the rest of med school.

 

Oh, I got my cardiology mark back, and GUESS what... Chris didn't beat me this time! Well... I didn't beat him either... we BOTH tied! That's what happens when we both skip tons of class (I had the flu and missed quite a few days, then stayed with Chris for his surgery a bit, too), and then read Lilly's the day before on heart pathophysiology... I DO BETTER. I actually beat class average again. w00t. Chris feels bad because ever since I started dating him, my marks fell (but I'm still doing well), but he compares that to Intro Block, which I think everybody did spectacular on. Meh. I'm doing good in school anyways. I should just start studying Pulmonary now, because I've already missed 3 days, including an Arterial Blood Gas lab today, and a computer pathology lab. Gah.

 

Well, I'm grimacing in pain, so I should lay down. Thanks for reading all this way! I don't think many will actually finish this boring, drawn-out blog. Hopefully I'll be in class tomorrow.

 

Ciao!

 

Daze