Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Post surgical foot & random cellphone picture

Here is a picture of the "after" shot of my foot. Not much to see because it's all wrapped up, but boy, I sure feel that something was done to it.

To be perfectly honest though, it doesn't hurt that bad. Yes, it feels like I have a broken foot, but the meds are keeping the pain under control. My followup appointment is on thursday, so I'll find out the rest of the plan then. My post-op nurse told me they usually remove the pins in this kind of procedure, which would mean yet another surgery. I sure hope not! I really don't want to have ANOTHER surgery. This is it for me. I'll agree to the minor procedure of an ER, but other than that, I'm done.

All in all, everything went well except I had a really bad experience with the anesthesiologist. He had come in pre-op to talk to me, as all anesthesiologists do, to talk to me about the plan and to ask questions. When he came in, my nurse was right in the midst of putting in my IV. As I had mentioned before, I'm a bad stick. 99% of all IVs and blood draws are taken from my hands. The other 1% was from the iv that was stuck into my foot. When anyone starts looking for a vein, I explain how their best bet is in my hand and I specifically ask them to ~not~ go into the arm (inner elbow area). Inadvertantly, I'll get the random nurse who will think she's an awesome stick and will still want to try. Although I protest, a few will insist they have found a good vein and will go for it, only to fail. Literally, I haven't had an arm vein stuck for over a decade.

Anywho, the nurse failed at the right hand and then failed again when she flipped over my hand and tried in my wrist. At this time she said she was just going to leave it up to the "expert", the anesthesiologist, to try again. A little side note - I think the nurses are actually the experts in this area. It's what they do all day, everyday. The doctor grabs a blood pressure cuff and starts explaining that it will pump up my veins for him to get. Yeah, I've been through it, believe me. He starts to look for an inner arm vein and I start to protest again. He says "no, no, no - you have a great vein right here". I continue to say how veins are ~always~ found there, but for whatever reason, they don't end up working. I don't know if they collapse or roll or whatever, but they do not work. But Dr Know It All didn't listen. Soon we was digging around and I started to panic a bit. Sweat started dripping and the nurse gave me oxygen. The digging continued. My arm was tingling and purple from lack of blood from the blood pressure cuff and my eyes were welling with tears, some even making their way out down my cheeks. Another nurse and my surgeon walked in at this time and must've just thought I was a big IV baby, but I was angry and upset. Dr Know It All said something like "I can feel it, but it just won't go it" and I turned to him and said angrily, "Imagine that". He kept digging for what it seemed like eternity until he finally said "It looks like you were right" and he removed it. Asshole. I asked him to just put one in my hand and 8 seconds later, it was in. How much more of an "I told you so" was that?


This is a completely random picture that was in my phone when I went to upload the foot picture. This guy was DRIVING at the time! Seriously. Look at the little patch of window he was using as his windshield. It was barely one swipe of the wiper! And if it couldn't be any worse, the wiper has only cleaned off a stripe from the passenger side to the middle of the driver's side. The snow was piled up on his side.

It scares me that these are the types of people who are out there on the road. He wasn't even making an attempt to clean it off. In fact, we were just at a stop light and he simply sat there. This picture was taken once the light turned green and he had started on his way again. Ack.

15 comments:

IdleMindOfBeth said...

Glad to hear that you're doing ok post-surgery. Sorry about the Stick-Nazi! I HATE when "they" think they know our bodies better than we do.

Amanda said...

I'm sorry you had to have such a crappy experience with the anesthesiologist. It drives me nuts when their ego gets in the way of their ears and they won't listen. Ugh!

I hope you're foot heals very quickly and doesn't need another surgery!!!

There are some terrifying drivers out there. Seriously scary.

Jen said...

I'm with you. If there's an MD after your name, you probably have very little blood drawing experience.

And that driver, OMG. I mean how much effort would have taken to bush a little more of that snow off before getting behind the wheel???

Anonymous said...

Jeezus hun! I'm sorry about that damn doc...I think you were actually nicer than I would have been about it! Especially since you told them ahead of time....

jenn said...

That sucks about the stupid doc. And I hate the rolling vein that looks deceptively plump- I have that one also.

oh- and a side note- have you ever seen tshirthell.com- some funny stuff... especially the baby shirts.

jenn said...

oh- by the way- some highly highly inappropriate stuff on that site too!

Kaci said...

It sucks you had a crappy experience. WHY won't they listen???

And wow - that's one scary driver!

Searching said...

OMG, I'm so sorry about the IV! How insanely awful!! I def listen when pts (or parents) tell me something like that. I mean, sheesh, you've got at least 6 good places in the hand/wrist area and then thumbs to try. Why go arm if the pt says it won't work? I can't believe it was so bad you needed oxygen and he wouldn't stop! You poor thing!!! I am SO glad that's over with!

ps- When I was a nursing STUDENT I was teaching residents how to start an IV. They didn't even know how to work the needle/catheter! Scary!

Anonymous said...

Bad day, but it's almost wrapped up. (ha!)

Seriously...feel healthy and good soon. I hope the pain isn't bad.

Natalie said...

Good god you and your surgeries, I don't know how you get through it my friend. Glad you're doing okay, and thx for all the support - even if I AM frustrating you with my lack of pee sticks:-)

Anonymous said...

I am glad all went well with your surgery. Pain meds are the best. Sorry that doc was being a dick and stuck you like that.

I hope you recover quickly and don't need any other procedures.


Amy

Confessions of a momaholic said...

glad the surgery is done and all is well. here's to hoping you don't have any more surgeries of any kind!

Glennformer said...

Foot and foot overheard me talking to you the other day and it reminded them of when foot was broken but foot wasn't and how foot resented having to do all the work and being taken for granted while foot got pampered and babied, ESPECIALLY, since it was probably foot's fault for getting broken the first place--stupid foot. Anyway, as you can imagine, they worked their way through it with foot remembering a time when it was the other way around and foot was sprained and had to do all the work and, likewise, resented being taken for granted. Not that your feet would have the same relationship as foot and foot but, nevertheless, foot requests that you keep an eye on your feet and remember to pay as much attention to foot as to foot (specifically, foot thinks a bowl of ice cream JUST for foot would be a nice gesture, while foot is elevated and so, obviously, wouldn't be able to enjoy the ice cream anyway), while foot, on the other hand, requests that you emphasize "team foot" and NOT indulge foot's insecurities.

Anonymous said...

so glad it went well. i couldn't finish reading your iv story...uggh. can't handle that. Ok, how pissed off am i that britney spears' 16 year old sister is pregnant...? are you f-ing kidding me. did anyone else see that. 16!!!!

Dr. Grumbles said...

Well, at least that's over!

And, the snow covered truck? WTF?