Now that that's out of the way... Surgery went as well as it could have :) Final operations were:
1 - lateral release
2 - bone removal
3 - fulkerson's osteotomy
4 - MPFL repair (not reconstruction!!)
How I'm doing
The femoral nerve block went into place before the surgery, and the procedure got started on time. When I woke up from the anesthesia the pain was excruciating, so they ended up doing a sciatic nerve block after the surgery, and I came home with my leg completely numb, and was perfectly comfortable last night. We started the drugs around 8pm and have been going every 4 hours since; they're not helping as much as I would like, now that both nerve blocks have worn off (or at least, the femoral nerve block is gone, and the sciatic one has almost completely worn off). Pros: I can move my toes again and my ankle a little! Cons: OWWWWWW D:
(spoiler alert) Contains needles and such
Normally I get stuck a billion times with needles, but these guys were awesome. NO UNNECESSARY POKES! The execution of the nerve blocks was pretty interesting; they had an ultrasound going and walked me through finding the nerves and how it was done, pointing out things like the needle, the injection fluid, the nerves, and the major arteries in my leg. They had some trouble finding the sciatic nerve after surgery because they didn't want to move me around too much, but they eventually got it on the back of my thigh right below my hip; apparently its better to go at that one on the shins, but the dressing was all over. The ultrasound looked like a bunch of staticky lines, but I guess one of the perks of getting it done at a teaching hospital is that everyone is explaining everything to at least one resident or intern at any given point in time, and I can usually follow along. Seeing the needle go in was totally weird (they had me on a muscle relaxant through my IV.
Odd side-effects
Another interesting thing is feeling itchy; I wasn't expecting that at all, but after some googling around, I guess it can be a side-effect of the meds and anesthesia combo? The dressings had some blood leaking through and I kind of freaked out, but it appears as though that can be okay/normal as long as it doesn't completely soak the dressing.
Feeling the love <3
My amazing coworkers sent me flowers! They are so pretty :)
My brother also ordered me a cryo machine to continuously ice my leg, and that should get here this afternoon. My grandma and boyfriend have been taking superb care of me, and I could not ask for a better support system. I can't even qualify (quantify?) how lucky I feel to have the people in my life around me.
It's incredibly difficult to type coherently given the meds that I'm on, so I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and return to the world of napping and disney movies. <3
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