June 20, 2014

For the previous 3 days, I scrubbed my bunioned left foot with a sanitizing soap they gave me at the doctor's office.  I showed up at the surgery center in Billings on Friday morning, with my loosest yoga pants, surgical boot and a bad case of nerves. 

A very nice surgical nurse guided me to the pre-op room where I changed into a gown.  They questioned me to make sure they were doing the right procedure and that I understood what would be done.  My left foot (the worst one) was washed in iodine and wrapped in a sterile towel.  The doctor had recommended that we do one foot at a time so I could still get around.  An IV was inserted into the back of my hand (painlessly for once) and off we went to surgery. 

The anesthesiologist told me she was going to inject a drug into my IV to make me sleep.  There have been a few surgeries in my life and I always do the same thing:  try to fight the drugs as long as possible.  I think my personal record is about 3 seconds. 

It was over 2 hours later when I awoke in the recovery room.  My post-op nurse asked me how I was doing.   He also said they gave me some Demerol (wow, my drug of choice!  Bonus!) and that I would be groggy for a while.  He wasn't exaggerating.  I was out for most of the day.  Somehow I got dressed and my Significant Other got me to the car and home. 

My foot was wrapped in a thick layer of gauze with an ace bandage around that.  A dark spot on the gauze showed where some blood was seeping through.  But other than that, my foot was as numb as a tree stump.  The doctor had used a nerve block which he said would wear off after about 24 hours. 

The rest of the day was spent flat on my back, on the couch, foot on the back of the couch, icebag on the foot. 

Bunion #1 was gone.  Using a marker, I drew a line around the dark spot on the gauze to see if it was growing.