Bunion Surgery

Wow, so I had my surgery on Monday around 2:00pm. It went well, but I’m in a lot of pain! The whole thing was a very strange experience. So here is the story, and some pictures.

I went in for 11:30am like I was told to because I had to get various x-rays of my feet (I had some back in November before I even spoke to the specialist about the surgery). After getting the x-rays, I took the films back up to the office and then me, my mom, and Steve went for lunch at a tiny cafe next door, as I hadn’t eaten yet. I had a small piece of banana bread and some fruit, as I wasn’t supposed to eat very much. When the office re-opened after lunch, we went back up there and I took some “before” photos of my feet. By the time we got back, my podiatrist from Victoria had arrived to help with the surgery. I will refer to my doctors only by their initials, Dr. L (Victoria) and Dr. M (Vancouver specialist who did my surgery).

I was then given an Ativan by the nurse in order to make me sleepy and somewhat sedated. I figured when they said “conscious sedation” it would mean they would be giving me something stronger, but no. I thought the Ativan would work nonetheless as I had taken one a couple of years ago that knocked me out. I got into the chair and Dr. M, Dr. L, and the resident they had with them started scrubbing in. It took about 30-40 minutes to fully prepare everything, including painting my foot with iodine and prepping their sterile field. In the room where they do the surgeries, there is a TV with a VCR and remote, and they had a number of movies I could choose from to watch. I chose to watch “Liar Liar” because I hadn’t seen it in a while. There was one movie on the stack called “My Left Foot”, and being pretty nervous I started laughing hysterically because it was my left foot that they were operating on. I still have no idea what that movie is actually about, though.

The absolute worst pain I’ve ever experienced was when they put the freezing in my foot. I knew it would be painful, but I didn’t think it would be more painful than my appendicitis or my many head injections for migraine treatments. The first few needles weren’t too bad, but the last few were awful. This horrible, burning, searing pain between my toes and in the most sensitive places. Not the actual needles, but the freezing going in. I was actually yelling and squeezing the sides of the chair. Dr. M, who has wonderful bedside manner, tried to calm me down and told me “Hang in there, you’re doing great” which was helpful.

After they made sure I couldn’t feel any sharpness or pressure in various places in my foot, they started the surgery. The freezing had epinephrine in it, which made my heart race of course and made me even more wired and nervous. So when they cut into my foot the Ativan had not worked at all. I tried to lie back with my headphones and watch the movie and drift off, but I just couldn’t. There was a drape so I couldn’t see what they were doing, but I could feel everything, not pain, but pressure. The whole time I could feel them cutting and drilling and hammering and sawing. It was awful.

At one point, shortly after the surgery had started, Dr. M said to me “Do you want to see your foot? It’s not that bad” and I believed him, so being a nursing student I said “Sure”. He held my foot up, which had been cut into and the skin was being held apart, and I could see all the bones and tendons. Then he told me to flex my big toe, so I did, and I could see everything moving in my foot. It was kind of neat, but pretty gross. I lay back down and I got a huge wave of nausea. Being sure I was going to throw up, I told them, and the nurse brought me some cold water and an ice pack to put on my head. That helped a little bit.

I continued laying there freaking out throughout the whole 2.5 hour surgery. I tried to concentrate on the movie, but couldn’t, and I kept wishing the Ativan would kick in. I just couldn’t get over the disgusting feeling of being able to feel everything they were doing. Eventually, the surgery was done, and Dr. M showed me my stitched up foot and where the pin was sticking out before bandaging it. He also injected a long-lasting freezing into my foot to ward off pain for a few hours.

After the surgery, I hobbled out to where my mom and Steve had been patiently waiting for me, and with much help, got upstairs because I had to get “after” x-rays to make sure the pin was in the right place. I had to wait a long time to get the xrays because of the amount of people there, but eventually I got in and got them done.  Dr. M and his resident then came up to look at them, and said they looked good. He talked to me a little bit about recovery, gave me a sheet about the recovery, and a prescription, and left. I hobbled back to the car and lay across the back seat with my foot up on three pillows. I barely remember getting into my parents’ house, but somehow I did and I lay on their reclining couch with my foot up.

My brother and sister-in-law came to visit me later that evening, and while they were over I got this horrible stabbing pain in my foot. It got so bad that I was actually crying. I took the maximum amount of the painkillers I had been prescribed, which really weren’t very strong to begin with, and they weren’t helping at all. Dr. M had given me his home and cell numbers, and with reluctance, I called his cell. He answered and I told him about the horrible pain and how the painkillers weren’t helping. He said I could go to a clinic to get something stronger, and told me to hang in there, which was not super helpful, but at least he was caring.

After not sleeping at all on Monday night, I got up, got dressed, and got ready to take the ferry back over to Victoria in the car with my mom. Her and Steve brought me some food while I stayed in the car with my foot up, but I couldn’t even eat it, I just wasn’t hungry. Shortly after we got back to my place, I felt really sick and threw up. Now not only was I sick from the painkillers, but they weren’t even helping! So less than an hour later, my mom drove me to a walk-in clinic.

Luckily there was no wait at the clinic, and I had a nice doctor there. I told him what I had done to my foot, and that my painkillers were not working and making me sick. He prescribed me Percocet, a strong narcotic, and we went to the pharmacy to fill it. I would have waited in the car except here in Canada you have to sign for narcotics. It didn’t take long and I took one as soon as I got home. Eventually I fell asleep, for the first time since Sunday night.

Last night our friend who lives in our building came up to see me, and it was great to see her. I only vaguely remember her visit though, as the Percocet made me quite sleepy and a bit doped up. That’s okay though, my mom and Steve entertained her.

I got some sleep last night, but the Percocet is making me quite nauseous. My foot is still throbbing but at least Percocet is helping a bit. My mom left this morning as she has to work tomorrow. I am parked on the recliner with my foot propped up, and Steve is being great at getting things for me and taking care of me.

I will write soon, but I will leave you with how my foot looks at the moment. A couple of these were taken with my phone, so sorry for the bad quality on some.