It only took only a week for my doctors to diagnose the tumor in my ankle and decide to amputate below the knee. It seems appropriate that the surgery itself was just as rapid. I arrived at the hospital at 7 AM last Tuesday, entered the surgical room at 8:30, and was awake by 11. My surgeon said the operation took just 45 minutes.
I woke in a wood-paneled hospital room with what remained of my left leg wrapped in three inches of cotton gauze. Even with the heavy dressing, my leg was noticeably lighter. For the rest of the day I swam in and out of the morphine. A physical therapist arrived around 3:00 and asked me to crutch between the bed and a chair. He returned the next morning and had me travel around the recovery floor. It took me a while to get used to the asymmetric weight distribution.
My surgeon visited a little while later. I had decreased my morphine intake overnight, and he felt that pills could take care of any remaining pain. That meant I could go home if I wanted. By the time my parents arrived, I was already dressed, and the nurse was finishing the discharge papers. I was home by 3:00, just 30 hours after major surgery.
Pretty amazing.
Since then, I have monopolized my parents' recliner.
Wade Says:
Glad to hear that the surgery went without a hitch… I hope you’re enjoying the time you’re spending recovering — it looks from the picture that you’ll have gotten a lot of reading done.
Still planning on making it back this coming week?