Oh yeah, that surgery thing.
Jun. 1st, 2003 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kickahaDoing well.
Highlights of past week:
1) Codeine is your friiiiieeeeeeend. Really. Whole week went by *zoop*! Gingko disagrees, for some odd reason. :)
2) There was no damage, if you can believe it. I just had a capsule too *%(@# big for the bone. It was stretched so far that it was letting the the bone semi-dislocate *without* tearing. Wacky. They still tightened it up, exactly as we discussed.
3) Surgeons should not necessarily give out post-op care advice. I mistakenly thought that acetaminophen is an anti-inflammatory, so I never asked him about it, but it turns out... not. Ibuprofen is. Percoset and Vicodin are both codeine + acetaminophen, and for a week I was taking 2 Percoset every 4 hrs. That's 60mg of codeine and *4500* mg of acetaminophen per day. Moved to the Vicodin, still at a hellacious amount. Added ibuprofen on the advice of a medical student... in < 24 hrs, was 100% off of the narcotics. That's all it needed. I'm now at 600mg of ibuprofen a day, period. Also, I mentioned to the surgeon on the follow up on Wed that my brace didn't feel right, that my entire arm *hurt* with a deep ache, from fingertips to just below the shoulder, but that the shoulder felt fine. "Oh, no, it's fine... no need for adjustments, just keep taking the painkillers." Turns out that a folded up washcloth as padding on the inside edge of my forearm pushed my elbow out the 1/4" needed to keep my forearm and wrist in the proper position for comfort. Again, thanks to the medical student. (She just completed her orthopedic rotation, helpfully.) No arm pain since.
4) The scars are *tiny*. 1" long each, one front, one back. No external stitches, internal ones will dissolve.
5) The list of things I can't do for myself has shrunken considerably. I can now shower, dress myself, get my brace on and off, work, *almost* type (this is taking a while), get my own food, clean my own dishes, etc, etc. But I can't pull my own freakin' hair back into a ponytail! AUGH! If anyone has any advice on how to do this one-handed, *please* pass it on.
Things are getting back to semi-normal, even.
Highlights of past week:
1) Codeine is your friiiiieeeeeeend. Really. Whole week went by *zoop*! Gingko disagrees, for some odd reason. :)
2) There was no damage, if you can believe it. I just had a capsule too *%(@# big for the bone. It was stretched so far that it was letting the the bone semi-dislocate *without* tearing. Wacky. They still tightened it up, exactly as we discussed.
3) Surgeons should not necessarily give out post-op care advice. I mistakenly thought that acetaminophen is an anti-inflammatory, so I never asked him about it, but it turns out... not. Ibuprofen is. Percoset and Vicodin are both codeine + acetaminophen, and for a week I was taking 2 Percoset every 4 hrs. That's 60mg of codeine and *4500* mg of acetaminophen per day. Moved to the Vicodin, still at a hellacious amount. Added ibuprofen on the advice of a medical student... in < 24 hrs, was 100% off of the narcotics. That's all it needed. I'm now at 600mg of ibuprofen a day, period. Also, I mentioned to the surgeon on the follow up on Wed that my brace didn't feel right, that my entire arm *hurt* with a deep ache, from fingertips to just below the shoulder, but that the shoulder felt fine. "Oh, no, it's fine... no need for adjustments, just keep taking the painkillers." Turns out that a folded up washcloth as padding on the inside edge of my forearm pushed my elbow out the 1/4" needed to keep my forearm and wrist in the proper position for comfort. Again, thanks to the medical student. (She just completed her orthopedic rotation, helpfully.) No arm pain since.
4) The scars are *tiny*. 1" long each, one front, one back. No external stitches, internal ones will dissolve.
5) The list of things I can't do for myself has shrunken considerably. I can now shower, dress myself, get my brace on and off, work, *almost* type (this is taking a while), get my own food, clean my own dishes, etc, etc. But I can't pull my own freakin' hair back into a ponytail! AUGH! If anyone has any advice on how to do this one-handed, *please* pass it on.
Things are getting back to semi-normal, even.