Surgery and post surgery

So now I'm checked into the hospital, wearing a hospital gown and sitting in the bed. It short order the nurse came in to start my IV. A couple of hours before the surgery they brought in a tray a food, clearly marked "for relatives only". Yay for Alan, boo for me.  About an hour before surgery time they wheeled me into the pre-op area. I was so bored, eventually I asked for something to read and they brought me a newspaper. This is also where I met with the anesthesiologist. Most ofter bunion surgery in the US is done by podiatrist and in an outpatient surgical center. Here it is an inpatient procedure done by an orthopedic surgeon. As a patient there's not much to decide. But one thing I did have to decide was whether to go with a general anethesia or a spinal block with sedation. Alan was voting for general and Miranda wanted me to go for the spinal. She was afraid. I have done both before. After talking to the anesthesiaolgoist I decided to go with the spinal and sedation. I think it was a good choice. When I arrived in the operating room, the doctor gave me the sedation. After I was asleep she did the spinal. Not going to offer an opinion on which option is best, that is something that only you and your doctor can decide together. I don't remember anything else. The first thing I remember after that is being back in my room. I think I asked someone to take my phone, Ipad, and purse out of the safe. Oh, that's something, there is a small hotel style safe in the room to keep your valuables while you are in surgery. One thing that didn't go as planned was a call to Alan when the surgery was done. I had specifically asked them to call him and tell him that I was ok and that I would call him when I woke up all the way. They didn't call and he ended up calling me about 2am to check on things. I was hooked up to an IV with morphine and dramamine to fight the nausea. That was probably my biggest complication, the nausea. I was plesantly surprised about the pain, not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I was pretty sick to my stomach though. As soon as I complained about that they gave me anti-nausea medication and that helped. Because of the nausea the doctor wanted me to stay one more night and take me off the pain meds and make sure I felt ok. 
Food assessment: Wide variety from Halal, vegetarian, Western, or Japanese. I chose Japanese. One complaint by the time I got the food it was cold. Otherwise tasty. 

And that leads me again to the roommate situation and why if there had been availability I would have paid for a single occupancy room. I so wish I had a photo of this.  I was in the bed closest to the door and bathroom. A relative can stay over night with the patient, however, when you are in a double occupancy room the relative is supposed to be of the same gender. Apparently they don't really enforce that policy. My roomie's husband stayed in the room the entire time. This included using the bathroom for his showering and toilet routine. I had the bed closest to the door and bathroom so I got to see the parade of visitors. The evenings were quite loud and rowdy. At one point there were six people in there. Lots of laughing and telephone calls. I usually don't have a problem with that sort of thing but I had just had a four hour surgery and couldn't walk. Good thing I brought my earplugs, and sleeping mask. I actually ended up sleeping with podcasts playing in my ears to cover the sounds of the talkers. In the morning the parade began again when friends and family arrived on their way to work. But this takes the cake, about 8 in the morning, the husband shuffles past my bed, barefoot, in his undershirt with newspaper in hand into the bathroom, oh and he had his phone. He was in there for 45 mins, doing his morning routine and taking phone calls. Alan has now adopted the man's walk whenever he's headed to the loo. It is funny. Every US hospital I've ever been in had a notice on the door saying that the bathroom in the room was for patients only. Again, pay the extra and get a single occupancy room.
 Another choice I had to make was whether to repair one foot or two.  I had tentatively planned to do both feet but after talking to the orthopedic surgeon I decided I would go with the bi-lateral surgery. He allows walking in a boot the day after surgery. But all walking is not created equally. The first trip to the bathroom and back took about 15 mins. By the time I got back to bed the nausea was so bad, well no need to describe that.