After spending some time on Facebook and texting everyone with all my post-surgery good news, I started to get sleepy. Pain wasn't to much of a problem and the nurses were in and out with both oral and IV pain and other meds. They were checking my vitals frequently and everything was looking good, but my blood pressure was low and getting lower with each check. The nurses seemed to be getting concerned and told me they would have to scale back on pain meds a bit to stop my blood pressure from dropping any more. I tried to get some sleep, but with them coming in every half hour and the pain creeping up on me, sleep wasn't happening to well. The nurse's aid emptied my drain tube and the container was near full and had more than a pint of blood in it. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said "That is a lot. That's not good." She emptied my catheter bag too, which was also full. That helped to explain why my blood pressure was so low. The nurse also increased my IV drip to give me more fluids and I tried to keep drinking my ice water. I know that being in bed for an entire day to this point, the blood loss, and the pain meds all make blood pressure drop. So I kept telling myself not to worry and that once I got more fluids, some sleep, and a good breakfast in the morning, my blood pressure will be good as gold again.
The nurses were getting ready to change shifts and my main nurse came in to see me before leaving. She turned to me and said "I just have to tell you, you have been the most gracious and polite ankle patient I have seen. This kind of surgery is really painful and most patients are just miserable with the pain and most often make everyone around them miserable too. But you have been handling it so well." I was so touched and thanked her. I also explained to her that at this point it did not hurt to bad and that I think I just got plenty of practice with ankle pain over the past 12 years. My brain is nice enough to shut it off for the most part. She was so nice and that was the last I got to see of her for my stay.
Finally I was able to sleep a bit and as the sun started to come up the new nurse brought me in a new menu with real food listed in it. The menu was like one you would see in a restaurant with a huge selection of all kinds of foods. I narrowed in on the breakfast section and planned out my much anticipated meal. They call the meals "room service" and you have to call in your order for any meal between the hours of 6:30am to 7:30pm. As soon as the clock turned to the six and half hour in the AM I was dialing the number to get my grub. The lady taking my order said it would arrive in 45minutes or less. This would have been a good time to get more sleep, but I was to excited to get food and coffee that sleep was the last thing on my mind. So I turned on the morning news and found out that Nelson Mandela had died the day before.
The news coverage of Nelson Mandela's death kept me preoccupied until my food arrived. Once I lifted the cover to see all the breakfast I was allowed to have, I felt like I was in breakfast heaven. The coffee was good and strong, and they had real sugar and creamer. The lady forgot the syrup for my pancakes, but I did not care, I ate them delightfully dry. After eating, I started to feel so much better and more energetic. Sure enough, my blood pressure started to improve after getting some food and caffeine in my system. The numbers were still low, but they were getting higher rather than lower. The lowest it got the night before was 85/40 and was lingering around 90/50 or better for most of the day.
With more desire to keep myself entertained, I was moving around in bed more to reach things here and there. The more I moved the more I noticed pain in my ankle, which was propped up on a foam wedge that was about a 45 degree angle. The wedge was only just slightly wider than my leg, so it was a balancing act to keep it up there when reaching around to my side tables. My professional mind thought, this is great for my core! :) One nurse told me she was amazed at how I stayed upright on that things so well. She said just about every other patient had trouble and had to use a bunch of pillows to keep it propped upright. That explained why there were two stacks of pillows in each end of the room. Somehow I managed to keep it up there, even in my sleep.
Throughout the day I was able to nap here and there, and the nurses were giving me slightly more pain meds. But as the night wore on and my popliteal (nerve) block was working less to control the pain, I was starting to suffer more. The nurses were still trying to be very conservative with my pain meds due to my hypotension (low BP).
When it came time to sleep, the pain was getting more intense and interfering with dozing off. I was starting to feel a bit exhausted too with not sleeping well for 3 nights in a row now. The first night was Tuesday night as my last night at home, the anxiety and surprise of getting to have the surgery after all, then trying to think through everything to be sure I had all I needed where I needed it. The second night, Wednesday night, was in the hotel, where I was extremely nervous and in a strange bed. Then last night being woken every half hour for a vitals check. The three sleepless nights were starting to take their toll on me.
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