That wasn't TOO bad. It also wasn't a Bier block.

[cjsmith]

Impressions: 1) Boy do they ever keep ya waiting. 2) The staff people I met were friendly. 3) Ow. 4) I must be some kind of impressive recovery person or something.

We got there a few minutes before 8, as instructed. Filled out papers. Waited for at least an hour. Got taken back to pre-op inprocessing, taking vitals, asking questions, etc; the nurse had to take my blood pressure four times before it was low enough to continue. (I was nervous, okay?) Got an IV in my arm. Went vagal. Rob came back to join me and got to talk me through the dizzy-sweat-clammy. We waited for well over another hour, maybe close to two.

I kept whining about how hungry I was, and Liz, my inprocessing nurse, made sure to tell me she got a snack on break. It was just the right level of teasing.

I had the word "Yes" written on my right leg.

Dr. C showed up. I signed the consent form for "if we can't get an IV in your foot, we can try the spinal." Rolled into the OR. Monitors on. Versed and some other drug for heart rate in. Tourniquet on...

...and sure enough, they couldn't get an IV in my foot. They tried, too. They tried hard. OW. There was blood on the sheet afterward.

You would not believe the number of needles and syringes that started coming out then. That may have been one of the times they dumped another dose of Versed down my IV.

So they rolled me off the gurney onto the operating table. Monitors and such all off, roooooll over, monitors and such all back on. Local anesthetic injected next to my spine. (OW. Somebody even gave me a hand to grip for that one. I don't know who; I was facedown. I gripped it all right.)

Then one, maybe two, big needles went in about an inch to the right of my spine. They moved them, took a "picture" (I don't know what kind of imaging they were using), moved them, looked, moved them... Apparently it's really hard to get the needle to JUST the right nerve. There was enough shoving and moving that they put in more local anesthetic. I remember asking for copies of the pictures, but now I'm not at all sure Dr. C took me seriously.

"Okay," said Dr. C when everything was ready, "if you have any ringing in your ears or numbness or tingling in your mouth I want you to tell me." Dose went in. "Anything?" No. Dose. "Anything?" No. There were four repeats.

Then they had to clean me all off, apply bandages, and send me out, standard post-op type of monitoring and all. After I got dressed there was some discussion of whether I could walk out. They were having none of it. I honestly have no idea how they expected me to change into my street clothes with no one there to catch me if I fell, if they didn't believe I could walk to the elevator even with someone beside me. No clue. Anyway, I was obviously feeling absolutely nothing from the Versed. (Quotes from that chunk of time: "She's had five of Versed. There's no WAY she's walking out." "Should I tap dance, to show you I'm okay?" I did, too, a little.) I think that, as with Valium, enough nervousness can eat up a fair amount of the effect of the drug.

So I walked out. I'm apparently the first one they've ever walked out rather than wheeled out. So said the guy walking next to me, anyway.

Five hours after our arrival, I was home. They'd told me three. I suppose that's not too far off, huh? :-/

Now my back aches just a little (expected), my right leg feels warm (expected), and everything I have tried to eat tastes like vinegar. If you could make vinegar into a dry paste, and then get my mouth to secrete it so that no amount of rinsing will help, that'd be what this is like. My beloved cheese pockets taste like they've been pickled. Fortunately I am hungry enough to get past such a puny obstacle.

I get to do nothing involving driving, heavy machinery, or signing legally binding contracts for the rest of the day. No alcohol or sleepy-making drugs for about 24 hours. Apparently this Versed is usually powerful stuff.

Comments

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

(HUGS). When will you be able to tell if the procedure helped?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Probably right now, and I'm not sure whether it did. I'm obviously not "all better" on that foot. I think there's some improvement, but maybe I'm just really liking having my foot nice and warm for once. :-)

[platypus]

Yikes! When they give me Versed, I remember nothing (I can, just barely, be made to surface out of zombiedom by a forceful direct order, but other than that it's like my mind just skips a groove and suddenly it's an hour later and when the hell did that happen? That's despite the abject panic of going to get my wisdom teeth pulled, too. But I've been able to totally overcome sedative pills on nerves alone, so I understand the principle). I hope recovery goes well.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Maybe it depends how much you get. For pre-op anxiety, Wikipedia says dosage tends to be 0.5-2.5 mg; for "sedation, anxiolysis, and amnesia" for endoscopy, 3-5mg or rarely as high as 10. I'm told I got five. I have memory... this time. :-)

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Ever since I told my doc that I woke up during a colonoscopy once, he's always made sure he medicated me well for anything I've had. Consequently, I remember getting dosed one minute and it being over the next. I kinda like it. The spinal is certainly something I'd probably hate to pieces. Good for you for getting through it. You're a trooper.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe I just need a linebacker-sized dose rather than a little-geek-chick-sized dose. :-) You woke up during a colonoscopy? That sounds... less than pleasant!

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Long story short, it took three nurses/docs to hold me down and re-sedate me. Of course, I didn't really remember that. I woke up and told the nurse I'd had a terrible dream about screaming and screaming and she informed me that it was NOT a dream and filled in the details of the event. Seems my doc might have been a teensy bit late and my meds might have worn off.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

How awful! Ugh! I wonder if you'd almost rather NOT have any memory of that event, even if you did have to live through it once. (I also wonder if the doctor felt guilty at all, if indeed it was his screwup.)

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I wonder if a pickle tastes picklier?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Pickles are vile, thus science will forever lack the answer to this burning question.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks to your despotic views against pickles, SCIENCE!!! has been defeated.

[ken_r]

Mmm, pickled cheese pockets. Is that part of the expected side-effects as well?

Here's hoping for a smooth recovery, and a large measure of success....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, it sure wasn't expected by me. :-) I wonder if that's from the spine zap (he did keep asking me about what my mouth felt like) or from the drugs in the IV. I wish I had medical clue.

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

I've got all my fingers crossed for you, CJ. Here's hoping you a speedy recovery and, of course, some measure of relief for your poor foot.

(((Hugs)))

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm basically recovered now (hahaha! "it's just a flesh wound!") and my fingers too are crossed that my foot decides to be all nice to me for a while. :-)

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

Ewwww, pickles! Poor CJ!

Maybe you should try eating some tomato sauce and red wine to try to make your mouth taste like marinara sauce.

The rest of it sounds very unpleasant too.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Maybe some lettuce, olive oil and herbs? :-) Fortuately the effect is fading!

[sharya.livejournal.com]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! So far I'm not really sure whether my foot feels better. I wish I had a little digital readout. :-)

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Yay for it being overwith!

Boy, they were being cheap with the Versed ... and you are so brave and intrepid! I know you didn't feel brave and intrepid, but you are! When I had arthroscopic surgery on my knee, I had a spinal, and they gave me enough IV sedation (Versed? Valium? one of the benzodiazepines, anyway) to knock me out completely for the spinal. Then they let me wake up (at my request) to watch the surgery on the monitor ... but to my perception I wasn't there at all for the spinal.

I've had a number of surgeries with IV sedation, and I only had one where I woke up during it -- a laparoscopy. It was extremely weird, because I could feel the instrument moving around inside me, but I must have had some local anesthesia because I don't remember it hurting. Or maybe I just don't remember. They told me afterward I kept talking to them and asking a question over and over. (They told me at the time what it was, but I don't remember any more, it was almost 20 years ago.) It was apparently pretty funny!

But for all the others I was out like a light. Just got on the operating table one minute and the next minute they were taking me to the recovery area.

What you found about the Versed is something that has worried me for a long time. It produces "sedation, anxiolysis, and amnesia" ... so for a procedure like the spinal, or a colonoscopy, where there's no anesthetic, do we feel all the pain at the time but just don't remember it??

Anyway, I'll be eager to hear what your foot thought of the surgery!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The Bier block isn't supposed to be all that horrifying to go through. I suppose that's why they didn't pile on the sedation from the get-go.

I've never woken up during a procedure with IV sedation! Well, except this one where I never was out. That must have been really weird.

It's my impression that local anesthetic is often used when the patient is not forming memories -- even when the patient is totally out. They gave me a local for the spine injection when I was fairly conscious; they gave me local on my feet when I was IV-sedated enough to have no memory; they gave Rob local on his foot when he was truly out from general. (I've had local for both my sets of tooth extractions under general, too.) So I wouldn't be surprised if they'd have given me that local for the spine injection even if I was really zonked. After all, if we're feeling pain at the time, we're going to be uncooperative, flinching and thrashing and yelling. Plus people deal better in recovery if the local is still providing some comfort. Anyway, that's just my impression from all the stuff I've read.

I think my foot hasn't noticed. Hard to say. Maybe yes, because I can stand on my "tiptoes" (ball of foot) for an instant; maybe no, because the tingling/shocking sensations are still just as easy to invoke. I wish I had a little digital readout! Pain memory is so unreliable!

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Rest up, heal well!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Hope the effect takes! It says something about the regular pain that you're shrugging off all those needles.