Spent the entire day in bed with feet elevated, taking my Oxycodone faithfully every 4 hours. After 3 hours, I start to feel some pain and throbbing, and I fear that if I do not take another pill the pain will be unbearable. I have not dared to remove the bandage to peak underneath, but it feels like I still have a lot of swelling. It has been almost 36 hours since the surgery; I have been great at keeping the feet elevated, but I have not been good at icing. I tried a little yesterday when I came home from surgery, but I felt like it was useless since I could not feel any cold through the bandages.
Having a bilateral surgery, I can definitely understand why different people report such disparate results. On this wonderful blog, several people trace their progress in the "comments" section, and some of them speak as if the surgery was no big deal. If I were writing only about my right foot, that might be the case for me. But my left foot seems to be in greater pain. If I try to move my right toe just a little, I feel stiffness; if I try to move my left toe, I feel burning pain in both the interphalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints (see my first post for explanation of why doc worked on both joints). I don't know if or when I should even be trying to move the toes. All of the questions I forgot to ask.
Appointment with doc tomorrow. I hope to get more answers about what exactly he saw and did in the joints, as well as what I am supposed to be doing now for recovery (moving the joints, PT?).
Michael, thanks for referencing my blog. I wish you uneventful recovery - it does takes time and patience, but I am a living proof that one can become completely pain-free.
ReplyDeleteBe careful with oxy; it does suppress the respiratory function. I had my wisdom tooth removed a month ago, and so used some of it to help with the pain after the procedure. One night had to remind myself to breathe - that was quite scary (but possibly had something to do with some adjuvant therapy with red wine). Of course the latter is especially discouraged in your case because of paracetamol (aka acetaminophen in this part of the world) in Percocet.
Thank you, Parsifal. I'm off the Oxy now. Gradually less pain.
ReplyDeleteDay 2 Aug 21:
ReplyDeleteBy morning the pain block was only just starting to wear off. I took another pill. I had some yogurt for breakfast and was fine during the morning, but was aware of the pain block wearing off. I kept up the one tablet every six hours schedule. When it was lunch time I started to eat soup but got nauseous and threw up. Thereafter ensued a not very pleasant day. I threw up all food and consequently all tablets. The pain in my feet increased although interesting I felt the pain mostly in the outside of my foot - the little pinkie side, rather than in my big toe. That made me think that maybe my bandages were too tight. When I spoke to the nurse she said that I should not take the bandages off. By the time evening rolled around and I couldn't even keep water down, my wife started calling the doctor. The number on the discharge sheet was written so badly that we couldn't really tell if it was a phone number. (Note to self: make sure you know how to reach your surgeon after hours). So she tried the hospital to see if the doctor had an exchange answering service - he didn't. After several frustrating hours of trying to reach someone (she even called our local pharmacy to talk with the pharmacist there) it occurred to her that maybe what looked like a slash in the number was really a digit and therefor a phone number. She called it and left a message and the doctor called back right away. He agreed that maybe the bandages were too tight and said it was ok to unwind them - "after 24 hrs the wounds are already sealed up." and said that the nausea could be from the anesthesia and the opiates. He said that all opiate medicines are from the same family now and so if I don't get along with one of them I won't get along with any. So, no more opiates for me. I tried taking some regular headache tablets but threw those up as well. We loosened the bandages which made a huge difference. I decided to just go to sleep. I slept remarkably well given the circumstance. I woke up three times to pee like a horse. Where all that liquid came from I have no idea since I had thrown up everything in my system. I think my body was just busy getting rid off all the opiates in my system. I probably lost a pound or so of water weight.