Stuck in Bed

On our way home from the hospital, I called my job to tell them how it went.  Apparently the pain meds made me silly because I had my whole office laughing.  I can't recall what I told them but I must have been slightly out of it, although I felt normal.  When we reached the house and the 3 steps to get inside, I knew there was no way I could get in on my own.  I had a splint up to my knee, and could not do the crawling I was used to.  I was unable to use crutches or a walker to get up the steps. Luckily my sisters' boyfriend, Jimmy was there.  He is a strong man, (he lifts heavy things in competitions) and he picked me up and got me into the house.  Little did I know that that would be the last time in 2 weeks that I would be able to be outdoors.

I managed to get into my moms room where I would be staying during the recovery process.   My mom and Damien (my boyfriend) came up with a chart for my meds that I had to take through out the day.  The commode was set up next to my bed.  I felt good, I was ready to recover and become normal.

I ate dinner in bed.  Damien ate next to me sitting in my wheelchair using my commode as a table.  It was quite comical.  Things weren't as funny the first time I actually had to use the commode.... Damien and my mom had to physically lift me up and on to it.  It was very difficult and frustrating.  Doing that multiple times a day was exhausting. It knocked the life out of me.

I felt great until that first night home.  They warned me that the nerve block and anesthesia would wear off so I had to make sure I took my meds on time and hourly.  Well at exactly midnight I screamed in pain.  It felt like a metal slab was being hammered into my foot.  After a few hours it went away and that was the only major pain I felt.

Looking back it was tolerable, at the time I thought the pain would never leave.   I was not allowed to take advil, or alieve.  I had to take (2) Percocets, every few hours with food.  400 Mg of Ibuprofen every 8 hours for 3 days straight, (1) Enteric coated asprin for 42 days straight, Lyrica (for nerves) for 5 days, and Zofran (for nausea) 3x a day.

The first 3 days I needed to rest & keep my foot elevated at all times. My family were my on call nurses.  Damien slept upstairs and he and mom took turns getting up throughout the night giving me my pills and a snack.  The Percocets were weird.  I could not see how people could be addicted to a pain pill like this... I mean all it did was make me not concentrate and I got sleepy.  I could not watch tv or do anything for more then a half hour at a time, I'd doze in and out of sleep. I was kind of pissed off by this because I thought I would be able to read or watch movies, and my attention span was gone.  I was not bored because I just napped.

After about 5 days when I stopped the percocets, (or slowed down with it) I was trusted enough to go to use the commode on my own.  I had built up arm strength and I was no longer dazing out.  On day 5 I realized I had not pooped in almost a week.  It did not phase me because I felt fine.  I was never constipated before and did not think it would be a big deal, until I finally had to go and nothing would come out. Damn percocets! I was warned about this, and although I drank lots of water, coffee etc nothing worked,  It felt like a brick was trying to come out of me.  My mom had to get me laxatives etc.
The whole situation was terribly humiliating.

Once I was able to concentrate, I used my sisters Laptop and started going on line, and checking my email and becoming more social.  I still had no real pain until at night, my heel felt like it was being drilled into.  I knew my surgery consisted of midfoot incisions, and a piece of the side of my heel would have been scraped out and used in the fusing of bone.  This did not match the feeling.. It felt like my heel was rubbing on the fiberglass splint (cast).  I could feel it being cut. It was very painful but if I positioned it correctly I would be ok.  I knew the splint was loosening up from wear and because I was continuously loosing weight, perhaps this was the cause of the pain?  Regardless, it was bearable and I knew it would go away.  The other feeling I was getting was a numbness/tingly sensation in my foot.
It would come and go and was very annoying.  It sent chills down my back.  Again, I noticed it mainly at night when I lay there trying to sleep.  My lack of sleep at night was becoming bothersome.  I was getting frustrated and would sleep the best in the mornings.

My day consisted of waking up, my mom bringing me breakfast in bed, my sister lending me her computer and me reading a book.  Somewhere in between I would have lunch in bed and continue either selling stuff on ebay or reading.  I sold a ton of stuff while I was stuck in bed.  I took pics in bed, and listed items online.  I made myself some cash while I was stuck at home.  I never in a million years would have thought I was capable of reading.  I always had difficulty focusing long enough to remember what I read... I guess because my head was clear and I was stuck doing nothing, I was able to read.  I read 3 books in a few days, and was very proud of myself.