3 - it's the magic number

Yeah it is! :)

I'm told that surgery day is Day Zero, making yesterday Day Three in my LPAO adventure, and what a day it was! My mama arrived soon after the epidural came out and was kind enough to give my back a thorough scratching (telling me I looked like a zebra already from where I'd been able to scratch) followed by some nice soothing lotion. We had a good bit of time to kill before the PT showed up, so we watched some Curb (which she'd never seen) and I tried not to laugh too hard - unintended consequence of this surgery being a change in my laugh as I try to keep all the motion in the upper part of my torso (weird!).

When Jenna, the PT (and a Vermonter!), arrived, she asked if I could wiggle my toes and was immediately impressed by the range of motion in my left foot/ankle/calf - I'd been moving it all around since the epidural started to wear off down there and was scared for a bit that I'd done something I shouldn't. She reassured me that I was actually doing marvelously and gave me a little tutorial on walker walking before getting me to sitting on the edge of the bed. Bear in mind that neither of my feet had touched ground in something like 80 hours, so needless to say it was a bit woozy-making even getting them into position. The pain was bearable, though, as long as I remembered to keep my torso leaned back enough that my leg wasn't at a 90 degree angle to it. Standing with the walker was a fairly bizarre sensation, since it was the first time I could really feel the effects of the surgery (and I'd just taken some more percocet!), but I was pleasantly surprised at my ability to maintain my balance given how long I'd been bed-bound. Definitely have to give yoga some credit on that one!

Apparently it's fairly standard for PAOers to have no ability to move the foot on the op side, such that Jenna often at first has to physically move their foot forward for them for a time. This was not to be my fate, however (thank heavens!), since I maintained so much mobility below the knee. Still and all, the extent of my phenomenal range of motion is to be able to creep my toes along the floor until my leg is angled toward the walker before hoisting the rest of my weight into position with my arms. On the walker the right leg doesn't seem to have to do much in this regard, save for keeping me upright, but we'll see how crutches go today. In any event, I managed to walker to the window and back to an armchair they'd brought in for me (approximately 15 feet, approximately 15 minutes) and sit for awhile waiting for them to bring in a commode to put over the room's toilet, which for some unknown reason is about a foot off the floor normally. Sitting up in a chair was SOOO very nice! And as soon as they got the commode in place they took out my catheter, which was a bit painful and strange, but also quite nice to see it go! Of course, I immediately realized what I'd just committed to and decided to stop drinking water and eating ice by the bucketfull!

Awkward though it was, it was a big step to be able to use the big kids potty again, and I was pretty wiped by the time I made it back to my armchair. Around this time Elizabeth showed up, having made the trip down to friends in the area the night before - it was really nice to see a friendly face from home here, where I feel I've been in exile for about a month, and to see my good spirits and relatively good health reflected in her. After she left came the delightful moment of getting back into bed, definitely the most painful part of the whole process, in no small part because I'm dependent on the nurse to get my op leg back into bed, and she has no way of knowing what hurts. I did make another unauthorized solo trip to the bathroom at about 4 this morning and managed to use my good leg to hoist my bum leg back in bed (with a short stopover propped on the walker) which was still painful but better, if only for being all under my control. You know how much I like control! ;)

Alright, time to make the trek to the bathroom again and hopefully not throw up, as I'm feeling a bit queasy this morning. Also fevery, but that's nothing new. In any event, it seems reasonable to expect that I'll go home tomorrow, barring any unforeseen complications. Here's hoping!