Post-Major-Surgery Post

So the operations went well, yay!

I was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon at about 2:00pm, and was happy to be close to my doctors as I had been very sick for the previous 24 hours with nausea from my head injuries and nerves about the surgeries.

The wrist surgery was first and lasted a total of four hours. Dr. Raskin (the surgeon) visited me after everything to explain to my family and I what he had found and done. First he had to make a rather large incision in my palm to drain some blood that was probably causing a lot of pain and putting pressure on everything. Next he used ten screws and a titanium plate to fix my wrist. He said that ten or fifteen years ago he would not have even had the experience or the technology to fix my wrist as it was broken so badly. At times he was working with bone dust and glue to put everything back together.

Dr. Raskin then opened the top of my forearm from one side to the other, and the inside of my wrist with a three inch incision to fix the damage that was done by the pins shoved into my arm in Argentina. He found a branch of nerves that had been nicked, and speared tendons that needed stitching. After all was said and done he is hoping for 100% recovery of all my hand functions, but he said he would settle for 98% after seeing just how bad things were.

I spent Wednesday night high on morphine at the NYU Center for Joint Diseases (CJD). It got so bad that I actually made one of the nurses start writing a list of things I needed to do when I got out of the hospital. The list included things like, "Call my grandma whose name is Nana, finish financial aid, and take Mom out to dinner or do something nice for her." I talked to people who I later realized didn't exist and, according to my sister, failed to laugh at a resident's attempts to humor me, and mostly mumbled incoherently.

At 8:30am I left the Center for Joint Diseases and took a cab to the main NYU hospital. There I was taken into surgery rather quickly, and they agreed to use the IV that I had left in my arm from the CJD. Technically they were doing something illegal but I was overjoyed that they wouldn't be sticking my already-too-bruised left arm again.

The face surgery went well and lasted only a few hours. Dr. Thorne made about an inch-long incision in my right lower eyelid, and inserted a titanium mesh plate to fix the fracture of the orbit of my eye. Then they relieved the pressure on my sinuses and corrected my breathing by fixing the fracture in my nose bone.

After he was finished, Dr. Thorne taped a small cast to my nose, and made a stitch in my lower eyelid along the lash line. He then took the threads of said stitch and taped them to my forehead, effectively stitching my eye shut from the bottom. This was to decrease swelling, and prevent my lower eyelid from filling with fluid, which could hurt the suture line there and be very painful.

I/my sister and mom took some post surgery pictures that are a little scary but I'll post one or two if people really want to see, just ask.


So, how am I? Still a bit scared and shaken from all of this. It's taking me time to get used to the stitch on my eyelid, seeing with one eye, feeling all of the incisions made by Dr. Raskin, etc.

I am glad all the surgery is over though and will be forever grateful to morphine for making my time at the hospital bearable. I will also never forget my mother and sister and all that they went through, and continue to put up with in taking care of me. They endured my morphine induced delirium, helped my get dressed, made me laugh, wiped my tears, yelled at one resident who made me scream in pain when he pulled at my stitched eyelid, read me to sleep, and have kept strong for me even when I knew they were scared too.

My mind is continuously occupied by thoughts of graduate school. I realize that by August I will not be ready to drive to New Orleans or Denver by myself, and will be right in the middle of rather intense hand therapy. I am a bit wary about living on my own starting in August as I will be lucky to carry my own groceries, and will need to take it easy for a while after enduring two severe head injuries in two years.

I can't help but think that maybe it is time for me to relax a little and stop continuously challenging myself, pushing the limits or breaking into the unknown. This might be the narcotics talking, but I feel like a wild horse that has just been shot and is realizing its own mortality for the first time.



On Monday I go have my eye un-stitched (yay!), and on Thursday I get to see my wrist for the first time since all the incisions (really hoping I don't look like Frankenstein).

Off to rest more and relax my left hand which typed this whole post!