Day 0 - The Surgery

I'm writing this about 30 hours post surgery - so will do my best to recap what has happened to me since yesterday morning...

I was so nervous yesterday, having not been in hospital since I was five years old, it was a scary and unfamiliar environment to be in. They took me through to the consultation area, where they check all your details and do a few tests, made sure I wasn't pregnant etc. then they get you all gowned up and ready to go through to theatre. My lovely husband was with me and being so supportive as I was pretty much shaking from nerves and got quite teary at one point. Eventually the time came so I said goodbye and strolled off with the nurses into the theatre room.

They were all so lovely and the anaesthetic was quite fun, I could feel my body resisting it, almost like a surging feeling, which was so strange - but then I disappeared into dreamland, waking several hours later not recognising where I was.

They had said prior to the surgery that they would give me a pain block in both of my feet to keep them numb, which would last around 24 hours. The odd thing for me was that when I woke up, my left foot was really painful - it felt like someone had shoved a blade of glass into the top of my foot, slightly disconcerting as I was expecting it to be numb. My right foot however was happily asleep. I asked the nurse to give me something and again got very teary (there's a trend occurring here!) so they gave me an opiate, similar to morphine to reduce it. It did get better, but wasn't great.

First view of my feet after waking up - this is what they will look like for the next few weeks

The next challenge was that I woke up DESPERATE to go to the loo. Surprising as I hadn't had a drink since the day before, being nil-by-mouth, but realised the drip was hydrating me nicely. This was not pleasant at all!!! I don't need to go into much detail just to say that going to the toilet when you don't have the use of your feet, is neither glamorous, comfortable or dignified in any way - however by this point I really didn't care!

My husband and my mum arrived and we went up to the ward where I was to stay overnight. I felt I was pretty "with it" during this time, however a few hours later I really couldn't remember much, so perhaps not. My feet, particularly the left one, were a bit achy so they gave me some codeine and paracetamol which seemed to keep it at bay. Again I got very teary, for no real reason other than perhaps being a bit overwhelmed. It was at this point I started to feel frustrated - I couldn't do anything, which I knew would be the case, but it doesn't make it any less difficult when you are actually faced with it. The pain medication kept on coming, so thankfully I didn't feel too much more than just a dull ache and a stinging sensation from time to time. We managed to get the hospital bed tilted back so my feet were raised and this made the world of difference! If I can give anyone advice it would be to get your feet as high as you possibly can as soon as possible!

The night was ok, apart from the lovely lady in the room with me snoring so loudly I couldn't get to sleep, but I was comfortable at least. I woke up at 1am in the most agony I have felt since the operation and had to call the nurses in and ask for something extra super strong - they were brilliant and brought something back for me to take - I have no idea what it was, but it was brilliant and kept the pain away until the early hours of the morning. Another piece of advice I would give is to take whatever pain medication they can offer, as often as you can. They say the pain should subside in the first few days so it's only a short term solution but it really does help.

All in all, the first day wasn't too bad. I was a bit overwhelmed as you can imagine, and a lot of it was just a blur due to the variety of medication I was on, but was being well looked after and trying to be optimistic....