Day 1

The day arrived for my operation, June 19, 2013. I arrived at the Toronto Western Hospital at 6 o’clock in the morning. I was called in and they gave me clothes to wear. After answering a lot of questions I ended up in a preparatory room where I met my anesthesiologist. He was quite nice and was trained in Kingston. He explained to me the procedure and how he was going to nerve block my arm by injecting something into my shoulder. I was not clear on what that something actually was however I can tell you it worked well. During this process I was able to watch the needle go through my shoulder around my nerves on a TV screen since they were using ultrasound. Before they started they connected me intravenously and gave me a little bit of sedation equivalent to a couple of glasses of wine, just enough to take the edge off and eliminate that horror face that I was exhibiting.

They handed me my arm which was dead weight and felt like something long and heavy attached to my body. The actually asked me to hold my arm with my left hand as they wheeled me into the operating room. The operating room was filled with about 8 to 10 people including my two surgeons. It was a short meet and greet before I was put under. The next thing I remember is waking up in the operating room with my hand  all bandaged up. I do not remember much about this time except that I asked if I could have my bones. The surgeon showed them to me in a bottle but said that they had to go down to pathology. I was a bit disappointed since I wanted them as a souvenir. I think they put me back under at this point where I don’t remember what happened between the operating room and recovery room. When I woke up in the recovery room I remember having coffee and cookies and my wife was There to greet me. They put my arm in a sling over my shoulder and then he gave me some Percocet prescriptions for the pain. They told me to take one to two every four hours and to start as soon as I felt a little tingling in my arm.

We left the hospital and went to the hotel where we were staying in Toronto and I went to bed immediately. They told me to keep my arm elevated above my heart is much as possible to help reduce the swelling. I think I was back in the hotel room by midday and I started taking the Percocet around one thirty in the afternoon. I started taking them every four hours so that the pain would not get ahead of me. I was warned that I do not want to start chasing the pain. There was a little blood coming out through the cast at the bottom near my thumb so I phoned the Hospital and spoke to the hand surgeon on duty. They told me that this was okay providing it wasn’t sopping wet in blood. there wasn’t much blood and it stopped within 4 to 5 hour. by nighttime my hand and arm started to defrost and I was painful. they told me that I could take to add fill in addition to two Percocet every four hours and that is exactly what I did. I programmed my Windows smart phone to wake me up every four hours so that I could take my pills. the pain was bearable but on pleasant and the first day was laying in bed with my hand up trying to sleep but only getting an hour here and there. I remember taking a small picture of myself with my phone just after I’d taken around the pills. This is it.