20190403 - Wednesday - Operation Over - Fay Berry

20190403 – Wednesday – Operation Over

This morning Helen arrived at 5.30 in Jesia’s car.

I was all ready and the only thing I found I had forgotten was ear phones.

Never mind.

Helen dropped me off at the front door of Flinders with my small bag and my new walking frame.

Helen went and parked her car in a disabled zone with my disabled permit so that she can park for as long as she needed without worrying about a parking fine.

She came back and we sat together in the foyer until it was time to go up to the DOSA Dept.

I was the “first cab off the rank” and so I was asked all the identification data to make sure I was the “right person” having the “right” operation.

Then I Helen took me to a room where I changed into all the hospital gear I had been given.

On a bed and then I was wheeled away into the operating room.

I was asked to sit on the side of the bed and then the anaesthetist prodded me all over my back to find the “right” spot to put the needle in for the spinal block.

This took some time, because the head anaesthetist was training a “learner” on the method of putting in a spinal block.

After a number of false attempts the spinal block was accomplished, but in spite of the longer time taken by the “new chum” the block was eventually successfully accomplished.

Then I was simply covered from head to foot with protective blankets which were stuck to me to cover all the parts that were not being operated on.

I wish I had had a camera because the two surgeons were covered from head to foot in what looked like space suits, so that not a single part of them was uncovered.

They waited until the spinal block had worked and I could feel nothing from the waist down.

Then the two surgeons began to use what must have been a small chain saw on my leg, because I could hear the shrill whine of a cutting machine.

Then throughout the 4 hours of the operation, there were all sorts of noises.

A hammer was used repeatedly, so I don’t know what they were doin with that.

I am assuming they were hammering the metal of the “new knee” into the bone, or at least that is what is sounded like.

During the whole four hours, the two surgeons carried on a conversation about life in general and very little about the operation.

Once or twice one surgeon praised the other for some part of the operation they had achieved.

There was a cloth shield held protecting my head and face from spattering.

After a while the cloth was spattered with blood which I could see through the cloth.

I guessed it must be my blood, because there was a tube running past my head that had a constant stream of blood flowing down it.

Through all of this I felt no pain, no pain at all.

In fact I felt quite good, and very happy to know that the operation was being done, and that soon I would be complete with a new knee.

The only thing that was a negative in all of this is that my blood pressure was rather high.

The anaesthetist gave me some sort of drug that brought my blood pressure down.

At last it was all over and the screen over my face was removed and I had my first glimpse of the two “space men” who had done the operation.

I was simply elated that I had my ew knee.

I was lifted expertly onto a bed and

Every now and then the anaesthetist kept me up to date on which part of the operation was being done, and finally he told me that I was now “being sewn up.”

Still no pain, none whatsoever.

I was taken to my ward in 4G and settled in very comfortably.

I had dinner, which was off the hospital’s normal menu.

I will be able to choose what I want to eat tomorrow.

Then Susie and Steve J arrived.

Susie is such a laugh.

My physiotherapist came while they were there, and she got me up and I walked around the ward.

Still no pain.

I got back into bed and my dinner arrived.

Susie decided that she was going to feed my my dinner,

So Steve took a photo of the two of us in various strange positions.

After they had gone Ellie Trenwith rang me and we chatted for a while.