Day 10

We took another nice walk on the park’s grass trails today, a little farther and a little faster than before. What a nice day - 60 degrees and a cool breeze. 4.4 miles in 1:27, pace about 20 minutes per mile.

This is the 10th day after the hernia surgery, very little pain during the walk, but it’s certainly not healed yet. I haven’t tried to run more than a shuffling step or two, and won’t for a while. I’ll get more direction from the surgeon in our post-surgical evaluation on Monday, I hope.

I had my fourth session of acupuncture today too, treating the surgical incision and my chronic peripheral neuropathy. So far I can’t tell whether it’s helping; the neuropathy hasn’t improved much, but the surgery seems to be healing rapidly.

Every Day Is Better than the Last

Wednesday, March 28, 2012:

We three had never seen some of the park's new trails, so we had an enjoyable walk on grass trails on the other side of the park.

We walked for about 45 minutes, no telling the distance, but we weren’t moving very fast. I felt about the same as yesterday, not much pain and very happy to be out there. This is day 9 since the hernia surgery, and it feels better every day.

Tuesday, March 27:

A walk in the park. 3.6 miles in about 1:20, a very easy pace. I felt an ache in the gut once in a while, especially if I misstepped a bit and got a little jolt. Otherwise, this was an uneventful walk. Mostly cloudy, windy, and warm for March.

Monday, March 26:

Elliptical trainer, 2.5 "miles" in 30 minutes, 265 calories. I "ran" at a reduced pace and reduced resistance level, with no pain.

Those are cherries on top of the oatmeal:

No More Pain Meds

I’ve been taking naproxen sodium (Aleve), which I prefer to ibuprofen for a couple of reasons, but today I just didn’t need any medication for pain. Certain things are still a little difficult, like getting in and out of bed, but I can laugh, cough, sneeze, blow my nose, walk, climb up & down stairs, and even drive a car without pain or pain medication.

This is good news. After three and a half days, it seems that recovery from the sports hernia surgery is on schedule. There is still quite a bit of swelling, and numbness in the skin around the incision, but I understand that’s expected and will go away. There is no evidence of infection or internal bleeding. I feel good, full of energy, and I hope that the recovery continues to go well.

It’s a masterpiece!

Acupuncture

I took the sore abdomen to practitioner AO, a licensed acupuncturist and expert in Chinese Medicine, practicing in Stillwater. We discussed most of my health issues, not only the recovery from surgery but also the myeloma, the minor peripheral neuropathy in my hands and feet, and even the chronic runner’s knee. She asked about diet, sleep, medicines, and more.

She examined my tongue, top and bottom, pronounced it good, and felt my pulse for quite a while, not quite so happy about that. Looking at my legs, she said that I had good skin. Who knew.

She seemed a little concerned about the amount of swelling around the incision, but did allow that she is not an expert on that medical issue. I’ll wait a few days more before I call the surgeon about that.

Then, as I laid on my back, she placed needles around but not in the surgical field, in my ears, on my face, my hands, my legs, and my feet. Sometimes I could feel a little pinprick as she placed one, but usually I felt nothing. Maybe 25 needles in total were placed. Then she positioned infrared heat projectors near my abdomen, and left me to sleep, meditate, or just relax, but not move.

Twenty-five minutes later she came in and removed the needles. Results: She thought that the swelling might have gone down slightly, as well as the redness in the area. Now, a few hours later, I do think that the swelling is less, though I have also applied ice to the area one more time. The neuropathy in the fingers of my right hand seems to be less too, though the thumb on that hand and the whole left hand seem unimproved. Bottom line, any change prompted by the acupuncture treatment is small. I didn’t ask and don’t know if the benefits of the acupuncture treatment are likely to show up later.

Whatever, I’m going back soon.

Laughing Is Back

For the first two days after Monday morning’s hernia surgery it hurt to laugh, cough, sneeze, or blow my nose. This morning I can laugh again. Getting into bed was no problem last night, and even though getting out was still iffy, sleeping was far easier the second night after surgery than it was the first night. Life is great.

The first night I took one little percocet tablet, trying to get some sleep, and I did regret that yesterday. The first-listed side effect is constipation, and apparently just one little pill will do it. Better today though.

I called the surgeon, who returned the call on his lunch break. He told me that the surgery had gone well, and that he saw no reason why I should not recover to pain-free running. That’s the assurance I wanted, and I hope he’s right. I also reported some numbness around the surgical site and he said it was normal and would go away in a few months.

I did not quiz him about the unexpected and unwanted general anesthesia. We have a followup appointment in a couple weeks, and we will discuss it then.

I’m going to see an acupuncturist this afternoon. The appointment was set up when I was going to try to heal the sports hernia by more natural means, but she may be able to reduce the pain and the swelling, and increase the speed of recovery. Who knows, maybe she can speed up recovery from the numbness. We’ll see what she says.

My appetite has been good throughout:

Too Late to Back Out Now

The "sports hernia" surgery is complete, and apparently went well. I say apparently because I wasn’t awake for it. Here are the boring details, as much as I can remember (I write this stuff for my own record, and post it on the blog in case anyone else cares, read at your own risk):

We woke at 4:00 am, left home at 5:10, and arrived Fairview at 6:00 am. I checked in and was soon paged to an admissions window in the area called "Same Day Surgery." We went to a "family waiting room," where Sunshine got a pager, and pretty soon a nurse took me away to a little office where she asked lots and lots of questions about my medical history. I changed into a gown - kind of a cool one that had portholes to allow a flow of warm air if necessary (they didn’t use them in my case).

Soon the anesthesiologist came in, and we had a discussion, then finally the surgeon appeared, describing the procedure to be done and marking the place on my abdomen where surgery was to be done. He asked me to confirm that it was the right place.

From there I walked to the operating room, already populated by at least four people all scrubbed and gowned. They did the final preparations, sterilizing and shaving the surgical site. At one point they did a "sound off," each person in turn reading my name, age, and the surgical procedure (abdominal exploration and repair), which I thought was an excellent precaution. They pulled a heavy cloth up in front of me, guaranteeing that I couldn’t see anything worth seeing, and then finally persuaded me to allow them to use a minimal amount of general anesthesia. Moments later, my lights were out for the duration. Apparently the surgery went well, but was finished long before I awoke.

Meantime, the surgeon was updating Sunshine. He said that some stomach muscles were injured by the running, and apparently that I wasn’t exactly a spring chicken in there any more, but we’re not exactly sure why he said that - he knew I was 71 when he encouraged me to have the surgery. He did not come to see me after I awoke.

They soon moved me to the recovery room., where several other people were recovering from their surgeries. The woman who moved me said that they had given me one unit (50 mcg) of Fentanyl. My lower right abdomen was still numb from the local anesthetic and I felt no pain at all.

After 30 or 40 minutes in recovery they put me in a wheelchair, took me back to get dressed, and a nice volunteer wheeled me out.

Tonight there is pain, especially when I cough, laugh, stand up, or sit down, but naproxen (Aleve) helps. I have something stronger if I need it, but then I couldn’t have my evening beer. There’s a reason for everything.

Here’s My Beef:

I know that I’m unusually sensitive to general anesthesia. I have examples, one time long ago when it took me days to recover, not minutes or hours, and other examples up to just three years ago. Anesthesiologists never believe me though.

I explained this to the first nurse, then to the anesthesiologist (at length), and again to everyone in the operating room. I also explained that I would prefer to be awake during the surgery, as the surgeon had said I could be, so that I could observe the process and talk to the surgeon. The anesthesiologist agreed to start with a minimal dose, which I could increase by asking for more. When the surgeon arrived, however, he said that I was a little too awake for his taste, and the nurse (or was she another anesthesiologist?) persuaded me to allow her to administer just a little Fentanyl, and that was it. Out I went, and I don’t know for how long. 60 minutes? 90 minutes? The whole process took three hours, so it could have been that long.

It seems to me that there are two possibilities:

• Either the surgical team deliberately ignored my wishes after assuring me that they would be honored, or
• They screwed up. They just didn’t believe me.

I’ll see the surgeon in a couple of weeks, and will certainly bring up this issue. Maybe I’ll call him tomorrow - depends if I’m still upset tomorrow. I wonder what would have happened to me if they had given me the amount of Fentanyl that they had planned to administer. Or maybe they did.

Anyway I’m safely home, and if the surgeon is half as good as he thinks he is, the recovery should be uneventful.

It’s a Walk in the Park

Thursday, Ides of March, 2012:

The sports hernia was still rather painful from yesterday’s run, so I walked with the girls, our usual 3.6-mile route on the paved trails. It hurt to walk, too, but that pain subsided somewhat during the walk and we had a good time, finishing together in 58 minutes.

Wednesday, March 14:

We were short on time today, and taking turns babysitting a sick cat, so I did a shorter run in the park. 3.6 miles in about 37 minutes, with a run/walk ratio of 3 to 1. The sports hernia hurt all the way, but I was so happy to be running anyway.

Surgery next week - I can’t wait.


This photo was taken few days ago in the park. It's almost completely dry now. I hope to run on the grass trails this weekend: