Surgery Day Part 1 Hospital

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Mom DID let me sleep in so I woke up around 9:30 this morning.  I took a shower and then my mom and I headed down the surgery center at around 10:30 so that we could arrive at 11:00.  I felt a lot of things at the same time on that ride down....nervous, angry that it happened, and the need to just be done with it so that I could move on and get back on the field. I love baseball more than just about anything.

After we parked on the first floor of the parking deck (at least something was going our way), we went to the check in area.  There they asked us a few questions, and gave both my mom and me surgery bracelets. They did that because at 16, I am still a minor.   My mom actually prepaid our portion of insurance of the surgery, which I thought was kind of weird since I hadn't even had the surgery yet.

The check in lady told us to sit in the waiting room and we would be called back soon.  Someone called my name and led my mom and me back to an area that had many little rooms but instead of doors, there were curtains that opened and closed.  A nurse named Martha came in and introduced herself.  She had me sit on the stretcher that was in the room.

Can you tell I am excited?!?!

                             

She asked all kinds of medical questions and entered the answers into a computer.  Things like "any drug allergies?" and "if we need to do a blood transfusion would my mom agree to it?". Then Nurse Martha left the room and came back with a "gown" ha ha and "non skid socks" for me to put on.  She took my clothes and put them in a locker. 

Look Ma!  No hands!

Once I had changed, Martha took my blood pressure and temperature.  It was really cold back there so she took two warmed blankets out of some cabinet and put them on me.  I felt calmer right away.  Then she inserted the IV into the back of my right hand since the surgery was going to be on my left hand.  It took her while to get the needle into the vein for the IV which was not a pleasant experience and she just kept talking to me and my mom like it was no big deal, but it wasn't her hand.  Anyway, I soon felt a coldness going through my veins, unlike anything I have ever felt before.  It's really hard to explain just how that felt. I was really glad to have those warm blankets.  Martha also placed a fall risk bracelet on my hand because I was going to be getting anesthesia. I don't know, but that just seems like common sense to me!

My IV

The next person that came to my little room was Dr. Chambers the anesthesiologist.  He told me that they were going to give me some drugs in my IV to relax me, kind of an anti-anxiety, amnesiac, and a sedative combined just to totally relax me before the surgery.  Then, when I went into surgery they would give me a nerve block.  They were going to insert a needle in my left shoulder with the medicine that would numb my arm for 12-24 hours.  He said it would feel like when you get numbed at the dentist for a filling or when your arm falls asleep at night, but it would last much longer.  I would feel NOTHING during and after surgery and that's a good thing.

After Dr. Chambers left, Dr. Perlik walked in.  He had obviously just gotten there because he was in his street clothes, not scrubs.  He examined my left hand, pressed on it in a few places, asking me if it hurt in certain spots.  When I said yes, he grabbed a purple marker and drew a zigzaggy kind of line on my hand and said this is how I am going to cut when I am in there.  Then he wrote Yett on my arm.

X marks the spot!

Dr. Perlik

 

We asked if I could have the hamate bone fracture that he was going to remove from my hand because I had decided to do my senior exit project on it.  He said it's considered live tissue, so he probably could not.  But he said he would take a picture of it after he removed it.   

The next person that came to my room was the nurse anesthetist or CRNA. She told me she would be administering both the "Happy Juice" and once we were in the operating room, she would administer the nerve block. The anesthesiologist oversees the CRNA and decides on dosage and medication, but the CRNA actually gives patients the anesthesia.  She was really nice and funny.  We talked about baseball because her five year old boy plays and all the crazy parents.

When it was time, she inserted the "Happy Juice" that she held in her hand in a syringe through my IV on the back of my hand.  I immediately felt warm and fuzzy inside and very relaxed.  The next thing I knew, they were wheeling me away and I was feeling really "HAPPY"!  My mom asked the CRNA if it really worked that fast and she said , "Yes, it begins working immediately!" and smiled.

Happy Harris!

I don't remember much of anything after I got the "Happy Juice".  I can remember someone pricking the needle in my neck to do the block, but it was kind of like watching it through a fog.  It didn't seem like it was happening to me.  I was in surgery for about an hour.  Dr. Perlick had originally said about 30 minutes.  My mom told me that Dr. Perlik came out after the surgery to tell her everything had gone well.  He said that after going in, his suspicion was confirmed that the fracture had not started last Wednesday at baseball practice and that it was not ten days old.  He again said that this happened a while ago and that day at practice was kind of like "the straw that broke the camel's back".  He said there was a little bit of fraying on the tendon, but it was minimal, did not need to be repaired, and that there was nothing to worry about there. He also said that my pinkie and ring finger would probably be numb for several days and I would not be able to open and close my fingers like a folding fan or windshield wipers.  He said that could take a while but he wanted me to move my fingers when I was able. Dr. Perlik said he really had to tug on and manipulate the ulnar nerve that runs right over the hamate bone to get that fragment (or hook) out.  He also told my mom that I would have to elevate my hand above my heart and rest for 3-4 days, preferably 4.  I was going to be given a prescription with hydrocodone, which is a narcotic drug that also contains Tylenol, for the pain and I could take it every 4-6 hours.  Dr. Perlick emailed me some of the photos of the suture line with the drain tube.  I think I have nine stitches if I counted right.

My incision with drain

He also sent me a photo of the excised hamate bone from my hand.  It is really small.  It's only a little bit larger than a millimeter.

Hook of Hamate after removal from my left hand!

The next thing I remember is sitting in another one of those rooms with a curtain, but it was a different one.  I was sitting in like a lazy boy chair with a big pink foamy block that resembled Swiss cheese.  It held my arm up.  I could not feel anything in my arm at all. A nurse gave me some peanut butter crackers and a diet coke.  I was able to eat and drink by myself, but I was still very groggy

They called my mom in and she discussed my discharge with Connie my discharge nurse.   She told my mom some of the same things that Dr. Perlik did.  She talked about how I have a splint and also bios wrap on my arm.  It is not hard like a cast and it forms to your body once it is stretched out.  If that were to get loose, I could just wrap an ace bandage around my dressing. She also talked about my drain.  I had no clue what she was talking about and since I could not move my arm, Connie reached under a thin gauzy layer on my dressing and pulled out a test tube with tubing attached.  This was the drain. I could see red blood inside the tubing and also inside the test tube. Once the test tube became half full of blood, I was going to have to change it.  Connie showed me and my mom how to do this.  Basically it is just pulling the old test tube off and then putting a new one on.  The test tube has a rubber stopper at the top and the piece attached to the drain tubing has a needle.  You push the needle through the rubber on the test tube and there is instant suction.  This pulls blood from incision away to reduce swelling and pain.  If anything other than red fresh blood came out into the test tube we were to call.  They want to make sure the incision site doesn't get infected.

Nurse Connie said to call OrthoCarolina with any questions and that there is always someone on call there.  She gave my mom the prescription for my medicine, told my mom to go get the car, put me in a wheel chair, and pushed me out of the surgery center to wait for my mom to pull around to take me home.


                                         

This is not my hand, but an actual photo of a doctor going in to do hamate surgery!