Surgery

Tuesday-
My dad came into town from Tellico Lake, TN on Tuesday night to cart me around to all of my medical appointments and to make sure that everything went smoothly. Thanks Dad!

Wednesday-
Went in for an MRI and a pre-op appointment. The pictures from the MRI looked pretty intense, but it was surely a clean cut on the achilles. In the afternoon I got an unexpected, but amazing package of chocolate covered fruit from my good high school friend Kaitlyn Pasko. Edible Arrangements makes some tasty treats that can cheer up your day! Also, Wednesday night was great and relaxing because I got to have dinner, ready some of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and watch a movie with a very nice lady.

Thursday-
Arrived at Greer Memorial Hospital at 12:30 pm on Thursday the 23rd for surgery. Before surgery they gave me some medicine that made me a bit loopy and then they gave me a shot called a "block." This shot was amazing because it blocked 100% of the feeling in the lower half of my leg for over 20 hours. The next thing I knew, I was waking up from surgery to the doctor telling me that everything was just fine. I slept well on Thursday night because the anesthesia made me ridiculously tired and I also couldn't feel my leg. The nurses, however, came in about every hour to make sure I was still alive. Every time my resting heart rate was between 45 and 50 beats per minute. My blood pressure averaged about 105/70. Booyah! I guess riding a bike around makes your heart happy and healthy. Gotta figure out how to keep it happy and healthy now that I'll be laying around for an extended amount of time.

Friday-
Woke up pretty early and watched some Wimbledon matches. Wimbledon is probably my favorite sports event of the year to watch so I was pretty happy to stay in the hospital for a while...especially since there is no cable at Goose and Kelsey's house. During a really intense part of the match between Sharapova and Robson, Dr. Lonergan came in to tell me what was going on with my body. He first told me that as he looked in the medical journals and books to find reports of my type of injury he could not find anything. He said that there were absolutely zero reports out there about a bicycle sprocket slicing open a calf and an achilles. So he told me that he took tons of pictures during the surgery that he will soon send to me. I suppose now he will write a report on how to treat this kind of injury...pretty crazy that it was so unique. Also, he said that since the injury was unique the physical therapists will have to think of some different ways to rehab me. Next, Dr. Lonergan told me an amazing fact! He said that the cut from one of the sprockets was literally 1mm away from severing a nerve in my leg. Had this nerve been severed I would have permanently lost feeling on the right side of my foot for the rest of my life. Whoa! 1mm! Crazy! Next, Dr. Lonergan said that I will be non weight bearing on this leg for 1 month. He hopes I will be walking a little bit without crutches in 3 months. Lastly, he told me that the honeymoon of no pain was soon to be over. Pretty soon after he told me this news the "block" wore off. Then I took a couple Roxycodones and checked out of the hospital. The pain started to ramp up and I was freaking out a bit. One the way to get my prescription filled I had to take a Hydrocodone. Once the prescription was filled I took and Oxycodone. All of this medicine was in the span of an hour and the pain level was still crazy high. After contacting the Dr. he told me to also start pounding Ibuprofen. Wow. It looks like I'm going to need an absurd amount of medicine for the next couple of days, but hopefully the pain subsides soon. Now I am back hanging out at the Gheesling residence. Dad went back to Tennessee, but there are a few people here looking out for me. Also, I have the cutest therapy dog around, Millie. I have no energy to type and I am currently slurring my speech due to this medicine, so hopefully there is something slightly coherent written in the words above.


Thanks for the prayers!

-jeff