Dave's first surgery experience

My mom was able to come down on Thursday morning (the day of his hand surgery to fix the broken bones) to help us get through the first 2 days during and after Dave's hand surgery on the 19th of Jan.  She was mostly on kid duty, and picked up both kids from school that day.  Thank you mom for helping!

I went with Dave to his outpatient surgery at United Medical Park.  Since it had been 5 days since his bones broke, he was just excited to get this finally taken care of and move on to healing.  This was his first experience being a patient in the hospital, never having experienced anesthesia or an IV poke.  When we checked in at 9:15 am, he was immediately taken back to a prep room, where a nurse named Terri came in to do all the paperwork, get him in his hospital gown, start his IV, and everything else they do pre-OP.  He regularly donates blood so he is used to being poked somewhat, but he is used to the middle of his arm, not the delicate back of his hand.  I could tell it hurt going in, he grimaced.  The smell of the hospital made me nauseous, reminded me of being a patient myself 3 times in the last 6 yrs.  The anesthesiologist came in to talk to Dave about his options.  He opted to get a nerve block so he wouldn't be able to feel his arm 8-14 hrs after surgery.  The plan was to do the nerve block after he was knocked out.  The surgeon, Dr. Delbridge, was running about 30 minutes behind schedule, so the anesthesiologist came to do the nerve block before the surgery.  Dave wasn't too excited about that...but agreed to get it done anyway.  I had to wait in the waiting room before they did that.  When I got to come back about 10 minutes later, he said it was pretty painful getting that in too. :(  He had a moment to ask the nurses if he could pray before the procedure, and they quickly and happily agreed to do so, and Dave prayed for the surgeon and the nurses and overall care.  They seemed receptive.  He was ready for surgery at that point so I took his things with me and gave him a kiss, and headed to the waiting room.  I was getting pretty hungry so I went to check out the café.  I served myself up a salad and some cottage cheese/grapes.  The eating area was absolutely freezing, right by the door where people walked in, and it was close to zero degrees that day.  I moved to a different spot, finished up quickly, and then headed back to the waiting room.  I talked on the phone with Rachel for about 45 minutes...she was on her lunch break from work running a few errands.  That helped to pass the time.  I was then moved by the nurses to a different waiting room, where I had a chance to speak with Dr. Delbridge about the procedure.  He stopped by quickly and didn't even take the time to sit down. He said the procedure had gone well, they got his bones back together with 4 screws (no plates), and expects a good recovery.  He also said make sure he doesn't move his 3rd and 4th fingers.  After that, I was moved to another waiting room where we wait for them to wake up from surgery.  I stayed in that room for about 15 minutes, and then the nurse called me back saying he was somewhat awake.

Before surgery:

When I walked in the room, two nurses were helping him settle more comfortably, moving his bed to his requested recline, asked him if he wanted something to eat (he opted for cran-apple juice and an english muffin with grape jelly).  He smiled and said "hi" when he saw me.  His arm was wrapped up in a different but similar looking semi-solid cast.  He was pretty groggy, and said he was looking forward to eating something since he hadn't eaten breakfast.  His left hand still had the IV in, his right hand was casted, so I helped him get bites of his english muffin.

The post-OP nurses kept him in that room for close to 2 hrs.  They checked his blood pressure a few times, talked to him about discharge instructions.  Dave asked for a sling, and they said they don't give them out because they tend to hold his arm lower than its supposed to be.  He was annoyed they couldn't at least give him a sling.  He'd been holding his arm above his head for 5 days now and his arm was tired and sore already.  The nurse was adamant that he wasn't supposed to have a sling because the doctors don't recommend them, he and the nurse went around in circles for about 15 minutes about this sling issue...so he left mainly annoyed that he wasn't given a sling to hold his arm up. 

He felt more able to get up, so I helped him get dressed, and we got in the car to go home. 

After surgery, and ready to go home:

We drove my mom's car as she used the van to transport kids.  He seemed more "with it" as time went on.  We filled his pain med Rx at the pharmacy, and had to wait 20 minutes for that, so we went to the mall to find him a sleeveless jacket - as he can't get his casted arm into any of his current coats.  I wasn't so sure he should have been walking around right after surgery, but he insisted on finding something.  So we searched Scheels, Younkers, Aeropostale, and Von Maur - and he found one he liked at Von Maur.  The most interesting thing about that shopping trip is that we ran into somebody from my past.  My principal from elementary school in Nashua - Ken Erpelding!  He was working at Von Maur in the men's department and helped him find the vest.  I knew he looked familiar, so I asked him his name, and when he said Ken, I said Erpelding!  And he nodded, and when I told him my (maiden) name, he smiled, and said "oh yes! How is the family?" and asked about my mom, dad, sister and brother.  Small world.

We left Von Maur and got his meds from the pharmacy, and went home.

A friend of ours from BBC told us she planned to bring us dinner the day of his surgery, Becky Anderson.  She insisted, even though we couldn't really believe it, since she had just gone through surgery herself on her right wrist a few weeks ago.  She was full of advice about right hand surgery and how to cope.  She said bringing dinner to use was like therapy, so she enjoyed it.  Many had helped her a few weeks ago, she wanted to return the favor somehow.  She brought over a big pot of chicken noodle soup, a big bowl of sweet corn, a container full of cut up oranges, and some frosted chocolate cupcakes.  I transferred the food to pots/containers of my own and washed up her things so she could bring home clean pots.

We ate the delicious supper (everyone enjoyed everything!) and got the kids to bed at a decent time...can't really remember.  Dave is hard to get to relax...he said he felt fine and kept walking around to try help...but I kept asking him to lay down and rest.  He finally agreed, and when he sat down, said it felt good to sit.

He goes in Thurs the 26th to see the surgeon to take off the cast, put something different on (hopefully something he can take off to shower with!), and assess healing.