The Rocky Road to Recovery

[swan_tower]

So that twitch I mentioned yesterday? It recurred this morning, badly enough to catapult me straight out of sleep into grabbing my leg and yelping. Which worried me enough that I called the doctor and he had me come in for a quick examination at the end of their lunch hour.

Turns out all is well; I have been reassured that this is neither a result of something going wrong, nor likely to be a cause of it. The surgeon’s assistant theorizes that they aggravated some of the nerves in that area during the operation, which is why I’m in more pain generally than I was last time, and hurting even more when I twitch. The surgeon himself also mentioned that there’s been a new development in this procedure since I had it done on my right ankle: a teeny-tiny anchor he drilled into the bone to help secure the ligament. Which goes a long way toward explaining why the aftermath of this particular surgery is feeling more like my first one (when I was nine and they drilled into the bone) than my second (when I was twenty-nine and they didn’t).

Upshot is that I have a prescription for a muscle relaxant to take at night, and I’m no longer expecting to go off the Vicodin and onto Advil in the next day or two, like I did last time. In theory I was hoping to get back to work tomorrow, but we’ll see how much of my brain survives the barrage of drugs that “may make you drowsy” (read: will put me down for the count). Oh yeah, and I’m still getting over the jet lag. My plan of sleeping these issues off simultaneously is still going according to plan, at least.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

If the muscle relaxants don't help, try something like Lyrica or gabapentin. They help a lot more with nerve pain (having had back nerve issues). Muscle relaxants weren't nearly as helpful.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I'm less concerned about the pain than about the spasms. They also offered me better analgesics, but I told them I'd rather feel some pain; otherwise I'll be stupid and overdo something, y'know?

[squishymeister.livejournal.com]

OUCH!!! I've gotta say this sounds all kinds of unpleasant! I'm glad that nothing is wrong, but I'm really sorry that it hurts so badly. Did they give you a timeline on when the pain might start to subside?

[squishymeister.livejournal.com]

Also- the title of this post made me think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QdbeM2JWYE Enjoy!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I might have had that song stuck in my head when I titled my post. :-P

No predictions, no. I'm going to keep a close eye on it, and wean myself off the Vicodin as fast as I can. I don't like drugging myself to the eyebrows.