Wednesday, July 30, 2008

On recovery...


God I hate stairs. I never had an issue with them before but then you introduce a crippling situation into the relationship and man, can they be a bitch. As friends who have visited me can attest too, I take forever to get up and down the stairs and it frustrates me to no end. And this is after over two weeks of recovery time...

Two weeks ago, as I was leaving the hospital the physiotherapist came in to "teach" me how to use the crutches. I remember getting out of bed for the first time after surgery because it hurt like hell. I had the splint on (pictured) and my leg felt heavy. Then as you stand and rest it down, because you can't put any weight on it, the blood just rushes straight down and cause a throbbing sensation. It does pass, but initially, you don't even want to move.

Getting back home and straight up the stairs i went. 1 step at a time, literally. Hardly moved since.

I was prescribed four types of painkillers so i had dad go out and get them as soon as possible. Panadol and Nurofen, boring but effective. Zydol and Endone. The latter I've not tried...scratch that, needed.

Zydol is awesome. IF you take it properly. You take it, it completely gets rid of the pain. Wonderful stuff. One morning though, I woke up to intense pain. The worst I'd had, almost to the point of unbearable. Now to this point I'd had dad bring me food, so I had nothing to eat around me. I knew it probably wasn't the best thing to do but I just needed the fix. lol.

Bad move.

The whole day I felt like shit. It's one those nauseating feelings. You just sit up and you feel like throwing up. I stayed lying down the whole day unable to even lift my head without feeling dizzy. Listening to the footy on the radio didn't help either because Carlton lost to Sydney.

I learnt my lesson though. I've stopped taking them. Instead I've shifted my focus to my liquor wall. I've been taking "shots" of whisky for the pain. First Glenny, now Johnnie Black. I don't know why I didn't do that from the beginning. Not only does it make the pain go away (admittedly not completely), it also makes me happy and it tastes good. And NO. I'm not becoming an alcoholic. lol.

The splint is also off now. It got so itchy I couldn't wear it anymore. I do put it back on before going to sleep, just in case I have one of my many dreams about becoming a kung-fu master. :P (well, not really but y'know.)

So what have I been doing? Mostly on my arse, watching TV, DVD or playing PS2. I'm not much of a reader so no books.

I've been letting my beard grow and after two weeks I can safely say I've never looked dirtier. Add to the fact I've hardly showered, making the grouse-ness factor ten fold. I have washed my hair a few times now, and it took all the creativity I had in me.

Towel around my waist so the bandages don't get wet. Leaning into the shower just to wash my hair. I tell you, after the first time (which was incidentally after over a WEEK of not washing) it felt so good, it was almost orgasmic. :P

Now tomorrow, I go back into the hospital to get my wound checked out. See how it's healing and all. And to also start on my physio. I'll be walking in there like 'House'. Just needing a cane and avoiding all the stairs. ha.

Peace,
Ippei K.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

On surgery...

9 days...

That's how long it's been since the surgery. And as much as I've complained, bitched and moaned it's gone by fairly quickly. But Fuck I'm bored.

I hoped that at least I'd come out of it with an impressive story to tell. Not the case unfortunately. I didn't even get to do the whole "count backwards from ten" thing as they put me under the anaesthesia. It was more like, 'fade to black aaaaaand we're back'.

I did wake up with an oxygen mask, an blood pressure belt, finger pulse-thingy AND most importantly the morphine button. Although they called it something else...hmmm...

Anyway, the button. As soon as they handed me the button, I kept pressing it like crazy. Mind you, I was "in pain" but probably not enough to warrant the amount of times I pressed it. But unbeknownst to me (at the time and found out later), the button had a light. And unless it was lit up, it didn't allow any "morphine" into my system. I have no idea how long it took to re-light so I probably had enough for the night because I didn't need to use the button the rest of my stay.

The rest of the stay was rather uneventful. But you people have no idea how hard it is to pee in a bottle. Let me explain. Every time I needed to pee (and ironically it happened a lot), I had to ask for a "bottle". I offered to go to the toilet but nurses weren't comfortable about getting out of bed. So they got me the said bottle. Now I was curtained off from everyone (thank god), but it is still incredible difficult to go. And who knows how loud the, lets just say, "discharge" sounded.

Other than that, the food was bad but that was to be expected and they kicked me out of the hospital after a night's stay. Now I've been home on my arse, presumably getting fat from the lack of exercise. I still haven't showered since which I HATE. And I've also let my beard grow out.

Today, I decided to throw on a hat because the hair was so itchy now I look like someone trying to be incognito. If only I was going somewhere...

Peace,
Ippei K.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Not long now...

For those uninitiated, I have a torn ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament). *psst! That's in the knee!* It happened over a year ago. Only now am I scheduled in for surgery. It's kinda frustrating but it's exciting at the same time.

14th of July is the date. So if you're planning to have any events from that date and onwards for about a month, don't expect me to attend (not that you'd want me there anyway. :P) Unless that is, of course, you would like a one legged man getting drunk and doing a one-legged jig (assuming it IS that type of event). Actually, that sounds hilarious. I'm in. Just don't YouTube me. :P

About a month ago, I went into the Royal Melbourne for a "check up", I guess you'd call it. It was nothing more than 3 meetings (one with the anesthesia doc, the nurse and the surgeon) that lasted a total of about 30minutes. It doesn't sound too bad, had I not been at the hospital for 5-freakin'-HOURS!

Anyway, they explained to me that I'll only be in the hospital for two days. Woot. I hoped it'd be longer, as my house is not exactly suited for recovering from leg injuries. Anyone who's been here before will know what I'm talking about. The stairs alone will be a bitch.

They are going to give me both general and local anesthesia. Which means I'll off in la-la land while they fix my knee and when I wake up, i won't be able to feel my leg. Once the pain does kick in, they'll have a morphine drip ready for me to go. Can't wait for that part. I think it'll be amusing to visit me in hospital when I'm goofed up on morphine. hahaha. The random spaced out looks, speech slurs and uncontrollable laughter. "I loooooooooooooooove youuuuuuuuu!"

Recovery time is going to be long and slow. But with any hope, I'll be able to at least "limp-walk" after a month. It'll be a while still before I'll be able to play basketball again, but I can taste it already. Anticipation is killing me actually. I really can't wait. Some friends and I have talking about starting a team, so it's exciting times a head.

With any hope though, I'll be recovered enough by my birthday to "do" something this year. But knowing me, I probably won't. I'm turning double-dozen and I'll have nothing to show for it but a scar on my knee.

Ippei.