Adventures in Surgery

This post talks about my recent foot surgery.  I have refrained from posting any graphic pictures, and tried to not be to graphically descriptive.  However, if you have a weak stomach and vivid imagination, consider this fair warning. 

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This last Thursday I had foot surgery. It was supposed to be for ganglion cyst removal, nerve un-strangling, hardware removal, and possible tendon repair. A blue light special as my podiatrist put it.

It started a few months ago. I couldn't wiggle my big toe, by itself without it hurting. I could manually move it.. wiggle it with my hand.. just not on it's own. The ultra-sound showed a rather large cyst with floaties in it. Dr. Foot suspected a ganglion cyst. He tried one shot of cortisone..much to the dismay of my blood sugars, but that didn't help at all. The next option was to go in and remove it, especially since it also appear to be pinching off a nerve. Have you ever had a hair wrapped around your toe? Imagine that feeling all the time.

So we set the date for July 11.

I got my time to report for surgery... 2pm. I was NOT a happy camper. Everyone knows that before surgery you stop eating at midnight. How in the world was I supposed to go from midnight to 2pm without food?! Having Type 1 diabetes is no fun, but it does allow silver linings sometimes. Being scheduled first for surgeries is one of them. I tried to argue and get an earlier time, but I had no luck. I was, however, allowed to eat breakfast and clear fluids.

Thursday afternoon finally arrived and I show up at the surgical center. My podiatrist came in and informed me that he'd been talking with my anesthesiologist about my CGM and he was fascinated. Dr. Sleep came in and wanted to know exactly how it worked and what to expect. I gave him the full low down. He was excited! He said being able to see what was going on, so he knew what needed to be done and to help the others in the OR with IV fluids was going to be so nice. Everyone was a bit concerned about one part of the surgery and how it would interact with my CGM. At one point, I get hooked up to a "zappy *" machine that "melts *" the ends of blood vessels to help control bleeding (*Dr. Foot terms). They put an additional pad near the site for the electrical current to go to. It was on my upper leg and my CGM was on my OTHER leg. It shouldn't have been a problem.

Surgery went very well. Come to find out, there was no cyst at all. My tendon was severely damaged and the screws from my previous surgery were very much stuck in the bone. To repair the tendon, Dr. Foot took another tendon from the same foot and moved it over. This relieved the nerve at the same time. The nerve immediately sprung back, almost like it took a deep breath. Yay for no neuropathy! He was able to remove the screws, but it took a bit more work.

Anesthesia and I don't get along very well.  I normally take quite a while to wake up, and it likes me to revisit anything I may have eaten on the sly.  I was given a dose of anti-nausea medicine to help.  I was told it wouldn't spike my blood sugars like the one normally used.  So I was hopeful that my night would be good.  No such luck.

When I was fully awake, I look at my CGM graph and was hovering around 160.  I was content.  The odd part was the approximate 30-45 minutes of no reads.  I wondered if Dr. Sleep had wandered away too far, or if all the other equipment interfered with the signal.  I was hoping for interference.  Come to find out, the screen went blank mere seconds after the "zappy" machine was used.  Oops.. no permanent damage done though.

When I got home I was STARVING!  The funny thing is, I don't remember what I ate.  I do remember how rough a night it was bg-wise.  That anti-nausea medicine that wasn't supposed to spike me?  Well, it failed at that.  I climbed the whole evening.  I had corrected and still didn't come down.  At one point, I think it was about 1:30 in the morning, my level was 439.  UGH!!  I switched out insulin, cartridge, and site in hopes to help.  It brought me down to upper 100's as long as I didn't eat.  First food brought me to 300+ in no time.  I was frustrated.

Friday was doing better.  I was walking around.  I hadn't had to take any pain meds.  My numbers were still high.  This is where the love of the DOC comes in.  Sugarfreesweety checked in on me and suggested increasing my basal.  Now, why I never think of that myself, I'll never know.  I increased basal, and that helped budge my numbers.. but I was still running high.  Doughuss popped in and reminded me that surgery will do that, and it could be a couple days.  *sigh*  Thankfully, by Saturday I was pretty much back to normal.  I was exhausted, but doing decently. 



I don't think I'll be running any marathons anytime soon.

 

Now, if I can only remember all the extra steps needed for when/if I have surgery again.