I know that surgery is no cakewalk but sounds like there is a good chance something positive will come out of this. It's great that Alan can have you at his side to get thru it.

Regarding anesthesia, I have problems with being too sensitive to it. It doesn't take much to put me out and away and when it is outpatient, I have a hard time waking up so I can go home. So from some of the other posts with other people having the opposite problem sounds like we are all different (no surprise). Since Alan has had surgery before, IMO it's good to use that as a benchmark which I think you are doing.

Good luck and very best wishes.

--except for best wishes for Alan (I'm glad they are finnaly going to do this) and to encourage you to watch and monitor all this like the mama hawk you are.

Alan cannot live properly with an ulcer that keeps forming. Eventually there will be a serious consequence.

I do think the tendon surgery part, will be painful during recovery. He may not feel the
ulcer fix as much.

Two people at work had tendon repairs, and they had no problems with them.
There was pain for the first week, significantly.

Mrs. D.

This is how I look at it. Alan has lived with the PN pain for 18 years, even having to go on the fentanyl pain patch for a year, about 5 years ago.

Whatever pain he has from this tendon thing, (and I'm assuming it will hurt), well, as he puts it, it can't be as bad as what he went through 5 years ago when he had to go on 125 of the fentanyl. We had a friend with lung cancer who was on only 100 of the fentanyl patch at the same time Alan was on the patch. That's how bad his PN was 5 years ago.

So I gather, that once a person has tendon surgery (with or without PN as an additional factor), I gather they will be providing him with percocet, or some such narcotic until he no longer needs it.

When Alan had the bunion surgery, they kept telling him "this is no walk in the park, you don't know how painful bunion surgery is, etc. ".

He felt absolutely nothing, and never even took a tylenol.

So I gather the real pain, or discomfort he will feel from this surgery has to do with tendon. What exactly do they do when they extend the muscle??

And does he have to go for any type of PT afterwards. I wish he had asked these questions. I mean, we certainly have time until this happens, but I like to have answers and be informed before going into strange territory.

I do wish he had kept this appointment when we first made it way back a few months ago. He would have had the surgery already and would have been on the road to recovery.

But he's stubborn. But, better late than never.

Thanks to you all.

Melody

Well, it sounds like everything is in order and you can have a great holiday! I am sure Allan will bounce back...he seems to be pretty resilient. You have good docs you trust, and like you said, Allan has YOU! Which is 5 star service.

I usually get bread and water left at the door! I am kidding. That said, hubby thinks caregiving is doing the dishes and wash, which he religiously does. I do have to give him credit for changing my PICC dressing a few years ago....once he told me to "shut up", nicely of course, but actually, I felt a lot better when he said that....I felt that he could handle it, and he didn't need my sage advice...and he didn't break aseptic technique. I envy people who are totally trusting of others providing care.

I once had a nurse steal my demerol shot, after a C-section. My husband was right there, and when we called her on it, she came back with one, so we know she had to have taken it....isn't that nice? She said, 'this will knock you out very well, since you already had one.' My hubby said, no, you didn't give it...you washed off her behind and left with the full shot....you never gave it." She huffed off. We should have reported her....but that was 30 some years ago. Now meds are much better controlled...but this kind of thing sometimes happens. I always ask too...what are you giving me, what are you putting in my IV? I must be a real pain in the butt....however, I have caught a few mistakes. Allan is very fortunate to have you standing guard.

Yeah, that's me. THE GUARD!!!! LOL

Mel

duh--dyslexic me....sorry for putting two LLs in Alan's name.

Go and look at the thread Merry Christmas. I finally learned youtube.

mel

melody,
The tendon repair will likely be the painful part of the surgery. I had a tendon repair many years ago. I had a badly sprained and broken foot with a tendon that tore in my ankle. They put two pins in my foot and then took a plug of bone out of my ankle, saved the plug, then took a tendon that isn't used much out of the back of my calf. They sewed it onto the torn part of the tendon, put the other end of it into the hole where they took the bone plug out, then put the plug of bone back in my ankle with it holding the tendon in place. Twenty two stitches and a hard cast to hold things in place while it was healing, crutches were necessary and I could place no weight on it for 6 weeks.

Yes it was painful. But they did give me pain medication. Showering in the cast required one of those waterproof cast covers. And NO coathangers in the cast to scratch!

I hope this surgery helps Alan get back to his full ability to walk right. Good luck to him!
Billye

Wait a minute. All the doctor told Alan was that he was "extending the muscle". Is this the same thing that you had done?

If you think I'm telling this to Alan, well, forget it. It's practically freaking me out.

All Alan can remember about that part of the conversation was that something about his calf muscle (when Alan places his foot flat on the floor), well this does something to the bony thing and that's why he is getting the foot ulcer.

So the orth said "I'm going to extend a muscle in your calf".

From what you described, this is MAJOR STUFF HAPPENING. All he wanted was the bone shaved.

Somebody clarify if this is what alan is going to have to go through. This tendon bone thing.

good grief.

mel