The Day After Surgery

The day after surgery proved to be a memorable one for all the wrong reasons but primarily because instead of fixing my problem I had merely made a trade! That is not what I had in mind when I signed on for surgery and if there is anything redeeming one can take away from my experience it is to do your research on your surgical team as soon as you are contemplating elective surgery. As I previously shared with you dear reader, I knew well the neurosurgeon I had engaged. I did not know the orthopedic surgeon and was unaware that he was responsible for a certain critical part of my procedure. It is important for the consumer to take the time to troll the Internet or to engage a family member or friend to do this for you. One of the best places to look is your state's board of licensure for the health practitioner of your choosing. That might be the board of medicine or the board of chiropractic or even some other board. Regardless, these boards which are maintained by the state, are packed with critical information about your practitioner particularly their malpractice records and this information is free and available to the public.

Now, please don't get me wrong when I say this but keep in mind that we do have a litigious society and doctors are humans too. They did not spend their youth inside classrooms just to make mistakes. And yes, I know that we can be very arrogant at times. It sort of comes with territory you know? I mean really, should I go to work thinking "well, I'm pretty good at what I do." Hell no! You want a person who thinks they are the best and has spent their time making sure that they are, in fact, the best. That said, even the best of us do make mistakes and for that we are sued and these suits appear on our public records. As a practitioner I feel fortunate to have spent my time wisely with my craft and my patient's and I have a ZERO claims record. I confess it is something that I am quite proud of. But, do not disqualify a physician if he has had one or two suits over a decade or two of practice. What you do want to be on the lookout for is PATTERN and REPETITION. Those two together spell disaster and indicate that it is wise for you to move on and for your state board to police and discipline its ranks more thoroughly.

There are also pay sites, blogs, and opinion polls as well as public sites such as Yahoo, Google, and Kudzu where people will leave commentary on their experiences.  Be apprised that negative encounters get 10 times the press that positive encounters do.  That said, all good with zero bad should raise your hackles as if there might be some stuffing of the ballot box.  If, after a thorough search, you have come up empty handed then some of the pay sites such as healthgrades might be useful to you.  I have a tendency to stay away from those sites as I find that they typically offer you what you can get for free.  By all means, check your circle of friends, family and coworkers first.  Occasionally, there will be magazine articles in your area where "top doctors" will be rated.  This is usually a polling of physicians asking who they would go to if they had a specific problem with (fill in problem area).  This can be helpful as long as the quid pro quo is kept to a minimum.  A good search will probably require a day or two but in the absence of direct referral by your circle of known people it will be the next best thing.

In my case, I knew the capabilities and expertise of my neurosurgeon.  I did not know the same for the orthopedist.   I did feel that it was the orthopedic surgeon's responsibility to call in a substitute if he were too ill to continue with my case. I was unconscious at the time so I can not speak definitively about the circumstances at that moment and I did NOT legally pursue the orthopedist for this matter. Many have suggested that I should have and for the record, the pain I have endured surely made me wish I had. At the same time, I would not be the person I am today if not for the experiences I have just had. So there you have it.

My dilemma was just beginning and I questioned my neurosurgeon about the mirror image pain. He assured me that this was only because of the manipulation of the neural tissues at the site of incision and that all would be well within a two week time span. I impatiently waited and medicated. For me, percodan (now Percocet) and Darvon were my physicians first lines of analgesic defense. They proved less than adequate and quite frankly made me severely ill. Morphine was introduced IV for the next three days whilst in hospital confinement. This worked wonders and was by far superior to all other forms of medicaments to date. In the arms of Morpheus I rested comfortably.

Well, that was all well and good until it was found I was retaining urine! Uh-Oh! Out came the Foley Catheter. For those unfamiliar with this particularly odious and Draconian torture instrument, it is a hose about the diameter of a large Bic Pen (actually a bit larger) that is inserted up the penile urethra and into the bladder. This allows urine to pass freely and involuntarily into a collection bag strapped to the side of your hospital bed. The muscles of my bladder were in spasm and in sequence, a cadre of hospital personnel were called to my room to try their hand (and muscle) at ramming this thing up into me. After many unsuccessful attempts by all in attendance, the on-call urologist was awakened. He begged us to use the pediatric diameter pipe which was more akin to a knitting needle. Still, no luck but by this time my patience had worn thin and the urge to pee or go mad was to a raging head. I ordered all personnel out of my room in a very unkindly and rude manner and, against physician orders, I demanded that my wife assist me to the bedside in a standing posture. There upon with a mighty yell I let loose what felt like a stream of searingly hot  razor blades. The vision I have is out of body with me in a three point stance and my wife firmly planting my hips to her gut to keep me from collapsing. My head swam in pain and relief at the same time! MORE MORPHINE!!!!

The morphine, fed intravenously though a pain pump, swept up my veins like a white heat and continued up the back of my neck and to the top of my head in a rapid rush. It crescendoed in minutes to what I can only describe as a warm, full bodied, embrace. It felt like putting on your favorite sweatshirt as soon as it comes out of the dryer after you have shoveled snow during a blizzard and you are still cold and drenched to the skin. The relief brought tears of thanks to my eyes and a gentle rest to my body.

How was I going to bear more of this? What would I do if they  took away the pain pump? How long did I have to lie here like this? Not so fast dear reader. Let me catch my own breath from reliving that nightmarish day. The hospitalization will end soon enough. We will save the rest for the coming entry.

Until I speak to you again; keep the faith, stay strong, and never, never, never, give up!

Dr. Steven M. Green