Ben's Surgery

Pre-surgery in the waiting room

Last Thursday Ben had surgery on his foot.  We were told to check in at 9:30am and surgery time would be 10:30. It sounds like it should only take about 30-40 minutes and then a small window for the spinal to wear off and we should be good to head on home.  A quick easy in and out procedure.  Ashton and I arrived with Ben at the check in time, but we didn't get out of there as soon as we had thought.  Ben's stomach didn't seem to like all the drugs he was given and was nauseas and throwing up for a while. The poor guy was just out of it.  He finally was able to keep down some of his food for half a hour so they released us close to 3:00pm. Fortunately Ashton is such a great kid and was well behaved for that amount of time in the clinic. I didn't even pack a lunch thinking we were going to be home in time, so he was living off snacks but loving it. His favorite thing was the saltine crackers they gave Ben to eat. He tells me that he loves those.

The doctor says Ben's surgery went smoothly and as planed. If you'd really like to see what the surgery was all about you can go to this website to see more graphic photos and details about what Ben had done.

http://www.orthopaedicsone.com/display/Main/Endoscopic+Os+Trigonum+Excision+Through+a+Posterior+Approach

The rest of the day for Ben was still hard. His stomach was still pretty bad until after 6pm. We finally got him to eat something and elevate his foot. The middle of the night was tough because the anesthesia on his foot wore off in the middle of the night so I had to give him medicine and then wake him to give him more throughout the night. Tough couple of days of pain, elevating, icing and being immobile.

Every day seems to be better. It seems like the pain is less and he is able to do a tiny bit more. He still can not put pressure on it, but is learning to get around on his crutches better.  He has to go to school tomorrow and finish out finals week. He has had a hard time studying, so I am hoping he does well this week.

He is having a hard time mentally because he isn't used to sitting around so much, in addition to every pain he feels he worries if it should be that way. I have found the only thing to keep his mind off of his foot is his girlfriend Sarah. I am actually very glad when she is around. He seems happier and less worried about all the pain.

He had his first outing today for Mark's Open house at work. He was still in some pain and probably should have been elevating more, but I think mentally he needed a break from the house.

Ben and Sarah at Mark's work today. Gave him a smile for the day!