Upcoming surgery and extremely nervous - Foot Problems Message Board

summergirl21 · 04-26-2008, 07:57 PM

Hi,
I am having a subungal exostosis removed from my big toe in about a week. Its a bone spur that grew out of my toe bone and pushed my nail off completely, now its sticking out so far and I cant even put a shoe on. Surgery is a must for this reason, not to mention its painful. I am however terrified of the anethesia. Im having IV sedation and a local block. I know this is not a big deal and its only outpt but Im terrified of having to go in recovery room??? Doesnt that sound stupid?? For anyone that has had IV sedation for toe or foot surgery can you tell me how long it was before they let you go home? Did you wake right up? My Dr said I will probably sleep through the procedure and then wake up when shes done and then they might check my vitals signs once before letting me go. That doesnt sound too bad. I guess I will know more after I go for my pretesting on Tuesday but Im so anxious about the sedation I havent slept at all in over a week and neither has my poor husband. I have a phobia of hospitals so this is very traumatic to me. I cant find any info online and everyone around here is probably sick of hearing about my toe

. Any info and or moral support would be so appreciated.
Thanks
Jenn

memar08 · 04-26-2008, 10:30 PM

hey summergirl i am also having severe anxiety overupcoming fusion of mtp joint alreay had a cheilectomy and that was very painful and needless to say it didn't work my surgery is scheduled for may 1 went to another doc who is an ortho only does feet and ankles out of work for 3 months!!!!

RunnerMac · 04-26-2008, 10:34 PM

I was quite nervous about the operation that I had with a bunion and two dislocated toes. The operation took 4 hours and I don't remember anything about it. It was SO much easier than I thought. I was given a light sedation and I came out of it easily with no stomach distress. I was in the recovery room for less than an hour and I went home about 30 minutes after that.
The second surgery I had (just bunion) was with something very similar to you and I didn't even go to a recovery room, I just sort of woke up in the same area in which I had been preped. The sedations are amnesiacs so you aren't aware of anything that goes on and you don't remember anything from the time you are given them until you "wake up".
This is much easier that you think and nothing at all to be concerned about.
Hope your recovery goes well!

memar08 · 04-27-2008, 07:38 AM

runnermac thanks for the vote of confidence more concerned about how to occupy my time and pain management I've already had 1 foot surgery and the first 48 hours were miserable

summergirl21 · 04-27-2008, 07:50 AM

Thank you RunnerMac! You made me feel a little better. My surgery is only going to be 30 to 45 minutes long so I wont be getting much of the sedation, just the short acting stuff with a long acting block from what I have heard. So I am hoping that I will not need to go to the recovery room or if I do that it will be very short. I cant handle that, Im not worried about the actual procedure itself since I wont remember it anyway and she assured me I would not feel the injections in my foot for the local. My s urgeon told me the pain is only a real issue for the first 3 - 5 days then it should calm down. Im sure the pain meds will help. She said after the first 3-5 days the worst part is the boredom from having to stay off my foot. I can't go back to work for 6 weeks which seems like a long time considering I have a sit down job. Fortunately for me my employer is letting me work from home so I took a couple days off to get my pain under control and then I will have work to ease the boredom. My surgery is on May 5th so I am spending this weekend and next weekend preparing the house, cooking and freezing meals ect.
Thank you again you made me feel much much better!
Jenn