Surgery and Move from A3 to A2

Today I had op 2 of 3.  This one was to look at the legs to see what extra work, if any, needed to be done and do any prep work for the final op.

I don't recall the time of day, but remember being wheeled in by bed from ward A2, to the Prep Room adjacent to the operating theater.  I remember the nurse from the day before being on my left side, and two anesthetists to my right preparing the anesthetic.  One of the anesthetists started asking me a list questions and, although I cannot remember any of them, I remember thinking 'this is where I fall asleep on half way though question four'.  The questions ended, I asked if they had any more as I wasn't asleep yet, then I must have actually gone under as I don't remember anything apart from waking up in my bed back in A2 a few hours later.

When I woke up, the first thing I remember seeing was the nurse that was with me earlier.  I then remember feeling the staples in my legs, not a painful feeling, just a sensation of something around the middle of my thigh - the middle as in across the middle horizontally, not vertically - felt a bit weird, but not painful as such.

Next I remember the phantom sensation everyone talks about with amputees.  There is definitely a difference between phantom 'feeling' and phantom 'pain'.  The best way to describe it is as though all the hairs are standing up on your legs, then someone is gently pushing just in front of the balls of your feet and blowing across your toes - not that unpleasant to be honest.

I remember a few wires to my side - a button to deliver morphine set on a 3 minute delay, i.e. once I'd pressed it I had to wait before I could press it again.  Next there were two 'drains' in the bottom of my legs.  Basically these are tubes, about a centimeter wide, inserted into my legs.  The tubes are then linked to small rectangular bags either side of me; gradually the bags fill up with liquid and every few hours they get measured and emptied.  The final two wires were inserted in each leg under the dressings and routed back to two bags of medication (not sure of the name) behind my bed.  Finally there was a catheter inserted in my bladder as I couldn't get out of bed to use the loo, the bowl 'movements' hadn't started yet luckily.

After a few minutes a surgeon appeared to let me know the op went well.  He said I'd also need another op on Monday as my left leg was on the kneecap and had to be shortened to just above the knee, and my right leg had to be tidied up a bit more due to bone injuries.

Later that night I was moved from Ward A3 to A2.  A2 is a smaller room with four beds, each one occupied by a patient with neurological or trauma injuries.  I remember one of the guys opposite had a stab wound (trauma injury) and the others had fallen after passing out and had difficulty with their memory (neurological injury).  I can't remember what I had to eat that night and currently can't find the menu to jog my memory (the menu changes every two weeks so you get an idea what you'll be having to eat for the foreseeable future!).