Back from MHE surgery, recovering well

Morning!

Well! Tuesday saw me at the hospital with my husband, in preparation for all the thingees in the yellow circles about my femur removed.

In a nutshell, the surgery went text-book perfect. I could have probably found a more-local doctor than whom I ultimately chose, but I wanted a surgeon for whom bone tumor removal was routine. And I found him – James Wittig at Mt. Sinai in NYC. Not only does he have a superb bedside manner, but he and his team are extraordinarily skilled. He’s even dealt with my condition before (multiple hereditary exostoses) and quite frankly, I cannot say enough good things about him.

I opted to have a spinal anethesia, so I could be awake and listening to everything going on. As is my nature, I was cracking jokes all the time up until the actual surgery – I had promised the doctor I’d be quiet so he could concentrate. The surgery took about 70 minutes or so, and then I was in the recovery room for 3 hours (the epidural didn’t want to wear off). That whole day was spent resting in bed.

The next day I saw physical therapy, and let me tell you, getting on crutches after that kind of surgery was quite an outer body experience. I kept repeating to myself, I can DO this…even though my right leg started laughing at me. But I kept at it and was eventually able to hobble my way down the hallway. I’m so grateful to my current karate knowledge – I had that to rely upon when trying to walk (it was quite an emotional challenge, actually).

Today I’m doing rather decently, all things considered…I’ve promised my husband I’d take it easily and even (gasp!) not go to karate and (even more gasps) let myself heal. So we’ll see.

Enjoy,

Barbara

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