Ankle Reduction and Ketamine

I don't want to bore you with a long story of what happened before my reduction.

Basically after the ER nurse called my name this is what happened:

1. Went in and they took down my info
2. I waited for 20 minutes
3. They looked at my Urgent Care X-rays
4. I waited 20 minutes
5.They made me go take more x-rays
6. I waited for 20 minutes


Then, the doctor came in and basically told me that whatever had happened between the Urgent Care X-rays and the ER X-rays (AKA THE SHADY SPLINT)  had resulted in me going from a basic fracture to the WORST KIND of fracture, a trimalleolar fracture.Yep, I had broken every bone in my ankle. Now, this is where I started to freak out. A four week sprain? Yep I could handle that. A basic fracture, with a two month recovery period? Yep, sure, I could figure it out.

A trimalleolar fracture? What did that even mean? What was the recovery on that?

The doctor informed be that I would have to have surgery, but that first they would do a reduction, which basically means the put your bones back in place to help reduce swelling.
He said that my reduction was scheduled for around 9.
A nurse helped me onto a gurney, and prepped me . They were putting me under for the procedure (THANK GOD), and so I was poked and fitted with an IV drip.

The nurse left me alone, and I immediately grabbed my iPhone and began researching trimalleolar fractures.

Now, they say that the internet is a dark place, but I never fully grasped the meaning of that until I tried to research trimalleolar fractures. There's not that much information out there, but a lot of it is bad and basically says that : "OH, you have a trimalleolar fracture? Well, basically your life is over so you should just give up, sign up for disability and live out the rest of your life on your parent's couch".

I repeat, if you just broke your ankle and are looking for information. DO NOT GO ON THE INTERNET. DO NOT GOOGLE. STEP AWAY.

At this point I had been in the hospital for about 9 hours. I had barely eaten anything other than vitamin, juice and a granola bar. And I was scared.

Needless to say, by the time 9PM rolled around I was in excellent spirits. The anesthesia doctor came in to tell me about the drugs.
"Were giving you Ketamine and Blablabla", the young (too young?) doctor explained. (Blablabla, because who knows, I stopped listening after Ketamine).
"This means that you'll still be conscious but you won't be able to feel anything. We're also giving you morphine for the pain. Now, Ketamine may make you feel a little wei…."

" Oh I know how Ketamine feels, I used to take it for fun when I was younger", I interrupted.  FINALLY all those years of recreational drug taking could be useful.

The doctor laughed, and said, " Well, then you know how weird it can get."
I nodded, and he left to go prepare my drug cocktail.

Then, finally around 9:30 PM, it was time
I've never had surgery or any sort of medical operation. So, once all the doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons etc crowded into the little room, I started freaking out a little bit.
And by freaking out I mean crying, and breathing weird. I had stopped taking Vicodin a couple hours earlier, and the pain in my foot was insane.  The main doctor told me to start counting backwards from
100 as they started the anesthesia. I remember counting until about 40, when everything just went weird and washy and dark.


To be continued.