The Final Countdown

Tomorrow is my last full day with ankle distraction arthroplasty.  We're at the twelve week point.  The procedure on November 3rd is being treated like any other surgery, so we have to report to Baltimore bright and early, I can't eat or drink anything after midnight, and I'll be in the sterile environment of an operating room.

The big difference, from what I'm told, is I will not be under general anesthesia.  Instead, I'll be put out with what's called twilight anesthesia.  I've been given permission to film the entire thing, so I'll be marching in with a tripod and camera ready to go.

According to Wikipedia, during twilight anesthesia, "the patient is relaxed and sleepy, able to follow simple directions by the doctor, and is responsive. Generally, twilight anesthesia causes the patient to forget the surgery and the time right after."

I underwent twilight anesthesia when my boot was removed a few hours after my accident.  When the nurse said I'd be awake but I wouldn't remember what happened, I called her a liar.  I refused to believe that I was going to forget how bad it was going to feel to remove my snowboarding boot from my dangling foot.

Turns out they were right, I didn't remember a thing.  Science 1, Tony 0.

Hopefully the video will be entertaining, but more importantly, I'm anxiously awaiting Thursday afternoon when I can finally walk around without a giant contraption that makes me feel like I've got fourteen steak knives stabbed in my leg.

I want to keep one of the rings from the ex-fix so I can drill it to the Breckenridge Memorial.