I hope they don't dope him up too bad. They hit me pretty hard. I took the drink, then the IV, and they told me the usual, start counting backwards from 100. I got to 91 and the nurse said I started to make the motion of striking flint to start a fire (with no materials of course) then I started "measuring", she said, "in grains", which confused her. She said I kept using the numbers 65, 80, 100, and 110. I told her that those are black powder grain measures for when I flintlock. Then I went out. It was a good laugh. They also let me put the big black "X" on the right knee before all that stuff.
I found surgery to be pretty easy (6 surgeries in 16 months for my leg and wrist injuries)--after all, I got to sleep though them. I had both day surgeries and stay-in-the-hospital surgeries.
* The anesthesiologist should talk to you before hand about the type of anesthesia to be used. (My choices were general or spinal block. I used both (at separate operations) and had no problems with either.)
* The surgeon should talk to you about the surgery, verify the operation, and mark which knee by writing on nearby skin. (My surgeon wrote "yes" at the site.)
* I already had an IV in, the anesthesia was given via the IV and I simply drifted off to sleep (general or spinal block+sedative) or into a semi-conscious stupor (spinal block).
* A while later I woke up. (The doc had the hard part, all I had to do was sleep.)
* The short-term recovery from the anesthesia was easy for me.
* The longer-term recovery may take a bit more effort on your part...
The above summarizes my experience, of course YMMV.
You should be asked for your birth date everytime someone gives you something. I found it annoying at first until I realized that this was a check to make sure they were giving the correct drug to the correct person. (Part of a program to minimize medical mistakes.)
Fortunately I had no complications--I don't know how much of it was luck. In any case, even though mine went fairly well, it isn't something I would do for fun. (Besides, I could have bought several full Tele and AT ski rigs for what it cost me.)
Good luck with it and I hope it gets you back to full function.
Doug
