On sunday 18th October i travelled down to birmingham to be admitted to the Royal Orthapaedic Hospital for my amputation. The amputation would take place on monday morning. Considering what i was about to have done i slep fairly well on sunday night and woke early monday to sign the consent form.
My dad and step mum were there and they came down with me as far as they could go to the operating theatre. I hugged my step mum and i saw tears in her eyes, hugged my dad and knew he was trying to hide the tears aswell. This is when it sunk in were i was going and when i next woke up i would have half a leg missing. I was petrified the nurses had to calm me down abit and they were very reassuring and i realised that even though i was losing half a leg it was necessary to save my life. Without getting rid of the tumour i would die so it was definately for the best.
I woke up in the operating theatre and asked for Mr Tillman (the surgeon) i shook his hand and thanked him for doing what was right and removing the tumour from my body. I then past out again and woke again in recovery. I didnt realise but i had actually being away from the ward for 4 hours so my dad and step mum were panicking abit. So were the rest of my family at home waiting for news on my condition.
For the first 24 hours after the op i had an epidural so i was numb from the waist down which was strange. This was to make sure i did not wake up in any pain after the op. My reaction to waking up with half a leg missing was quite calm and everyone elses seemed calm to. The week in hosptial was quite relaxing if im honest. I started my physio on a zimmer frame and got my balance quite quickly and moved onto crutches i was abit wobbly at first but i think this was down to the epidural still having an effect. The day after i learnt how to walk up and down stairs which was more difficult but i still picked it up quickly.
After going into hospital on sunday i was going home on the friday which at first was a happy day and slowly turned into the day from hell. I had severe travel sickness on the way home and i felt so ill i just wanted to be back in hospital. I however did get home and went straight to bed and slept it off.
To finish off the last week has being the hardest week of my life ever. Coming to terms psychologically with an amputation is hard i put on a calm and positive front and thats how i feel most of the time. But it is also frustrating and upsetting being disabled for the next 6 weeks while it heals. Ino im not going to be able to do things i want for a while and im defo finding it hard at the minute the tiredness, the whole amputation, starting chemo again and physio its going to be a long tough ride and im glad ive got such a fantastic support base.
One las thing thank you to my dad, step mum, mum, step dad and brother phil and sis in law michelle for keeping me company in Birmingham you all helped keep my spirits up. And thank you to all the gifts cards and messages of support i recieved. The whole support is overwhelming.
Matt
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Matt, Well done honey for what must have been a very hard week for you and your family, you have described everything in exactly the same way as it went for Bradley too, he recovered ever so quickly and was in his prosthesis practising walking within 4 weeks, and i hope that with your spirit that you will be doing just the same, give yourself time to heal well and take care of the stump that way you'll be back walking again very soon.
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