Abi's Deep Dive

I had surgery in Mexico!

A little while ago I slipped on water on the floor. Floor tiles in Mexico have a finish closer to that of a mirror than something you need to be able to walk on safely, and I went down hard. I twisted my right knee and despite going to bed instantly (the equivalent of putting my fingers in my ears so I cant hear something) I woke up in agony. I haven’t experienced pain like that for a long time. I couldn’t hop as the pain through my injured knee was so excruciating it was making me retch, sweat was running off me. In the end I did a kind of sideways shuffle with my good foot just to get to the toilet dragging a chair for balance so there was as little movement as possible through my injured leg. After that initial day I used crutches and took ibuprofen waiting for the swelling to go down. I knew that I had damaged my cruciates and lateral ligament, so followed all rehab protocols and soon got back to walking but unfortunately I was still in pain, although it was managed with copious amounts of ibuprofen, I also couldnt fully extend my leg.

Next I booked to see a trauma doctor who sent me for an MRI. Getting to the end of a long process of appointments and journeys to Playa del Carmen and Cancun it turned out I had damaged my cartilage and fractured my tibia. I learnt a new word when I met the orthopaedic surgeon “guerrera”.

During this time my quadriceps were wasting, the only exercise I could do painfree was swimming, and my Divemaster was put on hold. I was finally booked in for surgery (all of these appointments were punctuated by long waits for communication between the insurance company and the hospital and lots of chasing by email) and then I had a preop. I would never have got to this point with my fabulous Spanish speaking friends Saraí, Juana, Sara and my boss Miguel making phone calls, coming to appointments with me and helping me with transport, and I am so grateful!

I had blood tests, a chest xray (which involved flattening myself against a panel like a cartoon character who was propelled into a wall), and an EKG, (i had clamps on my writs and ankles like you would use on a car battery and suckers all around my chest, final humilition when two people had a conversation over my left boob which was exposed to the elements surrounded by suckers).

Thankfully, despite my love of Mezcal my tests all came back normal, so now all I could do was wait and worry about being in Mexico and having the procedure done without being able to fully communicate due to my lack of Spanish, and missing my normal incredible support network. The procedure was definitely going to be an arthroscopy to fix the cartilage, and whilst they were in they would use a camera to check the fracture and give my cruciates a check for any laxity. If the surgeons needed to fix any of that, the surgery would become much more invasive, with a larger incision at the back of my knee and a titanium screw to fix things. This filled me with terror! A larger incision and more invasive procedure would mean a longer recovery time, more pain and even longer not being able to do my divemaster. I arrived at the hospital at 6am om Monday, fasted, not even a coffee. I was taken to a room and told to get undressed and put on a  robe, I signed lots of forms in spanish and then met the anaesthetist. She spoke a little English so i was able to negotiate that I wanted a general anaesthetic not an epidural and the next thing I was wheeled into the operating theatre.

The team was assembled, they asked if it was my left knee that was being operated on, thankfully I know left and right in Spanish and it is my right that was injured, and then anaesthetic was administered. I could see and hear but could not move a muscle, I started imagining being awake for the procedure and was trying desparately to wiggle a finger to let them know i was still conscious, then after a minute or two I was out. I came around and my first thought was whether I just had a wound at the front or at the back of my knee too. I was so relieved that I just had the arthroscopy, there was no pain at the back of my knee but I was so sick, I kept vomiting until about 9 or 10pm that night. My throat was bleeding, presumably because of the tube I had had in my throat. The nursing staff were so lovely, noone spoke English and why should they, normally I would have been trying my Spanish but I was too like a “im first time drunk” to focus on google translate, my world was spinning, so we ended up relying on sign language. The nurse put Netflix on and watched Emily in Paris in Spanish while i vomited up every sip of water I drank for the evening. Anyway after being able to communicate that there was absolutely no way I could wee in a bed pan with an audience the nurses and I had 24 hours quite happily smiling and chatting Spanglish to each other.

I woke up early on Tuesday, I just wanted a shower, so I was provided with two bowls of water, and some cloths, I declined the offer of help, and gave myself a bedbath which was so good!! I got discharged by the surgeon at about 3pm, and then waited for the hospital to discharge me too. I got to 6pm almost waiting patiently, not one of my strengths, then got dressed, the nurses refused to take the cannula out of my hand until I was discharged by the hospital which couldnt happen because apparently there was a “problem with the paper work” which has honestly been the quote of this whole experience. I got to 7pm and burst into tears and said someone from admin needed to come and explain why I couldnt leave to me. Miguel was picking me up and I cried on the phone to him and said they wouldn’t let me leave. Of course he had the benefit of not having had surgery and or being tired and emotional, and said that would be called kidnapping, then suddenly the paperwork was all in place and I was taken to his truck in a wheelchair.

Now I am back at the house with a bruised swollen knee, but a lot less damage than I could have had, and a quicker recovery than I was dreading.

I am also pretty proud of myself. I came to Mexico for work, diving and fun, this happened and I dealt with it. I just managed surgery in a different country in a different language, and I don’t want to jinx it but despite, in my Dads words, “doing a very good job” of damaging my knee, I am now out the other side!!

Now, where’s the mezcal?!…….

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