Today I had surgery on my ankle, but the surgery was minor compared to the stress I went to go get my rights as a service dog user respected!
I have a talar dome lesion, which is a problem with the cartilage and bone in my ankle. They had to drill a bunch of holes to encourage regrowth of the bone and cartilage. I will be non-weight-bearing for at least 6 weeks, so that will be a big recovery.
I was supposed to go on a vacation and leave Friday, but it got cancelled. So this past Thursday I called up and turns out they had a cancellation for today! I jumped on it! Unfortunately this means not enough time for the hospital to be educated on my rights.
I called them on Friday, and exchanged a few texts with them as well. They were saying that my dog had to provide a shot record, and that Felix wasn’t allowed in pre- or post-op and would have to wait in the waiting room the whole time because of “infection concerns”.
I provided the DOJ’s ADA FAQ and CDC’s report on service animals in healthcare settings. They were still not budging. So I got Marion from Advocates for Service Animal Partners involved, and he started contacting even more people.
Every day I was told they’d have an answer for me the next day. Until it got to Tuesday at 4PM. I knew their OR department closed at 4:30, so I called and emailed again to ask if they could at least tell me what time I had to arrive in the morning. At that point they told me the time, and that they think they understood the laws, but would get back to me with a final answer in a few hours.
So 10 hours before my procedure, after 5 or 6 phone calls, numerous texts, 3 or 4 emails, and getting Advocates For Service Animal Partners 855-272-7211 involved, they finally believed that what I said were the laws initially were actually the laws and they had to abide by them. It was SO STRESSFUL getting all this sorted out.
Of course they said it was so nice that I was their “learning experience”, but really they should educate themselves and not require me to educating them for their “learning experience”! Still I remained polite and kind through the whole thing as I knew they’d be taking care of me while I was vulnerable.
They ended up giving me the first surgery spot of the day at 5:30AM. Probably because they wanted the dog in and out as quickly as possible. That was fine with me, because the surgery was originally going to be an afternoon surgery and I was going to have to fast all day!
In the waiting room, we got a few pictures of me in my galaxy dress and Felix in his galaxy vest to match. Brad is wearing all purple and looks dashing, and Tam’s eyes are sparkling in her blue shirt!
Instead of putting us in the large room with curtain dividers with other pre-op patients, they gave us our own little room to be in so Felix wouldn’t disturb other patients. Again something I’m not mad at. Doing it this way, both Brad and Tam were able to be with me the whole time, and we had more privacy.
We shot some videos as we were in the room, and even one while I was getting my IV in and the doctor was talking with me! I will post those over the course of the next week or so. Brad got some pictures of Felix and me and of Tam and me, too!
All the nurses loved Felix! They said he was a joy and so calm and well behaved. I let any nurse who wanted to pet him do so, because it made both Felix and the nurses happy!
When it was time for Brad and Tam and Felix to leave so they could do my nerve block, I started to get anxious and they gave me a shot of something immediately to help me relax. They were super on top of my nausea and anti-anxiety medication!!!!
The nerve block was interesting and not too painful, then I was wheeled back into the OR. Very quickly they got me situated and gave me the stuff to knock me out.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up! I only spent about 10 minutes in post-OP awake, and my anxiety was starting to rise, so they moved me back to the room with Brad, Tam, and Felix really fast. That helped a LOT!
I was able to recover there, get dressed, and get ready to go home!
On the way home, I took a selfie, and I look pretty good for just going through surgery!
The ride home was hard because we couldn’t elevate my leg anywhere, but it was only 15 minutes, so not bad.
Now I’m at home recovering with my leg up. The nerve block still makes my leg feel asleep, so that’s good. Tam and Brad are taking excellent care of me, helping me to the restroom, bringing me food, etc. Tam is even fixing an awesome ice cream cone for me right now!!!!! I am very hungry after surgery. There goes my weight loss!
Stay tuned to my socials in the next week or so for the videos we took. And I’m sure I’ll be posting a lot of content about my recovery!