I am having " a bone spur removed from my right big toe.

I am having " hand surgery on my left hand to release a nerve that is compresed in my hand".

I am having an MRI/MRA/contrast and w/o conrast.

Have any of you had these procedures? If so, tell me what happened from start to finish and recovery time.

Bone spurs wont take that much time to recover from. My aunt had a few removed two years ago and was back up in a day or so. With a little pain.

Compressed nerves: You hand will probably be stiff for several days after the surgery. There will be a little change in the mobility in your had depending on how well the surgery goes. But after a week or two you will regain full motion in your hand.

An MRI/MRA/contrast and w/o contrast. They just inject you with a dye and look at the flow through the veins and arteries. Its just used to check for blockages and where there is a narrowing in any of the vessels. Its just a needle and you sit there for a while when they look over the monitor.

I know someone that had an mri, but because they were young, had to be put to sleep. The mri xrays your head and can see quite a bit of things. The magnetic is attracted to certain chemicals in the brain. It creates an image by slightly aligning these chemicals with the magnet and forming an image. When they use the contrast they put dye in and can get a better pic. I would be careful about the dye as I read something about people getting some fibrosis or something from that, I will have to look that disease up and get back to you, but it is only with a certain type of dye.

So you lie in this machine for about half hour or so and the magnet goes round round your head getting a pic and it can be quite disturbing to an adult fully awake because you have to remain still and you can hear this loud banging noise as the thing goes round and round taking images.

It is quite harmless. Please excuse my terrible medical terminology, just going by what I know.

As for the other surgeries, my son split his hand open and had day surgery and it healed pretty good, except you have to watch for infection, specially in the hand area.

The spur shouldn't be too bad either.

plp-

Best of luck with your surgeries - ouch! I had five wrist surgeries to fix my broken right wrist. Unfortunately, my situation is not exactly the same as yours for me to give any useful advice regarding the procedures.

Here are some of the lesson I learned:

Eat pineapple before and continue right after to help keep the swelling down to speed up the recovery process.

Try not having both upper and lower extremities cut up at the same time - very difficult to get around. I found out the hard way after having knee and wrist surgeries in the same week.

Schedule your operation(s) early in the morning so you won't be starving all day, waiting for your turn. In addition, the surgery scheduling is always backed up later in the day.

Good luck and have a speedy recovery!

Thanks for the great replies everyone. I sent those that replied to me, a thank you, message.

New question" From the time of arrival at the hospital/out patient surgery center, how was your experience from the time you arrived and until the time you left?

Never had anything that involved out patient surgery.

it should take an hour for the mri that's as long as they aren't running behind, which they usually are.

I don't know about the day surgery for the other, but it shouldn't be more than a few hours each, i would think. You should have someone there with you to look after you when you get discharged. and watch those declines with the wheelchairs, my son almost went flying out on his face, poor guy. But you will be drowsy and if you don't have someone there, they may keep you in longer than necessary.

Thanks for all of the support. I saw the hand surgeon today and he sent me to an otho surgeon. I go in for my MRI this Saturday and I will be fully sleep. Have any of ya had one of those scans?

Yes, don't worry, theres nothing to an mri, you lay on basically a cot inside a big machine. it makes a lot of noise. I actually went to sleep. Nothing to it bro. I would be more concerned with the hand. you do have to lay perfectly still. but once you're in there, just close your eyes and that 45 minutes is history. It may be less now. I had mine ten years ago, i'm sure it's improved by now.

I wish you a quick recovery

my kid had an mri a couple months ago...in and back out in 45 mins..and they did not knock him out...regretfuly....lol

I just tore both my knee meniscus in both knees. I had to have a MRI and was in and out in an hour .It's quite boring .. you just got to keep still so the pics don't blur An mri can see everything .. torn ligments, muscles ect ect that a regular xray can't .

My arthro scopic surgery done on my right knee was about a 15 minute operation . ..again it was relatively quick ..I went in at 10:30 and was out about 3:30 ... My left one is due on the 26th .. Both hands and knees take a while to fully recover..you might need some physical therepy to get full range of motion too . I'm sure yor DR will be able to tell you what to personally expect for a recovery timeline.

You don't need general anesthesia for a MRI.
Which area will be scaned ? and please post the exact name of the nerve or operation,I'll try to help as much as I can.

Oh, yes, the place where I am having my MRI/MRA/ will be about an hour and a half and the place cater's to large people and I don't like being inside those machines. Last time I was, I had concious sedation, I woke up. Also this place is the fist in the Pacific NorthWest to have a new scanner, that is a 3.pg. All of the other scanners are 1.5 pg. I am not worried. I see the ortheo doctor this Monday and hopefully will have my surgery on my hand in a week. Thanks again for all of the great feedback. Also the scanner place I am going to is " known as the best in the business.

There are open MRI scaners for people like you everywhere,did you ask them about that?

You could most likely get these questions answered by your physician? I would imagine that he or she would be able to give you a more concise workup about what to expect.

I had my MRI/MRA yesterday and it went smooth. All I remember is laying just outside the machine, a mask was put over my nose and mouth and I woke up. Cool.

Tommorow, I see the hand surgeon.

that's great, wishing you well

OPen MRI scanners don't do as good a good job as the one I was in.

lol, see worried for nothing....
good luck with the hand, wishing you well!