2 weeks post second op

Oyyy I am so sick of crutches. Every day I wake up and the first thing I think is… “I better get up now because I have to pee and it’s going to take me about 20 minutes to get to the bathroom with my debacle-ness of a self.”

Otherwise.......things are going well. I’m making myself move my leg as much as I can as often as I can. I really don’t want my muscles to atrophy as badly as they did last time. My thigh is still really weird feeling (very descriptive, I know). It’s all tingly and numb every once in a while for really no apparent reason my nerves will FIRE off and cause me to squeal a little. It’s really great…keeps me on my toes (figuratively speaking, as I obviously cannot do anything on my toes…). I do everything one-legged…I hop everywhere. I watch my husband bounding all over the house all two-legged-like and I get very jealous. What a show-off. I’ve been dealing with this crap for so long now I forget what it’s like to even walk normally! I keep telling myself that 4 months from now, I’m going to be the bionic woman…never to be slowed down again. But…it’s going to be a loooonnnggg 4 months.

I put one of our bar stools in the middle of kitchen and it’s completely in the way for my hubby…but it’s a fantastic way for me to rest while doing things in there. Otherwise, when I’m trying to do dishes or cook or something, every few minutes I have to hop along the counter over to my crutches, get on them, use them to get to a chair and sit down. When I feel better I have to do the whole thing reversed…it’s absurd. It takes me an ETERNITY to do anything. And I’m so tired I need a nap after everything I do. It’s like my body is saying “Ya know what…one surgery pissed me off enough…and now you went and did again?! I’m done. No more energy for you.” I get winded from the simplest things. I’m trying really hard to not be a wimp…but I can’t believe how tired I am all the time. After the first surgery I completely expected it…I mean I was growing bone, after all. But this time? Phew-yyy, let me tell you. I constantly feel like I’ve just run a marathon. I’m not sleeping well at all, and all day long I’m feeling like I have to catch up to everyone else.

I will say that this surgery, besides from being on crutches for 7 weeks AGAIN, was not NEARLY as bad as the PAO (obviously). This time, there was no real muscle damage, and there’s no restriction on moving the joint or specific angle I need to stay below. The only restriction is no weight bearing. I also can’t drive…because it’s my right leg. I feel like a kid without their license, I have to bum rides off everyone.

But, generally speaking, my leg feels pretty good. The one thing I am noticing, though, is my sacroiliac joint on my left side is really giving me a hard time. I had been having some pain before I went in for the second surgery…but I could have it adjusted at PT and sometimes that helped. Lately, being on the crutches and trying to do things left-legged has really been giving me a lot of pain. I can understand why…it’s taking the brunt of all of this. I just am not sure how to help keep it happy. I’ll have to ask Tom (my PT and I are on a first name basis) what he thinks. Additionally, since the surgery I’ve been having on and off (more on than off) bouts of pain in my…..groin area…except it’s not reaaallly the groin. He had to cut a portion of bone RIGHT THERE and sometimes I get some pain. It’s a dull, aching pain. I’ve mentioned it to Dr. S. and he says it’s because it’s such a large “break” and it’ll be “broken” for a long time. That’s the part of the bone healing that is going to take the longest. I mention this, not to humiliate myself, but because it’s really the only pain I’ve had consistently since the surgery. It is nagging, but it’s not terrible. Just something I certainly was not expecting.

In other (less embarrassing) news, the bandages and steri-strips came off a couple days ago. I have three tiny incisions with stitches. I laugh when I look at them because it looks a little bit like they are held together with those plastic wires they use to hold price tags on clothing. The incisions are glued together again, as well…so it looks like I’ve got little patches of super glue…and little plastic clothing tags. I’ll post a picture. Eventually…I’ll post a picture of my other scar as well…but haven’t figured out how to do that quite yet. I’ll be quite the sight to see once everything heals, with 4 scars in such a small area…it’ll look like I got in a knife fight (which I guess technically I kind of did).

I scheduled my next appointment with Dr. S. today. It’ll be May 9^th. It’ll be the appointment where he assesses if I can get off the crutches. At that appointment, I’m going to ask for copies of the pictures from the arthroscopic surgery, that way I can post here and you can see what he did in there. It’s interesting to see.

Alright, that’s it for now. I’ll leave you with a few pictures:

Discharge from the hospital day! 10-30-12

This is from the first day I could walk after PAO. My first step on my new hip almost 50 days after surgery.

  

This is my post surgery x-ray at my 12-6-12 appointment (6 weeks post surgery)

Arthroscopic surgery incisions

Talk soon!,
D