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

Recovery 101

I realize now that I really didn’t give any information on my recovery at home after the surgery. I have to apologize for that. Let me go over what it was like for me after coming home from the hospital. 

The first day I came home my hubby had to fill my prescriptions…which came in a giant paper grocery bag. I had to give myself morning injections of Lovenox for blood thinning, I had pills for inflammation, I had pills for stool softening (really?), and I had pills for pain management. I also had to take calcium pills for bone health. It was ridiculous. Besides the medications, I had to have the CPM machine and the wheelchair delivered. I also had to schedule the Visiting Nurses home care company to come and assess my home and help me learn how to live in my environment with my condition.

Being home was hard. Not because it was painful (it really wasn’t very painful), but because I wasn’t able to do a freakin’ thing on my own. My discharge instructions were as follows: “Activity as tolerated: Not Allowed, Housework: Not Allowed, Strenuous Activity: Not Allowed.” To make things worse…the discharge instructions also stated that I had to keep my body at an angle less than 70 degrees at all times. This was, BY FAR, the most frustrating part of recovery. I had to sit in a recliner, in the fully reclined position, every, single, day. It was infuriating. Anytime I had to do anything, sit in a chair, get out of the chair, sit in the bathroom, anything…I had to be angled. It was the winter of perpetual slouching.

What’s worse is that even if I wanted to do something on my own…there was no way I could. My leg was so weak that I couldn’t move it on my own. I wasn’t able to get into or out of bed by myself…I couldn’t get dressed by myself…I couldn’t even put socks on by myself. It was an incredibly eye-opening, and humbling experience. My husband had to help me every second of every day when I needed something. That guy’s a champ and he deserves a medal for dealing with me. I was not the best patient at times…I’ll admit it.

The first week home was the hardest, as expected. The visiting nurses came and helped my hubby and I figure out how to do things like go up and down the stairs, get into bed, get onto the toilet, get into and out of the shower, etc. (we had to buy a shower seat, but it was totally worth the investment). The nurse (whose name was Harmoine, loved that) checked my bandage while I still had it, and my incision once Dr. S. was able to take the bandage off a week after coming home. She also took my temperature and my blood pressure when she came. I was given a series of exercises to do three times a day every day. The nurse came twice a week for the next few weeks to help me with these exercises, and to add new ones or tweak old ones. The visiting nurses were really great. It was helpful for me, as I was really lost for the first few weeks. I had to really re-learn a lot of things.

I needed 24 hour care until Dr. S. said otherwise. So, to help with my care until early December, my hubby recruited some of my wonderful family members to stay at the house and take care of me so he could make into the office a few days a week. For the first three weeks or so after surgery, I pretty much slept all the time. I was tired constantly as my body tried to recover from the trauma. Also, it would take a couple weeks for my body to completely get back to normal after the blood transfusion reaction. After the first three weeks, I really started to feel pretty good, and we got into a good routine.

I kept doing my home exercises until Dr. S. cleared me for physical therapy (PT) about 7 weeks after surgery (early December). This meant a couple things for me: Once I started PT, I no longer needed 24 hour care, and I could start weaning off the crutches at PT. I started PT twice a week in the facility, and worked out once at home on my own. That was when the frustration really began. I wanted to go from 0 mph-100 mph and had a very rude awakening when I started PT. My right leg was a mess. My thigh muscles, and some of my calf had atrophied, and the spot where Dr. S had to re-attach the rectus muscles in the thigh to the iliac crest was extremely painful. It was still healing. I lost feeling in the outside of my thigh, and during exercising it twitches and can be an uncomfortable feeling. Even my calf and my foot were really, really fatigued, I had no balance.

Slowly and surely I regained movement and flexibility in my leg. The day that I could put socks on by myself, I did a little victory dance. That was a big day for me. After starting PT, it took another two and a half weeks until I was off the crutches completely…but I resorted to using my cane for a while. It’s winter here in New England and the snow and the ice create an obstacle I wish I didn’t have. Once I finally did get off the crutches, and was back to walking “normally,” the hip itself felt really great. There’s no pain in the hip joint at all. The pain that I’m feeling during physical therapy is all thigh muscle pain and pain from where he had to detach and cut through the muscles to get to the hip joint.

I waited 12 weeks after surgery before going back to work. This brought me t0 a mid-January return date. This was doctor’s orders…but looking back I’m so glad I did what he said to do. My family and I laugh about it now because, under normal circumstances, I really can’t ever sit still. I’m almost always doing something, somewhere. So, to be a captive audience at home for 12 weeks nearly drove us all crazy. I did invest in Netflix and Hulu, though, so I watched a LOT of TV. I actually tallied up everything I did while out on leave: During my 85 day medical leave of absence I watched 9 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, 2 seasons of Lost, and 2 seasons of Dawson's Creek. I completed 5 mystery solving games on my iPad. I read five books, knit two scarves, and taught myself how to crochet. I also learned how to walk again, how to lean on people when I really need them...and how to ask for help. I pushed myself to the max, and it was entertaining, informative, exhausting, and revitalizing all at the same time. Going back to work was a huge step for me, and I was so excited.

I was walking really well by about 10 weeks into PT (mid-February). I could walk short distances without much problem, and if I had to walk long distances, I took it slow and used my cane. I certainly wasn’t winning any races. The biggest obstacle for me was the pain at the reattachment point. I had a really hard time overcoming that. I couldn’t lift my leg into a marching position, or move my leg out forward. It took me probably 3-4 weeks to be able to walk over short hurdles at PT without a lot of pain. Once I was able to walk well, I started to notice that if I walked too quickly…or too normally (read: without a limp), my hip would buckle with pain. The same pain I had prior to the surgery. This was because of the labral tears. I knew it was time to start thinking about my next surgery. So, about 18 weeks after PAO surgery, Dr. S and I scheduled my second procedure (which I covered in my previous entry).

So, here are some overall thoughts and major points to take away from the PAO surgery:

-          Prepare as much as you possibly can beforehand. Practice using the crutches, figure out where you’re going to be when recovering (upstairs, downstairs, what chair will you be in, etc.), and align people in advance to help you.

-          Get the handicap plate. I am a stubborn person and if you’re like me you won’t want to get the plate…but this is not the time for that. That plate has helped me significantly.

-          Take time out of work to heal. Every doctor has a different protocol for recovering from this surgery. My doctor’s protocol appeared to be (in comparison to what I’ve read elsewhere) a fairly conservative recovery protocol. Taking time out of work wasn’t an option for me. The doctor asked me to stay out of work. However I have heard of people going back to work a couple weeks later. This is a big surgery, and the healing process for me was complex and challenging. I’m sure it differs from procedure to procedure…but personally I suggest taking at least 3 weeks out of work.

-          Prepare for the fact that after surgery, you may have a large area without any sensation. This area may or may not ever regain sensation. For me, it is a large part of my thigh to my right of the incision (about the size of a football). I knew this was a possibility before the surgery, but I always said “so what if I don’t have feeling?” Well…it’s not that simple. I have odd muscle spasms, and a lot of nerve tingling and pain. The feelings that I get because of the numb area are uncomfortable. It’s a small price to pay, and I’m certainly not complaining. Just something to prepare for.

-          Do ALL of your home PT as OFTEN as they tell you to do it. If they say they want you to do it three times a day, do it three times a day regardless of how tired or sore you are. I can’t begin to explain how much easier this made things. And if I missed even a day, the next time I did the exercises I could feel the setback. It matters. Do it every single day.

-          Expect a setback or two. It more than likely won’t be smooth sailing. I pulled several oblique muscles on my right side three weeks post surgery. That actually hurt worse than the surgery pain. I couldn’t move at all without severe pain in my side. I could hardly even breathe. I had to rest for a few days without any home PT, and when I started up again, I could feel the setback.

And here’s the most important thing:

-          BE PATIENT. Patient, patient, patient. Recovery is frustrating, and sometimes discouraging. You will have setbacks…you will get mad…you’ll want to rush through things…but just always remember to take a deep breath and be PATIENT. This surgery is a big deal…and your body is going to take a LONG time to get back to “normal.” Cut yourself some slack here and there. Try and learn how to focus on the now. I am one week post-op for the arthroscopic procedure. I’ve been on crutches/rehabbing/dealing with hip issues from the PAO for just about 22 weeks. And now I had my hip cut open AGAIN. This just added 7 more weeks of crutches and another 3.5-4 MONTHS of PT to my recovery. You can imagine my frustration. But, I have learned over the past couple months that this isn’t something that you can rush…even if you try. It’s SLOW. Every single day I have a moment where I get frustrated and aggravated and quite frankly just sick of this crap. But I just keep telling myself…in the long run I’m going to be in a way better place.

So, overall, recovery has been trying. It has been tough, and slow-going. It’s been exhausting. And now I’ve gone backwards another few steps because of the surgery last week. However, in the grand scheme of things, I feel really good about what I’ve been through. I’ve had to work really hard, and it’s going to have to continue…but in the end it will all be worthwhile. I’m on the road to having a really great biomechanical hip, a hip that could last me and be pain free maybe even for the rest of my life if I treat it well. I haven’t taken a step without pain in about 9 or 10 years. The first time I do, I will know this was ALL worthwhile.

A labral tear here, and a labral tear there.

Hello again! I just wanted to catch you up on a few things. On February 28, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. S. regarding my PAO surgery. This was my 18 week appointment! Woohoo! I had been up and walking for weeks (I wasn’t winning any races…but I felt okay). Physical therapy was going so well, and I was kicking butt. The appointment with Dr. S. went very well; he was pleased with my progress. At this appointment we decided to go ahead and schedule the second procedure (arthroscopic hip scope). The most important thing I took away from that appointment was that I had literally no idea what to expect from the second procedure. Unfortunately, when it comes to cartilage and the labrum, he couldn’t know what he was going to find until he got in there. This means that he may only have to fix a couple small things on the labrum…or maybe just clean up some scar tissue. Or, worst case scenario, there’s a lot of cartilage damage and he needs to do what’s called micro-fracturing. This is where he picks at the femoral head with a little ice pick-like tool and makes it bleed. This blood then heals and turns into a type of cartilage called fibro0cartilage. Really what mattered to me in all of this information is healing time. I wanted him to do whatever he needed to do to get me into tip-top shape. So it came down to this: if he only had to fix labral tears? That’s about 2-3 weeks on crutches. If he has to micro-fracture quite a bit? That’s 12 weeks on crutches. That made me crazy…the not knowing. There’s a big difference between 3 weeks and 12 weeks on crutches. Anyway, I digress.

 Dr. S said I’d have to call Hilda (his assistant…who has probably made it onto our Christmas card list by now) the next week and make the final call on what day to do it. We were all on the same page that the last week of March, first week of April time frame was best. My family and I have a lot of exciting things going on this year…and I wanted to be sure I’d be up and running before them so I don’t seem like such a party pooper. When I called Hilda the next Monday, she told me that Dr. S didn’t have an opening until April 26^th. I almost fainted. That’s a whole month after what I thought it was going to be. Hilda and I talked about what I had going on this year, and why the timing was so important. She said that she was going to try and figure some things out and call me back. She called me back a couple days later and told me she had finagled some operating room time for March 18^th. This was less than two weeks from when we were talking…but I immediately said it was fine and booked it.

So the surgery day came, and everything felt like a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day.” We recognized a lot of people at the hospital, and they recognized us. I had the same exact surgical team as the first surgery, and it was nice to see some of those faces again. The thing that was different this time was the atmosphere. Everything was far more relaxed, including myself. After getting everything all set and I was  wheeled into the operating room, I got to look around for a few minutes and really take it all in. Last time they gave me loopy juice BEFORE going to the OR…so by the time I got into the operating room I was high as a kite. This time I got to see everything. What a fascinating thing…it’s really crazy to me. They wheeled me right next to what looked like some kind of torture device. It was the device the surgeon uses to create space between your hip joint ( I won’t describe it here….let’s hope you never have to see it!). I saw all the giant tool chests with my doctors’ name on them, and all the crazy lighting. It was pretty neat. Then I had to sniff the funny gas and about 30 seconds later I was in la-la land.

After the surgery, I woke up feeling pretty nauseous again. However my wonderful anesthesiologist Lexi made sure to give me a great cocktail of drugs so I didn’t feel a thing. Except tired. I got out of surgery around 11, and I slept until 2. I was WIPED. After that I started to come out of it and I recognized Sarah who was my recovery nurse from the first surgery. I loved her last time. She was so amazing. The nurse I had this time, Dina, she was great, too. But it was so nice to see Sarah and have the opportunity to tell her how much I appreciated her help the last time. After a while they got me up and moving, Matt came to see me and before I knew it I was in the car heading home. I slept most of the day.

So, the outcome of the surgery was pretty good. Dr. S. did a fantastic job with everything (obviously…he’s amazing). I had a couple really big tears in my labrum…they were so big that he ended up just having to cut part of it right off. That wasn’t a huge deal; he assumed I would have some pretty significant tears. There was some softness and wearing in my cartilage…and some areas where there was very little bit of cartilage left. So in these spots he did some micro-fracturing. Not a whole lot, though. The issue was that a part of my femoral head was slightly pointed…causing extra wearing on the cartilage against it. To fix this problem, Dr. S. had to shave down and smooth out that part and create bleeding to fill in the area with the fibro-cartilage. The last and most important thing we took out of this procedure was the discovery that there is only a small amount of arthritis in the joint. That is huge news. Because there’s so little arthritis, Dr. S thinks I may be able to put off hip replacement surgery until my late 60’s or even 70’s (if I treat my new hip well). In contrast…my hip was so crappy before all this that Dr. S. said he’s sure I would have needed total hip replacement in my 50’s (if I could make it that long).

So…all in all, it was a great outcome. However, because of the work he had to do with the femoral head, he wants me on the crutches for about 7 weeks. This is a bummer because I’m super sick of the crutches…especially as I was just on them for so long prior. However, I can’t tell you how happy I am to be DONE with surgeries. This has been such an interesting few months…I’m so tired from all the rehab. But, I feel so good to be moving forward with this chapter of my life. I’ve put if off for about 10 years now…it’s nice to not have it hanging over my head anymore.

I start physical therapy back up tonight, and I will have to keep going until probably mid-July. It is the best feeling knowing it’s only going to go up from here!

Ready, set, go!

Surgery Day and Hospital Stay

So, I was going to break this into several entries...but the experience really melded into what felt like one long day...so I decided to keep it as one long entry. So, here you have my surgery day, and the 4 day hospital stay that went with it.

Surgery day, YIKES.

We woke up around 4:30 so that each of us could shower and be ready for the 6:00 departure.
My mom met us at our house around 5:45, and Dad-in-law met us at the hospital for 6:20.

When I first went in, I had to go to two different places to check-in and fill out lots of paper work. It moved relatively quickly, which was great for me because I hate lingering. I went into the surgery prep area around 7:30 where I had to get into my surgical outfit, a johnny and a new blue shower cap looking hat, woohoo. Once I was all suited up, a couple doctors/nurses came in to speak with and introduce themselves. They were my surgical nurses and some of my aneasthesiologists, very nice and caring. Almost right away, Dr. S came in to see me and had a nice long, calm conversation about the plan, and how he's hoping the day would go. The plan was as follows: Go in and get to the hip first. Then to assess the actual structure of the hip and begin cutting and placing bones as needed. Once they made one of the final cuts, he was going to decide if he wanted to look into the joint and see if he could tidy up the labrum a bit. If the labrum was accessible, an easy fix, and the rest of the surgery was going smoothly, then he would address the labrum while he's in there.

With all that being said, the aneasthesiologists started me on a IV of some wonderful things to "take the edge off." And it really did. Phew. We waited for just a few more minutes, and then I was off to the races. I said my goodbyes to my mom and my hubby (who were in surgical prep with me), and they wheeled me away.

Right before we left the surgical prep area, they gave me another hit of something else to help me relax while waiting for anesthesia. Don't know what it was, they didn't tell me...but boy oh boy, I had not a care in the world! I was thinking: "Allllllrrriiiigggghhhhtttt, surgery!"

I don't remember too, too much after that...but I do remember a couple glimpses of the operating room. Believe you me, they look NOTHING like they look on Grey's Anatomy. They are somewhat small, cramped with TONS of high storage systems with drawers, everything's covered in plastic and all you can see really are small passage ways to different machines/equipment. It was nuts. The last thing I remember is seeing Dr. Schiller in his surgical gear standing at the x-ray machine showing a group of Residents (I assume), the game plan for cutting the bone. Then in about a milli-second, the anesthesiologist put the mask on my face and I was O-U-T.

About five seconds later (real time approximately 6 hours), I woke up in recovery feeling VILE. Oh my gosh I can't even begin to explain the feelings. Easiest way to describe it is the world's WORST, most TERRIBLE hangover. It was like I had been trampled by elephants. I couldn't wake up for life of me, I lost so much blood in surgery my skin tone was a lovely mint color, and I was dry heaving every 2-3 seconds. It took me almost 2 hours and a blood transfusion in recovery to start feeling a bit more human. I honestly can't remember much hip pain, probably because I was so anxious about everything else. My recovery nurse, Sarah, was AMAZING. She helped me through the whole thing and stayed by my side the whole time.

Here's a glimpse into the surgery: It took longer than Dr. S had hoped (for whatever reason...not totally sure), and I bled more/faster than they were expecting. The combination of the two led to me losing about 1,600 cc's of blood. That's almost 2 LITERS. Now, mind you, they had the cell saver on, so they tried to recover as much as they could...but by the end of the surgery I really had lost a lot. More than anyone was really expecting. But, that's the thing, you can run every test in the world...but every person is different and bleeds differently. I don't blame anyone for that. You can't plan it, no matter how hard you try.

So...after that kind of blood-loss, your blood pressure PLUMMETS. I could see the read-out screen in recovery...and maybe I'm too smart for my own good, but I knew the heart rate and blood pressure numbers it was reading were really low. I was really tachycardic during and after surgery (had a very fast heart rate, almost 140 beats per minute, normal is around 90), and my blood pressure was so low it was shocking to me. It was in the 60/30's early on when I was so "drunk" I could barely move. It's generally supposed to be around 110/70. It came up very slowly, but still stayed low until a couple days later.
However, besides all of that crap, I was honestly so unbelievably thirsty! My throat hurt a little from the breathing tube, and I couldn't wait to have a sip of ginger ale (drink of choice in hospitals, apparently). I drank almost 2 cups of ginger ale in recovery while waiting for my room. That was such a bad idea...but it tasted so refreshing on my mouth and lips and throat, it was almost heavenly.

Now...I wasn't worried that it might be life-threatening or anything like that. The care around me, and just Sarah's presence alone, made me feel like I was perfectly fine. You know what I was ACTUALLY worried about? My HUSBAND and family waiting for me to come out of recovery! I know my husband is a worry-wart, and I knew he was ticking down the minutes. The Dr. told him I'd be out of recovery in about an hour, at that time we were working on almost 2 hours until I was good enough to see him. When he came in, I looked a lot better (color wise), and I had become a bit more understandable with my language. I felt a lot better, and like I could relax when I saw him and he knew I was okay.

He waited with me until they brought me to my room. And then the whole family came with me as I entered my new home for the next four days. Of course, once you get in your new room, you have to do the hospital bed transfer...or otherwise known as the most humiliating thing in the world. They turn you and tug you and undress you and your catheter is uncomfortable and you're not feeling well from anesthesia and your roommate's family walks by and you moon them with all of your most private parts. SIGH. That was awful. Seriously. It took a couple minutes to get it right because of my hip...I couldn't have been more thankful when that was over...let me tell you.

So...I get settled in my bed, my family comes in and we sit. Well...they sit...and I sleep....sleeep sleeeppp, sleep. They went to get dinner, because I was so out of it anyway...it didn't matter. By the time they came back about an hour and half later, I was finally awake enough to spend time with them. Dr. S. came by too, which really made my night. He was so excited about the success of the surgery, he gave me great coverage, enough he thinks, to probably last me until I'm close to 70. That was really great news. I had already heard that from hubby, but it was nice to hear from the Doc himself. The other thing Dr. S. did tell me was that because of how long it took him to give me that fantastic coverage, they didn't have time to look at or address the labrum. This means that about 8 weeks from now, I will need to have follow-up surgery. Not the best news...but I'm so unbelievable happy with the success of the PAO, that I'm really not worried about the hip scoping!

Dr. S left for the night, and at that point...I had been having some pain in my hip...probably about a 6 out of 10. The lovely nurse decided to give me some dilaudid. And by some, I mean 2 mg. May not seem like a lot, but I am a teeny, tiny person...and dilaudid is synthetic morphine. So...2 mg sent me FLYING HIGH. What a strange feeling when they administer it! It was like a wave of heavy heat floating across my chest...so strange and unnerving...I really didn't like it. What I also didn't like, wass that about a millisecond after I was given the 2 mg...I felt like a stoner who couldn't talk, or communicate...or do anything except sleep. My hubby was actually worried about it, because I fell asleep/half conscious almost immediately.

And then came the sickness. Oooohhh boy...the sickness. I booted (puked, lost my lunch, praised the porcelain god, upchucked...you get the idea). I booted what felt like 100 times for the next three hours. Every ounce of anything in my body came out...and I just laid there like a beaten woman. It was AWFUL.

Around 8 o'clock, they started with my second blood transfusion. My blood pressure was still pretty low (for me), and they wanted to get it back up to normal. The blood they gave me for both transfusions was O-. Which was surprising to me because they had all the necessary info to give me MY blood type (A-). Why use the O- when you can use the correct kind? These things baffled me...and it turned out my baffled nature was instinctively correct. By 1 am, mostly through the transfusion, my temperature had risen to 100.8. That's a bad sign during a blood transfusion, because it means that your natural blood is not playing nice with the transfused blood. At this point we had to do all sorts of blood and pee tests to make sure my body wasn't freaking out completely. Once my transfusion was over, all we could do was just wait and see what happened.

My fever from the transfusion kept up in the low 100's to as high as 101.4 until around 2-3 am on Sunday. It finally broke and I started to feel better.

Saturday was an okay day, besides the fever mishap. Physical Therapy (PT) came and got me out of bed using a walker and in a reclining chair. Such a seemingly small thing, but it was a huge effort for me! I was so happy when I sat in the chair. Felt so good, empowering even.

I mostly just rested and visited with my mom and hubby after that. Slept when I wanted, watched TV, drugged up to ease the pain, and just vegged out. I started on real food that day...I mean...if you call hospital food "real." This day they also stopped the IV Dilaudid and started me on pills: Oxycodone.

Sunday was a good day, except for the morning. I had a BUSY morning, and it led to me feeling really nauseas. I had the catheter removed, I was told to get up using the walker and get out of bed and in the chair for breakfast, the Fellow came and pulled my incision drain out and changed my dressing, then I had breakfast...all within an hour and a half time frame. It was just way too much, too fast. I got really dizzy and nauseas and had to have some zophran for the nausea.

After a couple hours though, I was feeling much better...had a really good Sunday. I had hardly any pain to speak of. My blood pressure had come up and my fever had broken. I also had some good PT with the nurses where I got up and used the walker to walk to the bathroom by myself and back to the bed. Things were looking up. Dr. S came in (on his off day...mind you), to check in with me and see how I'm doing. Answered all of our questions, while his adorable little daughter waited out in the hall way. Dr. S was so happy with all of my progress, that he was saying I could go home the next day, if I wanted to! There was light at the end of the tunnel. But unfortunately...going home on Monday was not a good idea. Hurricane Sandy was going to strike that day...and they didn't want me traveling/going home with such treacherous conditions.

So...Monday came and went. Was a great day, my best day yet. I felt awesome (in an obviously relative way), hardly any pain at all. I wasn't on the pain meds much at this point...only (as instructed) before PT. I slept well, I ate well, and I went through some really good PT where I  used the walker and walked all the way down the hallway and learned some exercises for my leg. It was nice to be doing so much!

Monday night I didn't sleep very well, I had a new roommate who was rude and inconsiderate of my needs. Won't go into details...but many times I fondly referred to her as "The Wench." I think I was also anxious because I knew I was getting out of that place. While the staff and everyone was SO great, I really wanted to get home and start the real road to recovery.

Tuesday came and went so fast. I had PT in the morning to see if I could pass my last tests before being discharged. The major test was stairs, to see if I could go up and down stairs with the crutches. I passed the test with flying colors.  I did have breakfast and lunch in the hospital, which was nothing write home about...but it kept me occupied while I waited for all the discharge papers to come through. It took until 3 for everything to be settled for me to leave the hospital...I can't understand that! But...that's okay. I keep telling myself...I know a lot of people have to sign off on it...and everyone is very busy.

Anyway, the couple main things I took away from this surgery and hospital stay were as follows:

- I think they serve better foods to inmates.

- Nurses/CNA's are BUSY. Unbelievably busy. And while I appreciate every single thing they did for me...the one piece of advice I would give someone going into and extended hospital stay is this: the very SECOND you feel like you have to pee (or whatever), push that call button like it's going out of style. On average, I had to wait almost 15 minutes for someone to come help me go to the bathroom. And after I had the catheter taken out, I needed to pee really often. I couldn't get out of bed on my own (for obvious reasons). That may not seem like a super ridiculous period of time...but when you've just gone through a traumatic surgery...where they cut a series of muscles in your thigh and pelvis...you better believe that holding it is not your strong suit. There were several instances where I really thought I wasn't going to be able to hold it.

Lastly, and most importantly:

- The nurses and CNA's and the staff at Rhode Island Hospital are top notch. Unbelievably nice, helpful, knowledgable and extremely selfless. I was amazed, time and time again, at how caring they were, even to the cruelest patients. It takes an exceptionally caring person to be a nurse. Makes me even more proud that my brother went into that field.

- I am so THANKFUL to blood donors. I always knew it was important...of course...but it puts into a whole new perspective when you're staring at a unit of someone else's blood dripping into your body for your health, that someone so graciously donated to a stranger. Seems like such a small thing...but it really was a touching moment for me. Not to mention, I had to have 2 transfusions, so that's 2 different people who gave me a piece of them...not even knowing me. Really amazing stuff...if you ask me.


So, that is that! Please, please, please feel free to ask me any any all questions you may have. I had a great experience, overall...and would love to help anyone else preparing for this to understand the in's and out's of my journey.

Thanks so much for reading!
D

1 Day until I go under the knife!

I’m writing this in past tense because the few days leading up to the surgery were just too crazy to blog at the time. I had to get a lot of things in order before the 26th, many of which were not actually surgery related...I’ll spare you all the details and just let you know what my last day on my bum hip was like.

I took the day off from work, and had a day all about me. I slept in late, had some Dunkin’ Coffee and a breakfast sandwich, and then went for a 90 minute massage. 

The massage was the most amazing thing ever, EXACTLY what I needed. I’d never had a real one before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Let’s just say, it’s worth every single penny you pay. 

After the massage, I went and got a pedicure. I hadn’t had one in an age and I kinda wanted the extra pampering. It was really nice to just sit back and be taken care of. Ahhhh, it was so relaxing.

When I left the salon, I came home and rotted on the couch while watching some junky TV, it was GLORIOUS. And after a couple hours of that, I changed into cooking/baking mode.

Hubby arrived home from work around 5, and found me BUZZING around the house. I couldn’t keep still. I had made a list of things I wanted to accomplish before the surgery, and I felt desperate to complete them. He had to stop me several times just to try and calm me down. I was so anxious and nervous that I didn’t want to sit still...or all I would do is think about the next day. That would make me crazy. 

I ran around the house most of the night, baking cookies and finishing goodie bags for my nurses, making a couple meals for us to eat, and packing my bag for the hospital. 

We finally went to bed around 11:30, but I don’t know if either of us really slept at all. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am the next day...and we were just so anxious to get things going and get it over with.

The moral of this day was to just relax and prepare, so that’s really all I did. 

Read on for info on the actual surgery day.