For anyone who is interested, here is a brief and boring account of my surgery
and hospital stay. I was in hospital from Monday the 17th to Saturday July
22.The actual sugary took an hour and a half, and went very well, thank God. No
complications, and the anesthetist was completely agreeable with my desire for
no narcotics and no sedative. It was kind of cool to hear them banging and
clanging, and I KNEW when I heard a particular metallic clanging sound and felt
my body being hammered, that they were hammering in the acetabular cup. <big
grin>I had a spinal for the surgery and epidural for two or three days after
that for pain control. When they removed the epidural, IV, and catheter, they
used oxycontin every 12 hours and oxycodone every 4hours if needed for pain
control. At first I was taking Tylenol 3 for pain but a clever nurse noticed
after one dose that it was not working for me and switched me to oxycodone.
Worked quite well, although I did find the second, third and maybe part of the
fourth day, somewhat uncomfortable. Much of that discomfort was from the gas
pains I had, not the hip. Stupid gas just stayed stuck up under my ribs and
sneaked around my back. That hurt worse than the hip ever did!
Every day we would have a team of two nurses. One evening I was really getting sore from the
gas and from being on my back for so long, and the pain was increasing, so I
rang for the nurse. She said there was nothing they could do for me. I rang her
again about half an hour later because the discomfort was increasing so much
that I was getting to the point where I could not stand it any longer. She had
the nerve to answer the call bell with, “What do you want? I was just in there.”
And she still insisted there was nothing they could do for me. Luckily, shortly
after that, the other nurse on that day’s team came in and by that time I was
sobbing in pain. I told her what was wrong and she, bless her heart, went right
away and brought me Diovol, a hot blanket to put on my stomach and ribs, and
some pain meds. In about half an hour I felt like a new person, about 90%
better. I don’t understand why the other one refused to help me and kept
insisting that nothing could be done. What a witch. How frightening to voice
your fears and not be listened to. Talk about being totally helpless and at
someone else’s mercy!
They got me up walking the second day post op (as you
know, they don’t count the day you have the surgery, they start counting from
the next day) and that was SO not fun. I could not lift my leg so the
physiotherapist had to walk behind me and shove my leg forward each time I took
a step. So then the physio said she was very worried because I was not doing
well and that she thought I would have to staying a rehab centre for anywhere
from a week to a month before I went home! Gack! Needless to say, I got busy
praying and the next day I was amazingly better;-)Lost 13 pounds if you can
believe it, lol! I have been in three hospitals in my life and they all had
fantastic food, lots of salads, fresh fruit, nicely cooked vegetables and lots
of variety. This hospital messed up so badly with my diet (I have a zillion
allergies and am diabetic) that I had only ice water and apple juice the whole
time I was there. They kept sending me stuff like milk (don’t drink it) and
Jell-O (don’t eat it, might be pork @@) Even though I am a diabetic and have
multiple allergies, not once did they send a dietician or nutritionist to talk
to me like other hospitals always do. They also took it upon themselves to
decide that I had celiac disease (gluten intolerance) instead of the allergies
to wheat and corn I told them I had. They repeatedly sent me stuff I was
allergic to, stuff with sugar in it, sweetened fruit and sweetened fruit juice.
Twice only I was sent a hot meal with instant mashed potatoes (straight out of
the box for that good, wholesome cardboard taste lol), a tiny amount of mushy,
terribly overcooked vegetables, and meat that was some kind of processed,
sliced, cardboard…
Well, having said all that, I guess I will have some good
horror stories to tell my grandkids. What an absolute comedy of errors. I am
very happy with the surgeon that I chose. He is not only very skilled, but
incredibly kind. No ego on him at all. He walked into the OR with me and I was
sort of joking around that I had changed my mind and decided not to have surgery
after all and he smiled at me, rubbed/patted my back in a sort of fatherly way,
and quietly reassured me that while the OR was no one’s favorite place to be, I
would feel so much better afterwards and be happy I had had the surgery.

Recovery is going well although I am feeling a bit frustrated at my lack of
mobility and independence. It does have its funny moments, though. The other
night I was in the washroom and my slippery satin pj pants fell down around my
ankles and I could not pick them up, lol! talk about feeling helpless. Of course
I did not have my reacher with me; I only take it in when I am going to change
clothes. Had to call my husband to come and rescue me.

Caroline

My 2nd surgery, left hip

I’m now officially a bilat hippy, and boy oh boy am I glad it’s all over! I
hope to God I NEVER have to go through another hip surgery again in
my life.

I had my surgery Friday morning at 8 AM (Feb. 9, 2007). I tried to get the same
anesthetist but had no luck there. I explained to the one I got how
what I used last time (spinal-only for surgery, local-anesthetic-
only with no narcotics for pain control post op) worked really well
for me, and she listened and smiled and agreed. Or so I thought. The
spinal did not “take” very well-actually, it took fairly well on the
other, non-op side and while it did not hurt (until they got to the
staples), I felt EVERYTHING they did; all the drilling, all the
movements, tugging, pulling, and so on. She turned the “juice” up
once or twice when I told her I could feel it but since she kept
telling me it was “normal to feel something during surgery as long
as it was not painful”, I just gave up trying to explain that I had
not felt ANYTHING last time. I said some prayers and…then it was
over. Actually, I felt calm, it didn’t scare me or anything, but I
would have preferred to not have felt anything physically and to be
as numb as I was the first time. Oh well.

Even though I felt everything while they were working during this surgery, I can
barely remember it, it is as if it happened to someone else. (I remember the
first one much more clearly). This one feels now as if it was a dream.
The doctor who had been in the OR for the first part of the
operation with Dr. Smith told me later that I had had (at least)
three large cysts and that Dr. Smith had done a bone graft. He
implied that if I had not had such an experienced doctor I probably
would have ended up with a THR. At least, that is how it sounded to
me.

Because of the bone graft, I am on touch-weight
bearing for 8 weeks
(maybe longer? Not too sure on that, have to ask) on a walker (walking
frame).Ugh. I feel as if I could just start in doing all kinds of normal
activities, but that’s not to be!
The pain this time was much worse for the first 2 days or
so and my leg is HUGE; very, very swollen. I did the toes-above-the-
nose thing this morning and it helped so will use it again.
The afternoon of the op, for some reason, the pain got really bad,
and went up to about a 9 on a scale of 0-10. Finally they got it
under control, but I have no idea why it was allowed to get so out
of control in the first place.

I have 23 staples and my incision is about 6 inches long
(the one on my right hip had 18 staples and is 4 inches. I wonder if the reason
this one is longer is because they had to do a bone graft?)
On about the 2nd day post-op I developed a pressure sore, which hurt
more than the incision or hip. It still hurts, but is getting better
slowly. They had to bring in a special mattress for me because of
it. I also began to get sore elbows and last night
woke up feeling like my big toe on the operated foot was rubbed raw
with sandpaper. I also had 2 blood transfusions (2 units, transfused
one unit at a time)and was given several units of potassium by IV.
On a happier note, I feel that this recovery is going much faster
than the first, and I don’t have all the fatigue and stuff that I
did the first time.

Caroline
RC2K 17/07/06
LC2K 09/02/07
Dr. Frank Smith
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Six week checkup

I had my 6 week checkup with Dr. Smith on Monday, March 26,
2007.

I was given permission to start putting 25-30% weight on
that leg (I
had been on touch-weight- bearing only), which means I can now manage
the crutches and go up and down stairs-I can have a SHOWER now,
finally!!!!! !!! Yee haw!!!!! lol And even better than the shower is
that I can go outside. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being outside, I am not an
indoor-type of person, and now it is spring and my bulbs are all
coming up…beautiful. So now I can get out on the porch and have my
morning coffee and plan my flowerbeds and stuff. <<Bliss!>>
I have to continue wearing the TEDS for another month or so, and
have to observe the 90 degree rule until my next checkup (he is
being so conservative this time around because of my multiple cysts
and the bone graft he had to do) plus he said something about having
done a reduction (not sure what that is exactly…).
I saw my Xrays and this hip is really weird looking, much more
vertical than horizontal, with a visibly shallow acetabulum, and he
had to put the implant in on somewhat of an unusual angle (looks
like a crooked dreidle lol) but he assured me that it was fine. I
really believe that if I had had a less-skilled doctor, I would have
had a THR on that side. I also asked him about my foot, which is at
times varying-and alarming-shades of red and a bit swollen. One
walk-in clinic doctor diagnosed me as having “very bad circulation”
and said that “it’s not critical YET but you need more tests” and so
on and so forth. Quite alarming news for a diabetic to be told, but
thankfully Dr. Smith said he believes it is just something to do
with a nerve or nerves, is related to the surgery, and should clear
up over the next 2-3 months. He also said that I have “a pounding
pulse” in that foot (meaning there is nothing wrong with it, it’s
good and strong) and that I had gotten “quite a misdiagnosis” from
the clinic doc. Thank God!
I keep feeling like saying, life doesn’t get any better than this,
but I guess it will, won’t it? lol. I’m doing well, and feel great.