Today was surgery day. Finished packing in the am and had a little bit of ginger ale. Got to the hospital at 6am as instructed, went thru admission with my wife and into the prep area. They shaved my r hip area, had me fill out a few more forms and Dr. Su came in for a pre-surgery check. I asked him again for more detail about how I got to this place and he said that the way my bones grew just happened to be out of alignment (unfortunately on both sides) and as such, like a car whose tires wear out when out of alignment, so the cartilage is almost gone on my hips. In fact he said after surgery that there really wasn’t any cartilage left in my right hip. My left one is likely to follow in the next 5-10 years.
Dr. Su said the surgery went very well. It started at 7:30 and was over by 9am or so, and I apparently slept until about 11:30am from there. I feel a tightness in the hip like a Charlie horse but it’s not nearly as painful as I thought it might be. (A friend of mine had a hip resurfacing in Chicago and he said it was the most painful thing he’s done. Of course, my journey’s just beginning…)
They have me doing bed exercises rotating ankles, flexing quads, hamstrings, and glutes, the last being the most painful. I tried turning onto my left (good) side unaided and felt my hip pop which freaked me out. I didn’t do that again until later tonight with the help of the nurse. This was ultimately a great thing for me – lying on my back got old after 10 hours.
The physical therapist came by in the afternoon to get me up and walking but unfortunately my blood pressure dropped for a few minutes to a very low level (60/30 or so). They decided it was best to wait til tomorrow.
They gave me some ice chips in the afternoon and 2 small packages of red jello tonight. Apparently passing gas is an important milestone and indicates they can step up my diet.
Hopefully I’ll report on walking tomorrow….