5 days post-op
Last Monday, 9/8/14, my wife and I flew to Seattle. We sat in on a joint replacement seminar at the Swedish Orthopedic Institute and then met with Dr. Pritchett. He came in, introduced himself, and said, "Well, do you have any questions for me?" at which point it became clear to me that if I hadn't, he might have walked right back out! But I did, so we talked for awhile and then my wife and I went out for dinner.
My surgery was early the next day. For anesthesia, I got a spinal block so the knockout drugs were not terribly strong. I woke up in the recovery room fairly lucid. I was numb from the waist down until the late afternoon or so and on oxycodone so I was not in much pain. I was able to enjoy visiting with my wife, brother, and a couple cousins. Dr. Pritchett came to visit and explained that everything went well and that they installed a 50 mm BHR. A physical therapist came in the mid-afternoon and I crutched around the nurses' station. After that I also got up two or three times on my own to go the bathroom. I slept well that night.
The next day, Wednesday, I had an occupational therapy session. They want to make sure you can negotiate getting in and out of a shower, a mock-up of car, and some steps, with which I had no problem. Before being discharged I also had two more PT sessions where I crutched around and did the 2 week in-home exercises (holy cow, did I hate the abductions!!). The care at Swedish was always excellent.
Upon being discharged, we took a shuttle from the Swedish First Hill campus, to the Swedish Cherry Hill campus about 6 blocks away and checked in to the Inn at Cherry Hill, which is a floor of old hospital rooms that have been converted to lodging. It is not quaint and it is not cheery but it is cheap and convenient. Also, the bathrooms have bars all over the place, so it's a good place for hippys to convalesce. I put on my compression shorts with ice packs which felt great. The best thing about these is that you can be icing as you move around. Very nice.
By Thursday afternoon, now 2 days post-op, we realized that I was pretty constipated, probably because of the oxycodone, and I was getting very nauseated. That night I stopped taking the oxycodone and switched to acetaminophen. This was the start of the worst time of my recovery so far. Over the next 2 1/2 days, during which time we also flew home to Anchorage, I went through epic gastric distress, from the initial constipation clear to the other end of the spectrum with diarrhea. As I write this on Sunday evening, I am finally starting to feel like myself again.
I am using just one crutch to get around the house, but need two for walking any distance outside. My left leg is, at least functionally, longer. But I am not going to worry about that until all swelling has gone down and my pelvis has had a chance to reorient. Sounds like a lot of people notice a length difference immediately after the surgery that goes away over time.
I am still spending a lot of time in bed. There is no seat which is comfortable to sit on for more than a few minutes and standing up gets tiring as well. The most difficult motion for me at this point is swinging my legs up and into bed. Otherwise, throughout the day, the pain is a 1 or 2 out of 10 and seems to be moving from sharp pains around the wound site to deeper aching and throbbing.
I still haven't had a moment yet when I realized that the motion of my hip is easier or less painful than it was before, but I trust that will come soon.
Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences and comments! I enjoy reading them.
Topic: My HR with Dr. Pritchett 2014 (Read 3468 times)
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