livendive's journey

[livendive]

I had my RBHR done yesterday morning by Dr Pritchett. Yesterday was really encouraging for me. Post-op pain was easily managed and boredom had  me begging for a PT by late afternoon and I got my wish granted around 6 pm. Got some exercises done and did a short walk around my room and a longer walk down the hallway with him, then later that night and even longer walk with my nurse, all with a walker. I never sleep well in hospitals and last night was no exception...got mire than usual but lessentially than an hour and a half total. Today started early, with an OT appt at 7:15, a PT appt at 9:30, and discharge from the hospital by 10:30. The drive home was a drag, stopped 3 times over the 250 mile drive to get some walking in, each time tougher to get out of the car. I haven't touched a walker today, just been using forearm crutches. I've been home for almost 6 hours and the swelling and pain are more than I expected, but I'm not terribly surprised as its obviously a pretty physically traumatic procedure. I've added Aleve to my meds, along with icing, to try and get the swelling under control. Narcotics are helping, and I'm also on what I'm assuming is a typical antibiotic regimen, plus aspirin for blood thinning. My wife has been an even greater blessing than normal over the past couple of days, and our pets (two dogs and a cat) seem to sense something's up and gently giving healing vibes. That's probably enough for now, I just took a lot of comfort in reading others stories here and figured I'd start my own, silly as it might be in a haze of painkillers. Skipping tonight's scheduled PT due to how active my day has been and a bit more pain and swelling than I expected.

[OtterDriver]

Congratulations!  Good to hear things are going reasonably well for you.  Was curious about your drive home...Spokane area?

[JHippy]

Congrats, livendive! I find it amazing how well we can get around so soon after that kind of surgery. Though driving is definitely not fun that early on.

Ice, elevation, and staying on top of the pain meds to stay ahead of the pain helped me a lot. And sleep -- I napped quite a bit. After the first week things will improve quite rapidly, so hang in there.

[Daytona Dave]

Congratulations :-)
And good luck with the recovery. Remember in these early days, each day see's massive improvements :-)

[Dannywayoflife]

Excellent news congrats mate!

[MPH]

Well done. Hope I'm posting something similar in 6 days! Top effort by you.

[Pat Walter]

Congratulations on the new hip.  Great you are sharing your story.  As you said, the stories are so helpful to new people.  It is always nice to look back after you heal to remind you how far you have come. 

Good luck and take it easy.  You will have a great summer this year.

Pat

[shabbis]

Congratulations!

My 175 mile drive back to Portland was pretty brutal as well. It was the day before thanksgiving and took us almost 6 hours.

I embraced the prescription pain killers for the first couple days, just so I could sleep through the night. I then moved onto Tylenol. Dr. Pritchett had me on antibiotics and aspirin as well. He also told me to ONLY take Tylenol for the pain, if needed, and AVOID Aleve and ibuprofen based drugs while taking the aspirin.

I am at week 7 and the pain has moved from the incision and joint to the muscles as I am hitting the PT pretty hard. Walked 4.2 miles the other day. Riding stationary for about 30 mins a day and doing the PT work. I am also almost walking without a limp. Still have difficulty sleeping through the night, but it's getting better each day. Sitting in a chair at work all day is actually pretty brutal as well.

[HowieF-16]

Congratulations. Tomorrow is my one year anniversary. Remember, recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck with all.

[livendive]

Day 2 is in the books, and was mostly better than yesterday, albeit with a couple hiccups. As I said yesterday, my swelling was pretty significant, and I got a bit behind the pain curve. I can't normally sleep on my back, and, at the risk of oversharing, I've been peeing a ridiculous amount since the surgery. I managed to get a couple hours of highly interrupted sleep last night, but got tired of disturbing my wife with the battle of getting out of bed every twenty minutes, so when I got up at 2, I just stayed up so she could get some solid rest. I emailed Dr Pritchett about taking Aleve for the swelling and he  responded that it would be okay, so I took a couple this morning and a couple tonight, and will probably discontinue based on the advice Shabbis got unless it gets out of conttol again. I did all three sets of my assigned PT today, took a shower, shook off the common side effect of painkillers, and went on a couple walks around my immediate neighborhood with crutches, almost totalling a mile. The swelling is down to more reasonable levels, though the bruising is coming on now, with clearly defined edges and pretty warm to the touch. My biggest problem today was choosing the wrong loveseat to sit on while breaking in my sock assist...soft and low, my leg tried to buckle toward the inside when I was getting up, triggering a short period of intense pain while I corrected my position and worked thru some serious muscle cramps. I got similar cramps during my last set of PT, so will probably take it easier tomorrow, while keeping an eye on the swelling and heat, and using just ice instead of combining with Aleve. Onward and upward. 

[livendive]

Congratulations!  Good to hear things are going reasonably well for you.  Was curious about your drive home...Spokane area?

Thanks, and to answer your question, no, TrI Cities. But now your username has me interested...pilot for Kapowsin?

[OtterDriver]

Not for Kapowsin and not the "Twin Otter"...single engine version for a tour company in Alaska!

Are you one who jumps out of "perfectly good airplanes"?

[livendive]

Not for Kapowsin and not the "Twin Otter"...single engine version for a tour company in Alaska!

Are you one who jumps out of "perfectly good airplanes"?

I am one of those guys, and if my memory serves correctly, I have a couple jumps out of a single engine Otter, though far more out of twins. I was a commercial fisherman in Alaska for a few years in my early 20's and love it up there. Southeast is definitely on our "would move" list for the right job.  Actually, my wife and I just rented a 40 ft trawler for a week in October and with skydiving off the menu this year due to my hips, we're trying to figure out whether we can afford a 3 week rental to cruise up the inside passage and dink around southeast for a bit.

[OtterDriver]

My last jump was off the left float of one of the Beavers we used to operate.  A few years ago now, but probably getting a new rig to take back up with me this summer!?

Southeast is where we fly...specifically the Juneau area.  A company in town rents Nordic Tugs if you didn't want to motor all the way from Seattle for your boating adventure.

[dfox]

Good to read your post. Glad to hear you made it through the procedure and are back home. Sounds like you are doing all the right stuff. Prepare to be amazed with the new hip.

[livendive]

My last jump was off the left float of one of the Beavers we used to operate.  A few years ago now, but probably getting a new rig to take back up with me this summer!?

Southeast is where we fly...specifically the Juneau area.  A company in town rents Nordic Tugs if you didn't want to motor all the way from Seattle for your boating adventure.

A Nordic 39 is what we rented here and it was perfect for the two of us. Off the float of a Beaver? There's a DZ in Eagle Creek, OR still flying jumpers in a Beaver, but obviously without floats. That's a pretty unique log entry, very nice!

I've wanted to get up to the solstice boogie in Anchorage, I haven't made it work yet. Maybe that could be our trip next year (my wife is a jumper too).

On a hip related note...I just got back from a one mile walk...used crutches the first 0.4, carried them the last 0.6. :-)

[OtterDriver]

Good for you...keep up the good work!

I had a hand tendon surgery on Wednesday and am waiting to regain enough strength to be able to grab crutches.  I now need my left hip re-surfaced as well.

When it rains it pours!

[KevinHalicki]

Just curious why you chose Dr. Pritchet and what materials were used on the surgery. He is on my short list to do my hip resurfacing.

[livendive]

Good for you...keep up the good work!

I had a hand tendon surgery on Wednesday and am waiting to regain enough strength to be able to grab crutches.  I now need my left hip re-surfaced as well.

When it rains it pours!

Completely agreed on the "when it rains, it pours" thing.  I got injections in both hips in September, and while the doctor was injecting my right hip (with some frustration at the lack of joint space), he hit a nerve bundle that caused a major "electric shock" sensation and caused my leg to spasm pretty hard.  Two days later I got what I thought was a bug bite on my right butt cheek, directly behind the hip, but within a day or two of it getting worse, it became apparent that it wasn't a bug bite.  Turned out it was Part 2 of the chicken pox I had as a child, i.e. shingles, which is really just the second coming of chicken pox that just sits dormant in your nerves...presumably as a result of the trauma to the nerve which said, "Oh yeah?  Stick a needle in me?  Well try THIS on for size!" lol

And more recently (as in right now)...I've been fighting a back & forth battle with swelling all week, drinking tons of water, having to get up to pee a lot during the night, but I feel like I'm winning. with the swelling on my hip visibly down and 7 lbs lost since last Wednesday.  However the swelling has gone down the leg all the way to the foot, and the knee, ankle, and my big toe have grown increasingly painful.  If it weren't for the surgery last week, I'd have recognized what was going on days ago and responded accordingly, but I thought it was just part of the process till around 2 this morning when suddenly my ankle and big toe became the most pained parts on my body, rendering my leg non-weight-bearing and even the pressure of a blanket intolerable.  Sure enough, I'm having a gout attack in the foot/ankle on the operated leg.  I've been eating healthy, so can only guess that this is due to dehydration because I didn't drink enough water yesterday and the swelling keeps "repurposing" what water I do have in my system.  In any case, I'm pretty miserable today.  Back on Aleve, guzzling water, icing the ankle, and hoping it passes quickly. 

[livendive]

Just curious why you chose Dr. Pritchet and what materials were used on the surgery. He is on my short list to do my hip resurfacing.

Good questions!  The simplest answer on Dr Pritchett is that he's close...only 250 miles away.  There is another doctor who does the procedure a similar distance from my home, Dr Sparling in Vancouver, WA, but Pritchett has far more experience (3800+ resurfacings) and strikes the right balance for me in terms of practical experience and an ear to the evolving body of knowledge on the procedure.  He's been publishing several times a year for decades, but hasn't fallen into the trap many researchers do of prioritizing academics over practical work, still doing a couple hundred HRs per year.  His demeanor might be considered odd or reserved by some, but as a scientist by trade, I'm well accustomed to working with very smart people that have non-traditional communication habits.  He's been incredibly responsive to my emails, and really I'm just over the moon with him as my surgeon.  I have some serious problems going on in my neck right now too that also require surgery, and Dr Pritchett has spoiled me with his blend of knowledge, experience, and responsiveness such that I wish I could find a similar doctor for my neck.

As for materials, I went with the standard CroMo alloy metal-on-metal.  I do have the fairly common skin sensitivity to costume and other inexpensive jewelries (presumably the nickel content, but unconfirmed by testing) such that sometimes it doesn't even have to touch my skin.  The connecting pins in watch bands, screws in sunglasses, and snaps on my jeans can all trigger a localized reaction despite the fact that those components don't actually touch my skin.  I discussed this with Dr. Pritchett in terms of possible going with his Synovo Preserve system (titanium hardware with ceramicized ball and HDPE liner in socket) and he said he would use whichever hardware I chose but that he would go with CroMo if it were his hip in my situation.  He correctly explained that the correlation between skin sensitivity to nickel and implant sensitivity is tenuous at best and that testing for implant sensitivity prior to surgery has proven pretty inaccurate and of little predictive value.  He also relayed that, in the event I ended up being one of those rare individuals who does have a reaction to the metals in the BHR, he believed he'd be able to revise to a Synovo system, but he thought this should be a backup plan, not my first choice, as it's unlikely I'll react to the CroMo alloy and should attempt to take advantage of its greater durability and infallibility to osteolysis from HDPE wear debris.