Coquí's hip resurface experience

[Coquí]

My story


Finally the day of my surgery with Dr. Gross was yesterday. I delayed this surgery for 7 years, but I am suffering from groin pain since I was 17 years old ( i am 36 years old now).


Pre-op appointment:


The pre-op appointment today was great because it help me gain confidence of the decision I made. Dr. Gross is very down to earth, passionate of what he is doing. He explained me in detail the condition of my hip and answer all the questions I had. I was second guessing my decision of having surgery because the last two months I have been feeling well. Dr. Gross explained me that I have no cartilage left, the hip was already bone with bone, and there were a few cysts already formed in the acetabulum. In conclusion, if I delay the surgery, the condition of the hip will continue to deteriorate and it will be impossible to perform a hip resurface.


Because of my dex-scan I will be on the slow recovery route. I am very positive about the surgery and recovery process.


Surgery Day


Surgery day was uneventfull. Midlands Surgery center is great. My appointment was at 8:00am. They called me at 8:00am sharp, and I went to the pre-op and post op room. A nurse received me and made me signed some docs. She also set me up with surgery clothing, iv, blood was taken, cocktail of meds pre-op, blood pressure , ect. Once set up they call your family member to be with you while you wait for your surgery turn. While waiting they gave you and your family member a food menu for you to chose lunch for both.


Anesthesiologist came by and explained me everything in regards to the sedative and epidural. After that they gave me the sedative via the iv I was gone in 2-3 minutes.


Next thing I remember was waking up in a private recovery room, with a TV and a heater. Foley was taken out, they gave me gatorade and plenty of water. I was a littel dizzy but that is normal. They called my family member, who was with me during the post- process. Dr. Gross came and gave me a summary of the surgery. He told me everything went according to the plan. Nurses came by and took some x-rays while I was in bed. After that the PT came and explained me the exercises, and made me stand up with the cruthches and walk. We continue walking to a room for me to practice getting up and down stairs. We walked back to my recovery room and I sat down and ate a sandwich with fruits and drank plenty of water. Five minutes later I wanted to go the bathroom and was able to pee by my own. All the meds were provided in the surgery center. After that I we were able to go to the hotel. Getting in and out of the car was ok. Getting in to bed was also ok. At 8:45pm a nurse came by. She checked my vitals, and explained me again the meds logistics. Everything was fine. I went in to bed around 11pm after using for an hour the ice polar machine.
Now is time to concentrate in my rehab.

[jd]

That sounds like a fantastic first day Coqui!

It's also interesting to hear the report of the outpatient surgery center, as I don't think I've read one yet. Blinky and I are the two other recent Dr Gross patients posting and we both went to the Providence Orthopedic Hospital for our surgeries.

It's good to hear you are taking the low dexa-scan restul and modified recovery plan in stride. I was quite distressed to hear that my bone density was low also (as a male, similar age to you, it was quite surprising to me), but my operated hip was a little above the cutoff point (although my other hip was not!).

Your description of the surgery day all the way through to the hotel sounds perfect. It gets easier from here every day, just remember to take it easy!

When do you go home?

[blinky]

That was my reaction: an out patient!Wish I could have done it that way. The hospital folks were all great, I lacked for nothing, but it is easier to recover on your own schedule.


I will be curious to hear about your recovery.

[Coquí]

Back again with a little bit of my story. JD I had my surgery Wednesday Nov 18, and returned home on Saturday Nov 21. I am currently in day 9 post op. For the benefit of others having this surgery in the out patient facility with Dr. Gross find below some comments on the first days after the surgery:
 
Post op:


Day 1- At 4am I woke up with a little bit of a pain. I took one of the pain meds and it help me sleep until 7:30 am. I took a shower, I was able to get into the bathtub with the help of the crutches (and my brother). After that I had breakfast (there is full hot breakfast serve and The Residence Inn by Marriot and it is included in the fee per night) (Advice- make sure you are drinking plenty of water prior and post op. Also fruits, veggies and high fiber foods. I am vegetarian and also drink a lot of water. I ussually go to the bathroom 2 times per day. It took me 3 days post op to go to the bathroom again, and I started taking the Colace pill in the pre-op room)


Dr. Gross came by my hotel room at 8:30am. We sat down in the living room and he ask me how I was feeling. He also make you write down in a daily agenda, the pain meds you took per day, the pain level from 1-10, among other things. He looked at that paper and also another paper with the notes of the nurse that came to the hotel the night of the surgery. Everything was fine. He answered all my questions and talked with me for around 25 minutes.


I stayed at the hotel the whole day with the ice machine and the pain meds. During the night I was doing the exercises in bed and suddenly my leg muscles started trembling. I wasnt able to control the trembling and it was extremely painfull.  My brother called Lee to her cellphone and she told us that I was having spasms. She told me that I maybe overdue the walking and the exercises for the day. The recommendation from her was to rest from the exercises the rest of the day and the next day. After resting from the exercises everyting was under control.


Day 2- you can travel back home if you want. I decided to stay one more night, and recommend that to others flying back home. I stayed the whole day in the hotel. Went to the breakfast buffet in the morning and came back to the room. My friends for the day, ice machine, pain meds and netflix.


Day 3- Flying back home. Drove to Charlotte airport ( 1 hour 20 minutes from Columbia) Drove was uneventfull. We returned the car to Hertz at the airport. (Advice- Once you get into the renturn car rental parking, dont get out of the car. Some one from Hertz can drive the car outside and drop you in the entrance of departures. There was a direct flight from Charlotte to Puerto Rico. (Advice- I recommend that you book a direct flight back home if possible). We had a wheelchair available in the check-in area. My recommendation is that you arrange to have one at departure and arrival. It really makes a difference. I booked economy seats with American Airlines with extra space. We were the last ones to get into the plane. One of the flight attendants asked my brother about me and he told her I just got hip surgery. She told my brother that her mother got hip surgery 4 months ago and that she was able to identify with my situation. Because of that she offer me to change my seat and travel in the last first class seat available (thank God). I was extremely gratefull to her and was able to travel the 4 hour flight back home in first class (Advice- if you have the money or miles travel on first class. It really makes a difference in the size of the seat, cushion and space. Also, I took one of the short duration pain meds as soon as I was seated. Do it.  I also brought some ziplocks with ice that I used the during the flight. )
Got home at noon. Took some meds, ice machine and finally was able to go to the bathroom in the night.

[blinky]

A happy ending that last sentence.


Good luck to you in your recovery. I had some of that trembling feeling, too, and attributed it to being so fatigued.

[jd]

Thank you for sharing Coqui.

I'm still impressed by it being outpatient. Lucky you on the free first class seat, that's fantastic!

Glad you're back home and on the recovery path. Keep us in the loop.

[JHippy]

Congrats, Coquí! You're on your way. Take care of yourself right now, follow the doctor's instructions and listen to your body.

Was very interesting to hear how the outpatient stuff works as well. Very cool.

[Coquí]

Four weeks after surgery now. Since I am in the slow recovery route I can now start to gradually put some weight in the leg. It has been very hard on my hands these first four weeks with the restriction of only 10% weight on the operated leg.


Now I will be 2 more weeks in crutches and after that 4 weeks with a cane. Looking forward to complete this first phase of the recovery and gain the confidence to put more weight in the operated leg.

[jd]

I really don't envy you on the slow route. As I think I mentioned before, I was much closer than I expected to the cutoff for rapid recovery.

How are you finding it as you start adding weight to the leg?