Good News

It's been an interesting few days, and it's time to tell you about them, but first I'll skip to the end.  I've been back home since yesterday evening, and I've been doing remarkably well.  There is now very little pain, and I'm sitting up straighter than I have in months.  I'm optimistic things are moving in the right direction.

The fun started Tuesday night when my van, which hadn't been used in about a month decided its battery was dead.  Fortunately, Gus was able to jump it and drive it down to Jessica's house where we could put it on a charger.  It was still a bit stressful wondering if it would start Wednesday morning.  Fortunately, it did.

So Wednesday we had to be at the hospital at 6:30 AM.  That's early.  Lately I've been going to bed at 2:00 AM and getting up at noon.  Fortunately, stress is a great motivator, and getting up turned out not to be a problem.

Once at the hospital, they put me in a surgery prep room, drew some blood, asked me some questions, got me to sign a couple releases, drew some initials on the correct hip to cut, and made me wait for an hour and a half.  Turns out they put quite a lot of padding on the recommended surgery arrival time.

Ready and waiting

At 8:30, they wheeled me into the OR, asked each other a few questions about what procedure they were performing, and then I woke up.  I believe the procedure took about 1.5 hours, and the surgeon said it went about as well as could have been hoped for.  He said during the surgery, he bent my knee almost all the way up to my chest.  I haven't tried it since to verify, but it definitely feels much looser in the socket.

After I woke up, they put me in an Admissions Ward.  Apparently that's a place they put people who are being observed until they are either admitted or not.  This means it is a place they put people who just came through the ER while they decide whether to put them in a real room.  It is also apparently a place they put people who should get a real room when the hospital is full.

I was awake and alert by noon on Wednesday, but was in a bit of pain.  I'm not actually sure if you'd call it pain.  It was more of a fierce tingling coupled with intense heat.  It may not be pain, but it's very intense, and you can't ignore it.  It's not something you look forward to feeling.  They gave me some oxycodone, and that made me a little woozy, but didn't really solve the pain.  The only thing that really solved the pain was lying still, and I was very tired, so that wasn't really a problem.

The incision is about 5 inches long

The surgeon said I could get out of bed whenever I was ready, but I didn't really feel ready on Wednesday, so I didn't try it.

Me in my tiny fabric "room"

 The Admissions Ward was an interesting place to be.  The nurses were very good, but seemed apologetic that the accommodations weren't better.  The "rooms", and there were almost 20 of them, were made entirely out of retractable curtains.  This meant that every conversation on the floor was available for your review whether you wanted it to be or not.  I particularly enjoyed the 94 year old man to our left who was going to get an endoscopy to remove a piece of food lodged in his esophagus that was preventing him from swallowing other food, and the woman to our right that was complaining about suicidal thoughts related to postpartum depression.  She ended up getting admitted to a psychiatric support program that does NOT have a voluntary release.  So at least I was entertained during my recovery.

People were coming and going all day and night, so it was difficult to sleep, and all the hospital machines were beeping and whirring all night.  It didn't really bother me that much since I had oxycodone, but my mom was not amused, especially when they gave us a new next door neighbor and kept bumping her bed through the curtain wall.

Kimi, my first and favorite nurse in recovery

The surgical resident came in the morning and basically notified me that I would be discharged that day.  That caught me by surprise.  I felt like I was in too much pain to go home, and I hadn't even tried to get out of bed yet.  I wasn't sure if I could even sit up.  Nobody came to help me try that.

Later, the surgeon came by, and while he seemed surprised that I was in any pain, he was nonetheless adamant that I should go home that day.  He also wanted me to know that he subscribes to the school of thought that range of motion exercises in the weeks immediately after surgery promote HO regrowth, so for that reason I should not do any rehab.  He thought that for the first few weeks, I should do my daily activities as normal including getting into and out of my wheelchair, but should do no other exercise to my leg.

When my rehab doc came by later that day, she seemed not to remember telling me that I'd probably get to do rehab after surgery, so it looked like I was going home.  She did tell me I could request an evaluation from a physical therapist, so they sent me one.  When the PT finally arrived, he was able to tell me the sensation I was feeling is fairly normal when the surgeon has to move the nerve like he did for this surgery.  It made me feel better about what I was experiencing.  He was also able to competently help me do a transfer from the bed into the wheelchair.  That hurt a lot less than I was expecting, so in the end, I felt a lot better about going home.

Once we decided to leave it took four hours for them to get us all the things we needed to discharge, and the waiting was exhausting.  By the time we got out, it was 5:00, and rush hour was upon us.  So it took extra long to get home, and by the time we got home, we were completely worn out, so we had some Quiznos, and went to bed.  At that time, I was still in quite a bit of discomfort, and very doubtful about the decision to come home.

At 2:00 AM, I had to get up to go to the bathroom.  I was prepared to call my mom for assistance getting out of bed, but I decided to try it myself first.  I was startled to discover that I was in no pain at all.  It was also apparent that my right hip joint was a lot looser than it had been.

When I finally got up around 11:00 AM today, there was some mild discomfort in my hip, but no real pain.  What I'm feeling now is mostly fear.  There is a sensation in my hip that is very much like the sensation I used to feel just before pain when I bent the hip pre-surgery, so I'm afraid to bend the hip past that point, but when I do, there really isn't any pain.  So I'm mostly just conditioned to fear that sensation.

Throughout the day, I have been sitting more and more upright in the wheelchair, and it has been refreshing to see the world from an even slightly higher vantage.  It's much easier to reach the sink from up here for instance.

I have had some issues with some transfers however.  Over the last 6 months, I have grown accustomed to using my legs as a sort of kick stand when I do transfers.  Because of the restrictions in my hips, it has been impossible to fall forward.  I discovered during one transfer today that it is now very possible to fall forward, and I'm going to have to relearn how to do transfers.  That will be even worse after I get my second hip fixed, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to do rehab.

The other reason I wanted to do rehab is floor transfers.  I never really got good at them when I was at rehab before, and it isn't the sort of thing I'm going to practice here at home.

Anyway, all in all, I think I'm doing surprisingly well, and I'm home and ready for visitors.  So if you want to stop by, let me know.  My mom is in town right now, and I'm not sure when she's leaving.  It won't be later than Wednesday, but may be sooner depending on how I'm doing.