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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sometimes I Think I'm Better

Today I woke up feeling pretty good. My hip felt looser and was really in a great mood. Then I decided to go for a little walk (200m one way and 200m back). At the time I thought that it would be a good thing to see if I could do it, but about 2 hours later, I was so tired and sore I went to bed. I have laid in bed for the last 5 hours and now I plan on going to bed for the night. Boo to bad and sore hips. I have a looong way to come in three weeks before I start school up again.

Sigh.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

1 Month Post-Op


Today marks the four weeks mark since I had my left hip scoped. Wow have things come a long way in four short weeks. I can now walk without crutches, do stairs one at a time (when I am not too tired), drive, kick my legs in the pool, shower without help, get dressed alone (excluding socks and running shoes), and basically function on my own. Sometimes I need help with carrying things because I am still struggling to carry my own body weight, and any added weight is not reasonable to place on the hip at the moment. All in all, I am done with the worst and am trying to stay as positive as possible.

On the less than optimal side, my anterior hip capsule is extremely angry, so much so that I can't extend at all. I can get to neutral after allowing five minutes or so of slow stretching. I practice lying on my stomach for several minutes to stretch it out. It works, but the darn thing hurts so much. More of an annoying, make-your-stomach-ache-get-an-ulcer pain that hurts even with breathing. My physiotherapist stretched the hip capsule out and gave me acupuncture to try and release the anterior hip. Not only is the hip capsule angry, but my entire leg is weak and I am guarding my hip so the hip flexors are constantly contracting. If we can get this resolved, then my walking will improve leaps and bounds!

Today I got on the stationary bike at the physiotherapist's office. I have an extreme amount of atrophy of my quads and, after three minutes with no resistance, my leg was burning and then had to stop since I couldn't feel the leg anymore from being so fatigued. Imagine, 3 MINUTES and that was it! Wow I have a long way to come yet. But the acupuncture and facial release really loosened things up for a couple of hours before it went back to being tight, which means that I walk with this funny-looking with an odd swing of the pelvis and bend of the knee on the affected side. I have two weeks to get this sorted before I see my OS again. I really don't want to go back with a bad gait! I wanna show him how well I have been doing. At least there is something to work for. Short term goals are good.

As of now, I wake up in the morning with very little pain and the hip is the most mobile it is all day. As the day progresses the hip gets more and more tired, more stiff, and more painful. By the end of the day I throb, take acetaminophen, ice, and veg like a slug on the couch. Hopefully I'll start feeling a lot better soon as I only have three weeks until I jump back into full blown school with a crazy schedule. This thought kind of makes me nervous because there is no way I will return to my full schedule being fully functional at the rate I am recovering. eek!




Monday, June 28, 2010

Update

I am sitting, rather rocking on my exercise ball on the computer trying to loosen up my hip before I do my exercises and I thought that this would be a good time to update the blog. Nothing much is really new on the hip front. Today I may actually walk with less of a limp than the past couple of days. I really don't hurt too much when I walk, just that I can't extend gives me an awkward gait.

Three of the four incisions are healing up nicely. They are just red now, but not inflamed at all and are feeling much better overall. My one incision in the front is not really red, but it is pulled funny on one side; quite taut actually. There is a lump the size of a pea that is painful to touch. I am hoping this is just scar tissue or something and not a stitch stuck underneath the skin. I guess I'll wait and see how it heals up. I see my OS in two weeks (from tomorrow), so I will see what he says about it then, if it is even there. I can't wait for my follow-up as I'll get to see and have explained all my Xrays that they took, before and after the surgery, and I get to see colour pictures from inside my hip that they took with the scope. Pretty neat!

Yesterday I managed to do one normal activity. I went to church in the morning. Oh it was great to go and worship, but my goodness it really took a lot of energy. Sitting then standing., sitting then standing, repeat. I was standing and singing when the thought crossed my mind....all of these people aren't thinking anything of standing up and then there is me, trying to balance out my weight on both my good and bad sides so as not to hurt the bad side while not letting the good side get too tired. Difficult work, but worth it. When I came home I slept all afternoon.

Fast forward to today, I can now go up and down stairs with one foot on each step, no two-footing it on each step for me today. Going down is easier than going up, but I can manage both ways. I will be sure to not do too many stairs since I have a tendency to, one I can do something, over-do it and then make myself all sore and go backwards. But simple things like this really make a difference.

Enough procrastinating, I will now go and to my exercises. :)

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Walking, Waiting, Wanting.

Walking.
I have not touched crutches for two days now! I am really tired because walking takes so much work, but I feel great to not have to use them. Although I can do without crutches, I still don't walk properly. I can't fully extend my left leg (due to tight anterior hip capsule.) I can't remember having the anterior hip so unhappy for my other side. I am doing all I can to stretch it out (ie lie on my stomach and relax the hip and surrounding musculature, lie on my back and relax.) These exercises must work eventually because some hip extension would be appreciated in the very near future.

Waiting.
I feel like I am waiting around, putting in my time for recovery so that I can get on with my life. Essentially, I am waiting around to get better. Not the most exciting way to spend my last summer vacation, but necessary none-the-less.

Wanting.
I am currently wanting to do much more than I am physically capable of doing. I want to go shopping for some cute outfits, I want to go for a walk, I want to work out, etc., etc., etc. But I am not able. I want to not hurt.

Despite this walking, waiting, and wanting, things are progressing well. Just wish this entire process would be slightly more speedy. Sigh.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

SUTURES OUT!!!!!!!! Yayayayay!

So I am totally thrilled that I got my stitches out today. It ends up that they were not dissolvable at all, they were totally, through and through nylon. As my family doctor put it, "my butt these are dissolvable you poor thing."

Getting them out was not fun at all. All of the knots were under the skin and he had to dig them out then slice them out with a scalpel. For some of them he had to cut the skin. Normally I tolerate pain quite well, but taking out two of them really made me tense. So apparently each of them are infected under the skin and he said that if I had waited longer I would have formed cysts. Wonderful. I just hope that he got out all of the nylon suture material because he seemed to be haphazardly hacking away at the sutures. Some of the incisions yielded great amounts of material and others were just the knots tied. I can't tell if there is any left inside since they are so sore to touch. Also, they have hard lumps under each of the incisions. One of them is kind of concerning since it is a large ball and tender to touch. I certainly hope this goes away quickly.

After having my family doctor get out, hopefully, all of the stitches I have been quite sore. Even my frozen pea bags hurt simply placing them on the incision sites. But I have managed all day without crutches! Perhaps I should have used them after dinner, but I really don't want to have to go back to using them if I can help it. I had to take some acetaminophen before bed this evening since the incisions started to give me stabbing pains. I am sure in a couple of days that it will be better.

One thing is certain, in my next appointment with my surgeon, I am going to tell him how the sutures were not dissolvable. See, I was kind of paranoid about not knowing what kind of stitches I was getting because after my first scope, three of my incisions had nylon sutures that had to be removed, then the larger incision had a stabilizing stitch and steri-strips. I had called the surgeon's office and spoke with his secretary and she said that I had stitches underneath (that is what his protocol is) and it ended up that I just had the steri-strips and I started to rip open my incision, mind you not too much though because I figured out that those where holding the skin together really quickly. In order to avoid this confusion I made sure that we knew what kind of stitches I had. My Mum asked my surgeon two times after the surgery to make sure that they were dissolvable and that I didn't need to make an appointment with my family doctor to get them removed. Twice! And it still got messed up! This is kind of scary to think that we double checked and it still turned out the way it did.

I have pictures of my hip after the sutures were removed, but I don't think I'll post them. I don't want my blog to start being filled up with pictures of my hip and butt all over. This is probably the last thing somebody wants to look at!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

3 Weeks Post-Op


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Today marks the three week mark. And the recovery continues...slooooooowly. Yesterday I got the go-ahead to walk around without crutches as tolerated. I almost made it all day today. Mind you, I was just lying around the house but the general things around the house I could do while gimping around. Hip extension has become my nemesis. But I have been lying more so as to stretch the anterior hip capsule in hopes of alleviating the tightness and to help with walking.

I still have my stitches and called my family doctor to make an appointment to get them removed. They are quite annoying and I know that they will heal quickly once the 'dissolvable' stitches are removed. I was quite surprised as to how quickly I could get an appointment with my family doctor! Usually it takes a couple of days, but the receptionist said that three weeks is a bit long to have stitches in and that they must be quite uncomfortable and made an appointment for tomorrow at whatever time I wished. It is nice to catch a break in the scheduling of appointments (since I have been canceled upon and shafted more than once in my hip journey.) So tomorrow....OUT THEY COME!

Here is what the hip looks like at the moment. I will post pictures once the sutures are removed.

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Baby Steps




Today I took my first couple of steps without a crutch without a massive lurch! Yay for good day! Finally my swelling has gone down slightly (enough for me to notice that I am less swollen.) Today I also managed to stand in the swimming pool a wee bit to cool down - nice a warm weather here :) Also, I just got out of our hot tub. Oh it was great on the muscles and ol' joints to get all nice and warm. Warm to the bone, literally. It relaxed everything and am happy I soaked there for a while. But I probably won't go in for a while yet, since getting in and out took two people so as I didn't fall off the edge as is inched my way into/out of the water.

There is a great firework show down near the river tonight. Famous; the largest in the continent and it is always a great show. But, I can't go. I remember a few years back all my friends wanted to go, but I couldn't because I couldn't walk far enough because my right hip would hurt me. How far have I come from that?! Now, I sit at home on the exact day rehabilitating my hip surgery on my left hip. It really is funny how small events like this mean things when I have been suffering with hip pain for so long. Oh how I long to not have hip pain. Ha, I sound like an old lady and I am only in my twenties!

Anyway, off to watch a movie on my computer :)

Until next time,
Me


Friday, June 18, 2010

Ouch Charlie! Ouch!

Today marks the second day of going backwards in my recovery. This is not the desirable method of healing, but inevitable none-the-less when dealing with the hips.

I think it all started Wednesday at physiotherapy. We started to move the hip more and use more muscles. Although it hurt while I was doing these exercises, and while the physiotherapist was moving my hip through its range of motion, it was not excrutiatingly painful. I could handle it. And plus, it felt so good to start moving and feels like I was moving forward in my recovery. Also on Wednesday I got into the pool. I just stood there but definitely put the hip through the maximal range of motion that it would allow. I was tired that evening, but nothing that I could not handle. Then I woke up Thursday morning to a puffed up hip and knee. My hip (well, it is better described as butt since it is so posterior-lateral) was all swollen; it felt like a balloon was put inside! And my knee....(the picture is from my favourite Youtube video showing how my hip feels - ouch! goodness, I could not even straighten it.


To add insult to injury, we hosted a graduation party last evening, and I helped prepare (as best I could). This resulted in moving around much more than I should have considering I was all swollen. Thank goodness I did not have a physiotherapy session yesterday!


Today was a bit better. I could straighten my knee, but my hip is just as swollen as it was yesterday. I had a physiotherapy session today, but I was so swollen and sore that she could not even touch the hip. She did some release/massage on my quadriceps, but everything was so sore/swollen that we could not do much. I did have an inferential treatment to reduce the pain levels (which works wonders, I might add!) I was told to take it easy all day, no exercises or anything. I decided to go back onto two crutches to relieve the pressure on the hip. This is quite difficult to do since I know that I can put almost full weight on my operated side, but I really want this to calm down so that I can start increasing my range of motion and strength. Kind of disheartening.


I help lift my spirits I decided that I should float in the pool today. It was such lovely weather that I thought I should go and catch some rays (and get some vitamin D in the process.) I laid outside all afternoon. I would float in the water (getting on it was kind of difficult but my Mum helped me; bless her soul - she has been a godsend during the last couple of weeks), then I would stand in the shallow end just to cool off, then repeat. By the end I felt comfortable enough to go on some noodles and float in the deepend. It was so refreshing and it felt sensational on my hip. Since gravity was eliminated, there was less pressure on the hip. The cool water also was very soothing on my incisions. Hopefully this water will help them fall out more quickly. Being outside all afternoon was just what I needed; it actually felt like a summer vacation (since my summer vacation thus far has not felt like a vacation in the least.)


All in all the hip is kind of rotten and irked me that I am not moving forward. But I know that this will pass (sooner rather than later). I will be saying some prayers tonight that this balloon in my hip disappears and my pain decreases. One good thing though, I have managed to attain a golden-brown tan today :)


Until next time,
Me
(P.S. the shows one of my favourite YouTube videos capturing how my hip feels...ouch!) :)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

2 Weeks Post-Op


Greetings! Today marks the two week mark that I have lived without a bumpy femoral head and a labral tear in either hip for a VERY long time :) I do miss that extra bone....NOT!

I can't believe how far I have come in two weeks. I feel a bit better every day. Very slight increases in strength and motion are what keeps this terribly long recovery bearable. The baby steps certainly count!

I am still on crutches, but I can put more weight onto the operated side. I can take a couple of lurching steps, but have been instructed that I must not walk with a limp (both by the physiotherapist at the hospital and my own physiotherapist.) It is so easy to develop a motor pattern for a limp which makes it extremely difficult to fix. I can walk around the house with one crutch, but by the end of the day I am back on two, touch toe weight bearing, and quite sore.

Being sore at the end of the day is expected but I have now refused to take any pain medication whatsoever. I HATE the doped up feeling, the constipation, and the inability to do any mental activity. I was going insane. So, each night I go lie in my recliner throbbing. I probably should take some pain killers, but I just don't want to do it. I'd rather hurt! (this is a never-ending battle with my parents.)

Today I had my third physiotherapy session. She said that I am progressing well; especially where I started a week ago. My quads and hamstrings are so darn tight. I tell them to relax, but they must be high strung or something because they are dead set on being tight. Stupid muscles!

At physiotherapy I also received more exercises to do. As well, I got the clear to do work in the pool. Yay, I can cool down, get a tan, and do exercises all at the same time! I am pumped. I decided to do some ROM with my hip in the pool today. Man, I can't imagine how much work was done since that hip is sooooo stiff! Aw well, I'll get it loosened up quick enough. During my session with the physiotherapist, I had my quadriceps stimulated again. She kept saying how little my leg was. Although I am naturally thin, one shouldn't be able to feel the femur though the muscles, nor (almost) all the way around the tibia. This kind of grosses me out, but we are trying to electrically stimulate my muscles each time I go to prevent further atrophy before I can start consistently weight bear, and build up some strength. Until then, I live with a "little leg."

The incisions are great. And will be greater when the stitches decide that they want to fall off. I would appreciate it if they would hurry up because they catch on everything. Heck, they cut the physiotherapist's hand this morning; drew blood! I even trimmed them yesterday; they still are evil, evil things. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't curse the stitches, I might offend them and they could decide to stick around longer just to torture me. So, I love, LOVE, LOVE my stitches. Ha!

Anywho, my bed is calling my name. Here's hoping I can make it through the night without too much pain; the past couple of days have not been the least bit fun lying awake in bed, as tight as a board waiting for things to settle down.

Good night,
Until next time,
Me

P.S. My flexion is now 100*. Wahoo!!! :)


Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Sleepy Days of Summer

Well, the past couple of days I have managed to (almost) sleep as much as I have been awake. And oh does it feel good to sleep.

After my day of feeling great and standing on the operated leg, and foolishly taking several steps on the leg, I got really sore. Go figure. But I had to go to physiotherapy anyway. And there, I over did it.

Honestly, I need to learn when enough is enough When I am at home I get great satisfaction with the little things, and then I go to physiotherapy I feel like I can do everything they tell me, and I do try my absolute hardest to do the exercises (I guess I am trying to foolishly trying to show off to make people think that I am not that bad after surgery). Needless to say, I was wiped out on Friday and Saturday from my one physiotherapy session. I have even had to increase my pain killer dosage at night, but have managed to remain off pain meds during the day :) Yay!

My hip itself isn't too bad. The incisions are looking great; the bruising is decreasing and the incisions have healed together nicely. I am thoroughly happy with the stitching as well. He did a wonderfully neat job with the sutures. I bet that the scars will be neat (not that I really care since I have earned my scars and would not mind if they showed....I earned those scars! Not everybody has the talent to grow extra bumps on their femoral heads and not everybody manages to tear the labrum....bilaterally to boot!) . The only incision that makes me a bit concerned is the most anterior one since it has developed a pea-sized ball beneath the stitch. It randomly gives me stabbing pains as well. If it doesn't get better in a week I'll make an appointment with my GP, just to be safe (plus this would give me a chance to get the operating report).

My muscles are still very tight. So much so that I can't make the full motion that walking would require; hence I am confined to using two crutches with toe-touch weight bearing until I can support my weight better. My knee is a bit swollen still, but not too painful. In replace of the knee pain I had, I have developed ankle pain. It feels like it is being pulled medially (and looks this way too) which makes the lateral ankle joint tender. Even if my quadriceps and hip flexors were strong enough to support my body weight, I don't think that my ankle would tolerate walking. Hopefully it is just from the traction and is going through its own, kooky healing phase.

I suppose I should ensure that I take things really easy, rest up, and listen to my body. This is hard for me to do because I just want to get better ASAP so that I can get on and enjoy some of my summer vacation with mobility. But....I have to remember to "respect the surgery" - thanks for that description...I love it :)

Until next time,

Me - the over-ambitious hip scope patient

Friday, June 11, 2010

Take it easy for goodness sake!


Being the smart nerd I am, I decided to test out my hip today just to see what I could do. It seemed smart at the time because I woke up feeling great. The hip flexors were far less painful than previous days, and I could go through the motions of walking on my crutches without much difficulty. So I thought, heck, can I stand on my leg? Much to my surprise, I COULD!!! Yup, a week and a day after my surgery I can already stand on my operated side. I thought that was pretty cool. I got all excited and then tried a few baby steps without my crutches supporting my weight. I did about 5 steps. It felt great. Not much pain either. Then I had to show off to my Mum when she got home from work.

In essence, I thought I could do this without consequence:

Afterwards I decided to rest all afternoon, and when I got up I was kind of stiff. Blah. But I couldn't rest for long because I was able to get help showering this afternoon (showering with help is definitely a humbling experience). After showering we went and visited my grandparents. Needless to say I was extremely sore this evening and had to take another oxycodone. Sigh, I should have known not to do all of this and get cocky, but hey, I could do it and I will get stronger. Just a little sign of what is to come. But for now, my body tells me I should take it easy, and I must listen to it and not do too much to stress it since I only have my summer vacation to get better before I jump back into my last didactic oriented school year ever.

Off to bed now whilst full of oxycodone. Oh thank goodness for pain killers.

(p.s. I suppose 'today' in my post technically refers to yesterday since it is after midnight)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

One Week Post-Op


Today marks one week since I had my left hip arthroscopy with osteochondroplasty and labral debridement/repair. What a feat! And, today was my best day yet. I am so happy to know that I am not stuck in a fog of pain forever :) I only joke, because I actually know that it is not forever; no pain, no gain.

I had my first physiotherapy appointment today. She did an assessment (ie asked questions, read the physiotherapy referral from the surgeon, etc.), tested my ROM, did some myofascial release on my calf, and then I received an inferential treatment (which did wonders!). She is extremely thorough and I totally trust her. This makes recovering a lot better when you trust your physiotherapist. She is up to date in everything and very well-known in the area. Heck, she even is the personal physiotherapist of Olympic champions! (cool, eh?)

As far as my ROM, I have approximately 70* of flexion, 35* of aBduction, almost normal aDduction, and zero degrees of internal rotation (go figure, since I barely had any before the surgery). We didn't test extension since I was already lying down on the exam table and it would be too much work to help me off the table to test this rotation, and get me back on the table. Yeah, it is great needing somebody to lift your legs onto and off the table. Honestly, I tell my muscles to move my leg but the musculature is just too weak and cannot move my limb. I can't wait to build enough strength up to be able to lift my foot up. Going through this recovery process really puts things into perspective.

So, I have a bunch of exercises to do every day to ensure that I keep moving the hip and to get stronger. Some of the stuff I was given there is no way that I can do now, but we will build up. My hip flexors and quadriceps are still pretty tight and angry. But, I have to say, after my Inferential Treatment on my hip flexors, they actually are less painful. I think I might ask for this on my quadriceps (in particular that darn Vastus Lateralis) on Friday when I go back to physiotherapy. I will explain this treatment modality, but I believe this is worthy of a post on its own, and will not be today since the Oxycodone is starting to kick in.

Well, I have a lot I could write about since I did so much today. Let me remind you that when I write 'much' this is relative; meaning that it I have done more activity than simply crutching from my recliner to the bathroom and back. Nonetheless, I had a big day and I am zonked out.

Currently, this is what my lovely hip looks like:


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Showering = Painful but... Pain Killers = Relief

So today I woke up and I actually could say that I felt better than the previous day. This was the first time since having my hip done that I could say I actually did not hurt as much. This was really exciting.

I am home alone in the mornings, so I basically get put into the recliner by my Dad and don't move until my Mum gets home in the early afternoon. So basically I am growing roots in the chair. But it is really nice and comfortable, so I don't mind. My computer keeps me quite busy. I managed to not take a pain pill until late afternoon, so I had the morning on a clear mind. I used this time to watch an open-brain surgery for treatment of Moyamoya on the Internet. Absolutely amazing what those neurosurgeons can do! I watched them suture a blood vessel from the scalp onto actual brain matter with sutures that were 1/3 the diameter of a hair. AMAZING!

On the hip front, I can now go to the bathroom by myself. No help needed to get on or off the toilet. My Mum helped me shower today; which really got me hurting. But it was worth getting all cleaned up. My incisions are looking really nice. I try to take pictures each day for myself (yes, I am a freak and like to have a serial photographical staging of my healing). Maybe I'll post some of them soon.

As far as pain goes, I am totally free of deep groin pain. I can't tell if the hip locks because I can't put any weight on it. All I can get onto the left leg is slight toe touch. It is better than no weight, but not enough to make me happy. The incisions really don't give me much grief. The most posterior incision is the most bruised, although it does not hurt too badly. But the most anterior incision is extremely tender and inflamed. The darn thing still oozes. The anterior portal looks like it won't heal as neatly as the other sites, but such is life. I have yellow bruising that goes from my anterior incision all the way to my pubic bone. Being so bruised and sore in such a tender area makes me very thankful for being under general anesthesia while they performed the operation.

Although the incisions are doing really well, the musculature is starting to tense up. I have slight ability to extend the leg at the hip, and aBduct the hip. But, my hip flexor strength is 1 out of 4. Which is really almost non-existent (for the non-medical folk). This means that I cannot flex my hip or extend my knee at all. They are so sore that any pressure at all really hurts. I suppose the physiotherapist will sort this out quickly.

Speaking of physiotherapy, I get to see her tomorrow morning for an assessment. I really cannot wait to start getting this hip loosened up and starting to move. I am going to be seeing the same physiotherapist that I saw after my right hip scope. So we already know we can work together. She's very blunt and doesn't take any crap, so I am sure she'll want to do something about these hip flexors so as to increase my ability to ambulate. I really hope that she'll do some myofacial release because that technique does wonders on the fascia surrounding the trauma of the surgery. **fingers crossed**

Until next time,

Me

Things that I do when I am bored...

I am fascinated with this crazy website on which you can edit pictures and make them look cool. This is a picture of some flowers I took last week (prior to surgery) and I've changed the colouring, and added text and little art snips. It took a long time, but I like it. Plus it passes time :P


Monday, June 7, 2010

Sunshine = Amazing for Incisions

This Has To Be Worth It One Day


I am kind of down since I am still extremely sore and not enjoying the crutches at the moment. I know, I should get out of the "poor me" mode, but I have been doing almost nothing since I got the surgery done. Honestly, I went from putting in 15 hour days to doing nothing but sitting on my butt! Quite a drastic change. I am desperately wanting to start some reading that I had had planned for the summer, but I am still on oxycodone so I don't even have a clear enough head to retain anything. So, I do mindless things like downloading music, going on Facebook, and watching movies. I really need to get feeling a bit better so I don't have to take narcotics, so then I'll be able to do some of the reading I had planned over my summer break. I hate sitting around feeling like I am accomplishing/learning nothing.

Enough of the pity party, I'm gonna go back to downloading more music! At least my iPod will be awesome :)


Saturday, June 5, 2010

Pictures

Before the operation....nice clean, scar-free hip:





All wrapped up when I came home:







Four small incisions:

Survived my 2nd Hip Arthroscopy

I have survived my second, and hopefully final, hip arthroscopy. I had my surgery on June 2nd and now, three days later, am well enough to type coherently. The surgery went smoothly, with all guidewires remaining intact. The surgeon removed 10% of the labrum on the left hip, and saved another 10% that was torn (I will check if this means he reattached it with anchors at my post-op appointment). The impinging bump on my femoral head was much larger than he had anticipated and it took quite a long time to shave off all the extra bone, but he managed to get all of the impinging bone and now I have a hip without a frayed labrum and no extra bone. Yahoo!

I was at the hospital at 6:30AM and got changed into a gown. They started an IV (which caused the nurses grief since I had high blood pressure - due to being nervous- and there was so much back flow from the IV port that it bled everywhere. Also, right before surgery, I had to fill out a 25 page questionnaire because my surgeon is doing a study on hip arthroscopy success. To make things more complicated, my school's clinic didn't send the blood work results to my surgeon, so I had to have blood tests and an AP pelvis and lateral hip and chest xray before I could go into surgery. Talk about having many things jammed right before surgery. It was hectic but it worked to keep my mind off of the fact that they were going to cut into my hip in a short while.

Right before I got taken to the OR one of the pre-op nurses showed me how to cut the disposable panties and obstetrics pad because, yes, I thought that it would be convenient to start my period the morning of my surgery. That had to be the worst time to start my period ever. They said that women my age often get their period the day of due to stress...apparently it happens all the time.

Well, after I was all padded up :P they took me to the OR. It was stressful crawling onto that OR table with the large diameter perineal post at my feet with traction boots sticking out of the bottom of the operating table. All I can say is thank goodness I was asleep when they slid me down the table, shoved the post between my legs, and strapped my feet into the boots! Again, one of the scrubbed people reminded everybody that I had on the disposable panties and they would be removed at a later time. Talk about everybody knowing it was your special time of the month! Ugh.

They put me to sleep very nicely this time. I got oxygen and a drug that made me feel drunk. Then they said that they were going to take care of me the entire time and then poof! I was in recovery.

The drugs really affect me. The anesthetic gives me the horrible shakes. I was dizzy for much of the first day. This surgery was much better than the first scope I had on my right hip. I have four small scope incision with (supposedly dissolvable) stitches. The scope sites were extremely well reinforced with bandages because they wouldn't stop squirting out blood/arthroscopy fluid at the hospital - yeah that was great getting up to go to the washroom and having fluid squirt out of my hip...not! Anywho, I got home fine and have basically slept the past three days. I can't take the full pain medication dosage that was prescribed because I it affects me too much. But I manage to keep it under control with oxycodone (short term and long term release), and Ibuprofen. I am also taking Celebrex and ASA. I hate being doped up all of the time! Today, I haven't taken any oxycodone during the day, I have managed with taking 2 extra strength acetaminophen tablets. I am throbbing considerably more, but I have a clear head; so it is worth it. I will resort to my oxycodone this evening.

Today my Mum helped me shower. It was almost a humiliating experience, having somebody literally holding me up in the shower, but it was totally worth it to have clean hair and body. Just have to get some help shaving the legs tomorrow....maybe even get my toe nails painted!! (I can't stand the look of plain toe nails.....waaaay to boring for me...lol!!)

I took off the dressings today as well. I will post pictures on a separate post since this post is getting a bit lengthy as it is. Warning that the pictures are graphic, so don't look if you don't want. I won't put them all up, but maybe just the cleaned up pictures. I can put up more if I decide or if somebody wants to see more.