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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Pre-Op / Surgery

So I thought that it would be appropriate to detail my pre-op experience. It was, for lack of a better term, taxing. My goodness. It all started off with an MRI (not an arthrogram) at 8:45am, then I went to the clinic and saw Dr. P's fellow. He was extremely thorough. He moved my hip into various positions and commented on how unstable my hip was. To be honest, I didn't think that it was that unstable since my ROM was so limited, but it was moving all over (hence the rapid decline in function/ROM and increase in pain since the summer). The fellow also asked me to show him the movement of my fingers, elbows, knees, shoulders. As he did these things he asked me about symptoms of my other joints and he said that I most definitely have hypermobility syndrome. Although I kinda figured that, it was almost freaky how everything he asked, I had.

I then had my strength/ROM/functional testing performed by various physical therapists and athletic therapists. As expected, I was weak on my left side, very limited ROM, and the functional testing....well, I def failed that test since I couldn't do have of the exercises due to pain/lack of ROM.

We then had to get the prescriptions filled, register at admissions, get a pregnancy test, and then was allowed to have a little snack. Then we went back to the clinic to meet the man himself. Well, in all reality, it was a 4 minute encounter with the doc, during which we only talked about my figure skating. Although he did to a hip exam (not as thorough as the fellow) and asked me to walk up and down the hallway a couple of times to assess my sweet antalgic gait! He then proceeded to say that I was going to have a reconstruction. I didn't have any questions since the fellow had explained everything so well (even with pictures). I think that if I knew that was going to be the last encounter with Dr. P for the entirety of my trip to Vail, I think I would have asked more questions. Well, that statement isn't entirely true as he came in at 2am as my pain was not controlled since the epidural decided not to work. As well, I saw him the morning after, but both times I was a high as a kite and literally don't remember anything he said except that he wished my Mum was there (during the morning encounter). Sigh. I suppose I went there for his surgical skills and not a cuddly personality.

We then went to Walmart to gather up some fruits and veggies, and other healthier snacks for the remainder of our trip. We also decided to drive up a mountain towards the highest car pass in North America. Although we didn't make it all the way up because the sun was setting, but, my goodness, MAGNIFICENT is the only word to describe how beautiful it was. We drove up the side of the mountain where, right next to the road was thousands of feet immediate drop. It was amazing and was the highlight of the entire trip (minus the little surgery I had....lol) It was breathtaking to look at God's creation and see something so beautiful that only He could have made; I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to see such beautiful landscape. After, we headed to the hotel room to eat and then head to bed for the big day.



Surgery Day:
I was to check in at 8:00 am. I was then immediately hooked up to IV and put into those lovely gowns, then I proceeded to wait for hours and hours. Apparently the case before me turned into a very complicated. I later found out that the graft that they took from the IT band on the patient wasn't large enough to cover the deficient labrum, poor guy/girl....man) When my turn finally came the anesthesiologist gave me some Versed and they then proceeded to bring me back to the OR. There, they gave me more Versed as they did the epidural. They used a C-arm and set the epidural fluoroscopically. It wasn't horrible at all and they all were very nice at explaining everything that was going on. After the epidural was in place, they laid me back and then gave me some Propofol and then, whooosh, asleep.

The surgery took 6.5 hours and they did a number of procedures. It ended up I had CAM/Pincer impingement removal, synovectomy, labral repair, labral debridement, labral graft from my IT band, psoas release, ligamentum teres debridement, capsular plication. I think that is everything, but I'll have to double check later on (still on some drugs to help with the muscle cramping and they make me mentally dull). Total I was in traction for just under 3 hours (which is a lot compared to all of my previous surgeries were about 50-60 min of traction). The team was very happy how the surgery went and believe that I'll have a good outcome.

I really don't remember much after the surgery. In fact, I don't remember even trying to wake up! All I remember is somebody telling me that I still needed the oxygen on (apparently I was NOT happy to have the O2 on). After the PACU, I was brought up to my room. This is when the fun started. They asked me about pain, and I was in horrible pain. After a bit, they tested my sensation to see if my epidural was in tact, well, I had sensation everywhere on my body. The nurses kept testing all over my body and I could feel everything. Apparently the epidural did not work at all. At this point they decided to switch to IV pain meds. They kept up with giving me the IV pain meds, but they were concerned since I was supposed to have pain control from the epidural. This hullabaloo ended up with the fellow in my room about 1:00am, Dr. P in my room about 2:00 am, and then anesthesia in my room shortly after trying to decide what to do with the epidural (or lack there of). To make matters worse, apparently the hospital had a shortage of valium (which would have helped me sleep). Apparently they gave me something to finally settle down the pain and I slept in a drug-induced state for a couple of hours until the fellow and Dr. P rounded on me in the morning. I remember them coming in in the morning but I have no idea what they said :( This makes me sad since this is when they talked about my surgery and how it went. And my Mum wasn't there to hear the details either. So basically nobody told us how the surgery actually went since I was incoherent at the time. I assume that I would have heard if there were some issues pertaining to the success of the surgery.

After I was all dressed and 'awake' I was brought down to PT where I rode the bike for 20 min, had a session, slept on the PT bed for a couple of hours, rode the bike for another 20 min, then had another session of PT. Funny thing, I don't remember 95% of this day either. After the long day, I headed back to my hotel room where I slept again.

So that concludes my surgery/hospital adventure. The remainder of my trip was focused on PT and CPM machine.

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