When in pre-op all the regular things happened. Johnny shirt goes on, IV in, electrodes on. They also removed blood for PRP injections into the hip once done. They then had to scrub down my hip. This caused an ordeal because in in the summer they used chlorhexidine and I had a reaction to it so they had to use betadine for a scrub. Also, I had to wear a bracelet with an allergy alert. When the fellow and OR nurse came back to see me prior to wheeling me into surgery, they all were very concerned about this allergy as it is standard to use what I was allergic to. Anywho, after this, the anesthesiologist came and talked to me about the epidural and the type of sedation. Dr. P doesn't use general anesthetic anymore as they were having too many complications. Fine by me! We talked and anesthesia was going to just use some light sedation with the epidural and I would be good to go. I agreed it sounded good.
I really didn't have to wait too long before they were wheeling me back. I got a shot of Versed which makes everything all better. Once in the OR, I was sat up and had an epidural placed. This time it actually hurt a bit. More than I had remembered from June or January. Then, another OR nurse (the same one that did my work in the office) came in and was all excited that she made it. She was not scheduled for my case but wanted to be there anyway. She asked the anesthesiologist if it would be okay if I stayed awake if I wished. I totally took them up on the opportunity. We had to wait for Dr. P to see if that was okay, and when he came in he said it would be fine and that now he would have to be on his best behaviour. The fellow then took out a remaining stitch on the left and did an intraarticular injection into the left hip. By then I was feeling a bit sleepy and I don't really remember much from that point on. I remember talking with the surgeon as he did my scope, but I don't remember much. I remember him pointing out that I had a bit of arthritis on the acetabulum, but nothing that necessitated any treatment. I also remember asking to be "less out of it" as I really did want to see what was going on. The anesthesia team switched half way through the case, and the new guy was really good about letting me be more aware. He stopped all medications and then I remember fully everything from the graft removal from the ITB to the end. Only thing is that the new anesthesiologist decided that he would quiz me during my surgery. Really?! He was asking me things, and then Dr. P piped in saying that I probably didn't come to have surgery and be quizzed at the same time. The questions stopped coming. I remember Dr. P leaving my side to prepare the auto and allograft. Apparently the allograft was huge and he couldn't possibly see a reason for it being so large. Before he put the allograft in, he dangled it above me so that I could see. It was an inch by an inch and very wiggly. How cool! He then put it into my hip. I should mention that when each of the anchors were placed, I could feel them hammering my hip and I shook. Also, every time I had traction, I was pulled under the sheets (they had taped the drapes to my neck so that I could see the monitor they had set up for me). The traction was the craziest thing, I could feel my own legs being pulled out of the sockets and I didn't care, it didn't hurt at all. They also had to tighten the capsule because I was so unstable, this was interesting because I had so much scar tissue that he had a difficult time passing the suture through the tissue and he kept leaning on me with all his weight and grunting trying to get the capsule closed. After all the procedures were done, they inserted the foley catheter and I was rolled to recovery.
I was completely aware and talked to everybody in recovery. My mum came back and it felt so surreal. I remember everything from my surgery and was not sick or anything because I didn't have to wake up from anything. I was numb from just above the belly button to the toes. It was amazing. I spent then next several hours simply chilling in my hospital bed. In fact, Dr. P came in at 11:40pm to see how I was doing. That man never sleeps!! When the time came, the nurses loaded me up with pain pills before they were going to shut off my epidural. With that, I slept until they had to get me out of the CPM, change my dressings, and then shut off my epidural at 3AM. I slept until about 5:45am when I woke up because, guess what, my hip hurt.
Wow! That must be very surreal being awake and having a surgery like this. I don't think I could do that, well in fact I know I couldn't...hope everything goes well for your recovery.
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