The Swelling & Pain

Alright.  After surgery everybody expects some pain.  To a certain extent it is reassuring as you can know that things have been fixed and you are healing up.  Well, I'm over it.  I had planned on updating every day or every other day, but I decided to not update yesterday as it would have been, simply put, depressing.  It was one of my worst pain days so far. I couldn't believe it.  My ITB was so uptight and rigid it made my knee hurt like the dickens and radiated all the way down to my ankle.  The muscle spasms were horrible.  Then, after supper, my hip flexor freaked out.  And that was it.  I had had enough.  I took another Norco ahead of schedule, took a whole Valium and went to bed.  Taking that amount of medication seriously knocks me out, but I didn't care.  I slept all night and was thankful.  Ha, I wasn't gonna post yesterday to avoid being negative and there I go, writing all about it, being negative.

I am continually doing my home exercises, which are minimal at this time, but I am faithful and do everything I am supposed to, including my two 20 minute sessions of biking each day, 6 hours of CPM per day, 20 minutes of circumduction each day.  All very helpful and small things to do considering how much I've done for my hips thus far.  My right hip joint itself feels amazing.  Seriously amazing. I can flex and internally rotate like it is my elbow (maybe not exactly as my elbow is all loose and my hip is stable), but, point stands, it feels great.  My muscles on the other hand are very sore.  In the packet I was given, it stated that after 21 days one shouldn't need narcotics anymore, that means that in a couple of days I shouldn't need any form of narcotic?! It worries me because I can't get through until supper-time without taking a Norco.  I am expecting a call from somebody on Dr. P's team in the next couple of days and will ask about the pain.  I remember hurting more when they messed around with my ITB in January, but it wasn't this bad.  I will have to check back on my posts from then to see how I felt and when I stopped my meds (which may not be fair since that surgery was a blow and made me worse).  Dealing with the pain is exhausting, but it will decrease soon.  Until then...I love drugs!

It's been a bit difficult to see all of my classmates moving on and getting interviews for residency.  I started my medical journey with all of them and now they are moving on.  I am so happy for all of my friends since they deserve every interview and residency program they desire, but I am not going to lie to say that I am not a bit disappointed I am not there with them.  I know everybody has their struggles and life does not stop because one is in the thick of their medical training.  I realize this, but it is crazy how much has changed since a year ago.  Last year at this time I had just found out that Dr. Philippon had agreed that he could help me and that he would operate on my left hip and I was just getting into the swing of things in the hospital.  How much has happened since then? I have had two left and a right hip surgery and have taken off school for 8 months.  I would have NEVER thought this would have happened to me!  But it did, and here I am, recovering and making the best of it.  I really think that because I was in pain that I would not have been able to chose a specialty in which I wanted, truly wanted, because I would have chosen something that was easier on the body.  Now I will be able to rotate through a couple more areas before I have to make my mind up, and I will do so with functional hips which will allow me to be able to make a better decision on my future.  At least that's how I currently see it!