Stitches OUT!

Today I ventured out of the house to see my GP to get my stitches out. wahhooo! The fun outing of the day. The secretary was really nice and helped me into the room and up on the table and, as my Mum and I were leaving, she let us go out the back way so that we didn't have to do any steps if we used the normal entrance; I appreciated that a lot.

My family doctor on the other hand, was so gruff with me! I hobbled in and he didn't even ask what I had had done. I said that I needed my stitches out because I had had surgery 10 days ago and he moved me to another room and pulled out my stitches. I also got another prescription for Oxycodone because I was running out and I really wanted to ensure that I stay on top of my pain. I refuse to be a super-hero!

I digress, my family doctor asked if the three holes and six stitches were all that I had, and then just proceeded to yank them out. I piped up to let him know what had been done since I really do think that he should be aware of what is going on. All he said was that I was awful young to have hip surgery. When I told him this was the third time I have had this done he couldn't believe it! Ha, he was the one that took out my stitches each time! What a great doctor-patient relationship there.

Furthermore, as we were just outside the exam room he asked me how long this was supposed to last for me and I gave him the spiel about how by 6 weeks we should know if I need reconstructive labral surgery or not and he just shook his head and walked away. This was all on top of my doctor chewing out his secretary about the dosing of a medication for the patient previous to me right outside my exam room. I could hear every word he said to her in his condescending manner.

Basically, my family doctor is a crabby, over-worked practitioner whom I do NOT want to emulate when I become a physician. A little empathy can go a long way! Mind you, I didn't want him to feel sorry for me, but I did want him to acknowledge the seriousness of my situation since this is major surgery and may not even alleviate my pain; all of which is stressful.

Another exciting thing is that I got a shower chair! My Mum and I went to a home health store and we bought one. I am so pumped to take a shower within the next couple of days! I can't imagine how the heck I would ever take a shower normally with all of these restrictions. Yay for shower chairs! :)

Things....

Outside my window... it is night outside

I am thinking... nothing - I am fairly foggy from my meds :P

I am thankful for... my family and friends

From the kitchen... there is nothing going on in the kitchen

I am wearing... nightie, hip brace, TED hose (lovely combo, I know!)

I am creating... aka knitting an afghan (will post pictures another time)

I am going... to sleep after I watch an episode of Modern Family

I am reading... Prayers for Sale

I am hoping... that I heal up quickly from my surgery and that this is the last hip surgery I'll ever have

I am hearing... the fan blowing in the living room

Around the house... there is dog hair everywhere (I suppose that is what you get when you have a yellow lab for a dog and it is 90*F + outside)

One of my favourite things... is eating

A few plans for the rest of the week... nothing! relaxing and resting up

It would be really interesting to do this in 6 months and then a year out and see how things change! :)

Horrible Night

So up until yesterday and last night I would definitely say that this recovery has been easier than my previous two surgeries, but the last 36 hours (and continuing) have been quite painful. I haven't a clue what the heck I did differently, but man am I sore! I just throb all night, even when on my narcotics!

Plus, I have developed this irrational fear. I can't tell if it is the pills that have made me think of this or just boredom and an out-of-control imagination during the wee hours of the morning whilst lying awake in my recliner, but I am terrified of somebody breaking into my house. I am stuck in my recliner and basically not able to fend for myself and if somebody came in there would be no way for me to defend myself. Gall, writing this down seems so childish and odd that I would actually be scared of this. Perhaps it is the narcotics that are making me think oddly like this because I understand that the chances are slim-to-none that such a thing would happen, but still, during the night, I am fearful. Blaaaah.

It also doesn't help to be throbbing in pain even when pumped full of oxycodone! Last night I found myself holding my breath with each inspiration due to the pain in my hip. I bet this is probably just a bad day or so and things will get better from here. But having this blog and venting really, really helps deal with the recovery process (especially when there is the knawing thought at the back of my mind that all this might not even be the fix to my hip problems). So, if you made it this far through my rant and complaining, kudos to you and thanks!! :)

One Week Post-Op

I am so used to being so busy that lying around in bed and in the recliner all day is boring the living day lights out of me. Seriously, I am not even one week out and I am bored of just sitting around. The past two days I have not taken any narcotics during the day so that I can have a clear head. It is worth it to me because I hate those stupid pills! But then, by the evening time, I am very much in pain, but that is when my family is home and I don't want to just sleep through the entire evening, so I just suck it up and take the pills at night. I can't tell you how thankful I am for the pills at night; it is like clockwork, four hours after I take two oxycodone, I am awake and need another one. I really can't imagine that I need them that badly at night, but the pain is definitely worse at night. So, I figure, why try to be a hero? So I take the pills and manage to get some sleep.

Sleeping through the night would be amazing. Like I mentioned, I get about four hours at a time. Which isn't bad. Some nights are better than others. Since I am in a hip brace, I think that I sleep better than if I didn't have one. Comparing my previous two surgeries, now that I am restricted to a very limited hip motion, I literally can't move, so I don't. This prevents me from being jolted from a sleep in pain every time I move during the night (this is what happened the previous two times). So I get more restful sleep and thus feel better. Also, I feel 'safe' in my brace. I thought that I would hate my brace, but I am actually thankful for it! (I never thought I'd say that!!!). The only bad thing about the brace (besides being bulky and hot) is that I can't move at night, which tends to throw specific muscles into spasm. My tibialis anterior and lower back were the muscles that freaked out last night. I actually had to have my Mum come and massage my tibialis anterior because it was so tight in spasm that I kept waking up.

The hip itself is definitely sore. Just last night it started to give me a sharp pain in my groin every time I increased my intra-abdominal pressure (ie laughing, coughing, sneezing). At first I thought "oh no, the two anchors that were placed in have come out!!" But I can't see how that would have happened since I have barely moved for days on end. Ah well, hopefully it is just part of the healing process.

So, overall, it is not that bad. I mean, it sucks to spend the entire summer inside on a recliner in a brace on crutches. But, I will do everything in my power to get this surgery to work so I can stave off reconstructive surgery for as long as possible; if not forever. I have been praying that this surgery works and could use all the prayers in the world for this surgery to be successful. So, if you read this, and do say a prayer - THANKS!!!! :)

5 Days Post Op

Today marks 5 days since my surgery. I did not take any pain meds all day (except for my massive dose of ibuprofen, but the true purpose of the ibuprofen is not just pain relief). I only take oxycodone at night to help me sleep. Honestly, I do hurt more since I don't take anything, but I have a clear head; it is worth it to me.

My mum washed my hair today for the first time since the surgery day; it was glorious! Ahh.

I took my bandages off and re-did them myself yesterday. I have three hip scope incisions that are pretty close together and none of them penetrate any glute muscles or the rectus femoris, which alleviates much of the post-op muscular pain.

I am currently lying on my stomach on a bed trying to stretch out the hip flexors. It takes a few minutes to relax but it is well worth the effort because this will make the hip flexors less tight and thus less pain.

All in all, I am doing fine. I just wish I knew that all of this will be worth something. I may not get any relief or it may bring relief that I've waited 5 years for! The suspense is killing me. Last night I even dreamt about seeing a different doctor about my hip because the surgery didn't work. I think I may be a bit stressed over it. One thing is, that all of the pain pre-op proved to be an indication of what was inside the hip. Glad it wasn't all in my head! phew.

All Washed Up

Today my Mum washed me all up whilst lying in the reclining chair. It felt absolutely amazing! I don't dare try to get into the shower at this point, but washing up and shaving really can make a girl feel better. I even got my nails painted!! I still have grimy hair, but that'll have to wait a couple of days before we try to wash it using a hose outside whilst sitting in a lawn chair - should be fun.

I have not needed the same amount of medication that I used during my previous surgeries. They gave me oxycodone that is half the dose and I am only using half of the prescribed dose right now. I am pretty impressed. And, my last pill was this morning at 4:00am - I have only had my indomethacin today (to prevent heterotrophic calcification as well as the added benefit of some pain relief). I didn't have any pain until we washed me up. Taking off and putting on the TED hose really can place a stress on the hip.

I also had to look at my incisions today. I just couldn't handle it anymore and had to know what was there. I have three incisions on the anterior portion of my thigh. They are a bit bigger than my previous scope sites and have two stitches in each. I will take pictures in a couple of days because I was forced by my Mum to tape all the dressings back on ASAP.

Everybody seems so uptight about the incisions. I stupidly told my parents that I could take out my own stitches which would save a trip to the family doctor here at home. Well, they mentioned this to the doctor and his nurse and now I HAVE to go to my family doctor because they want a fax from my doctor saying that he took out the stitches and did a wound assessment. I don't think that anybody trusts me now!

This is surprisingly easy compared to my last two hip scopes. I have one less scope site which might make a huge difference. Also, I didn't have too much done. Apparently when my current surgeon got into my hip joint he got so mad at my previous surgeon that he thought he couldn't operate on me and was going to close up. But he said he took a look around and evaluated the rest of the hip and found some things that he could fix. He was able to anchor down a part of the labrum with two anchors and shave down some bone on the acetabulum for the pincer impingement and some of the bone on the femur side for residual CAM impingement. Apparently my surgeon did a perfect job on one part of the femoral neck, but on two other areas he didn't do it properly. One area he shaved down way to much bone in the wrong place and another area he didn't shave enough bone away. He also debrided too much labrum off and now the majority of my labrum is the consistency of a cooked spaghetti noodle - which is not conducive to suturing together; it just broke apart when he tried to fix it.

So now the waiting game begins. If my pain was coming from the areas that this current surgeon fixed, then I should get relief. But if my pain is coming from the areas of the labrum that were not fixable, then I will have to be referred to another doctor who can rebuild my labrum from my IT band. This means another surgery which would entail me traveling across the country to get done because only a handful of surgeons do this labral reconstruction. So, I am in a similar situation to where I was before my surgery - but with a chance that my pain can get better. I am going to pray every evening that my pain is alleviated by this surgery. All prayers are appreciated! :)

I suppose that I can't worry about this too much since I could have my pain relief from the little he did inside the hip. I don't want to borrow stress! So, I'll continue to focus on getting better and see what happens and what the Lord has in store for me and my hips!

Home!

After two days of traveling, I am FINALLY home! My parents drove me three hours on the day of surgery, 5 hours the next day and 3 hours today. Every day was fine traveling except for today. In the three hours today we had to stop 10 times. Three times in three exits because I decided that I had to puke in the car and we had to settle that problem. Other than that, it was alright. We stopped every hour to stretch and my Mum and I got really good at hobbling into handicap washrooms along the highway! lol

I am now in a hip brace and surprisingly not in too much pain. I am so happy that it is over! I will give more details about my surgery tomorrow or when I am less drugged, but things looked worse in the hip than he had anticipated and he hopes that what little he was able to fix was what was giving me the pain. There is still a lot of pathology in the hip that he couldn't fix; so if I still have pain in 6 weeks, then he will refer me to yet another OS for a labral reconstruction. Which would be yet another surgery. I certainly hope this isn't the case. I will post more details later when things are less fuzzy for me :)