A week post op

So, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get an update here, its been a long week, but good, week post op!  I guess I will just start from the beginning as far as what I remember immediately post op :)

So my surgery was scheduled for Nov. 21st at 8:30 am at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am!!  When we arrived I checked in and got signed up and then pretty quickly they took me back for surgery.  In the surgery waiting room I changed into a gown, put on those lovely socks with the rubber on the bottom so that you do not fall sliding around, and then I was suppose to try and give a urine specimen to make sure that I was not pregnant.  Well, of course I could not pee, after an hour and a half of trying, I finally gave up and they tried to take blood instead.  I am notoriously bad at giving blood, so of course this turns into an ordeal of poking me three times just to get some blood.  Finally they do and that part is over.  Also during this time a nurse (who had a British accent and insisted on calling me Sarah Jane) was getting me prepped with an IV and 2 PA's came in to get some history and check my range of motion, etc.  Then the good stuff started, Dr. Buly showed up as well as the anesthesiologist.  Dr. Buly signed my hip and my wrist band and then after a few minutes we were off.  I was taken down into the OR (which is freezing) and I moved over onto the operating table, was asked a few questions by the anesthesiologist, medicine the stings was put into my IV and I was out.

When I woke up I was in the recovery area, which was basically like a really long, extra wide hallway, with something like 50 beds in it and a curtain separating each bed.  I woke up pretty quickly but in a lot of pain.  I had a pain pump that I could press a button and every 10 minutes it would give me medicine.  At the time every 10 minutes seemed like a lifetime!  I was surprised by how much pain I was in given that I thought that I was suppose to have an epidural.  It was unlike my last epidural with my scope that literally had me numb from the waist down when I woke up.  It took about an hour for my pain to get under control again.  My mom and Adam were able to visit me every 2 hours for 15 minutes while I was in recovery, which was nice, but did not seem long enough.  There was some trouble finding out if I would be able to get a room or not that night because I guess they were all full, but luckily around 9PM I got a room and was taken upstairs for the night.

The first night my pain was well controlled with the pain pump and I slept fairly well.  The next morning I was up around 6 am because thats when the hospital staff starts to really check on you and get things rolling for the day, like allowing you to bathe, etc.  I had a bunch of different people throughout the morning come into my room for various things, checking vitals, my pain pump/epidural, my wound drain, etc.  I tried to press the pain pump as little as possible because I wanted the epidural out as soon as possible because once that came out I could get my urinary catheter out, which was annoying me.  So I was started on oral pain medication later that morning and that evening, around 6 PM the epidural came out.  By late evening the first day I had everything unhooked except the urinary catheter, which was scheduled to come out the next morning, early.  I also had PT the first day too, which I was REALLY scared about getting out of bed and walking, especially being hooked up to all the machines that I was.  But it really was not too bad, my PT was amazing.  I was able to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom that first afternoon, without too much issue.  My mom and husband were there during all the visiting hours, which were from 11 am to 9 pm.

On the second day, I got my catheter removed at 6 am and at that point I was officially off all the machines!  I was able to sit up and eat breakfast in a chair that morning, as well as lunch, which was quite an accomplishment.  Most of the pain that I had was trying to sit up and scooch my butt over to the edge of the bed.  Whenever I tried to lift my pelvis off the bed, it felt like my right side was going to fall off!  Once I was standing I was fine and good to go.  Surprisingly enough, on the second day I passed PT (which consisted all of walking down the hall, going up and down some fake stairs, and then back to my room.  After PT, the ball started rolling for me to get discharged!!  We were super surprised how early I was getting discharged considering we were told it could be as many as 7 days in the hospital!  So about mid afternoon on my second day post op, I was released from the hospital!

I rested on day 3 at the apartment in NYC and then on day 4 we started our travels back to Michigan, which was about a 14 hour drive, since we had to stop every 2 hours for me to get out and walk to prevent blood clots.

So this post is getting pretty long already, but needless to say, we made it safely back home on day 4, just in time for my mothers 50th birthday and Thanksgiving, which is today :)

In the few days that we have been home, I have felt really good for the most part.  I have been getting some back headaches from some of the medication, but we were able to switch it up and the headaches seem to be getting better.  I am sleeping a lot and drinking a lot and thats about what my days consist of so far.  I will update more after I see PT later this week.

Thanks for reading!