Thank you for the kind messages. My surgery started at 7:30 am and I believe it finished at 11:00 am, the first day and night I didn't do much of anything but sleep or I should say tried to sleep. There was a patient across the hall that was hard of hearing and he had his tv blasting and he was there 2 days and had not slept at all! I finally had the nurse shut my door and I was able to sleep.
I would wake up from pain. They gave me Dilaudid by IV because I told them Morphine would make me nauseous, If they were to give me Zolfran for the nausea I can tolerate. They chose to give me the Dilaudid and I didn't feel that it was controlling my pain as long as the Morphine. The nurse suggested asking the Dr to make the change and I was switch over to Morphine.
PT came in first thing in the morning before I had my first dose of Morphine and the pain was very intense and I wasn't able to walk very far.
Once I received my first dose of Morphine I was able to move much easier, OT came in and she was impressed that I was able to get washed up and dressed without any assistance from her. I passed OT! One step closer to going home! PT came back after lunch to work with me again, this time I was able to walk farther, do the steps and get in and out of the bed (that was not a pretty site! lol!) I passed with PT and she was paging the DR to see if I could go home! I still had to do the joint class, but I was cleared to go home.
I was a little anxious about going home, I was afraid the pain wasn't going to be controlled with the pain pills. On top of the Morphine I was also getting Oxycodone along with 2 tylenol.
I finally got home around 7:15 pm I got settled into my chair and I just couldn't get comfy, I ended up going to bed around 9, it was very painful getting into bed and I had to have help getting into bed, I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to get back in again if I need to get up in the middle of the night after using the restroom.
I feel asleep right away, I took my pain meds as soon as I got into the bed, so that helped. I did get up a few times in the night and I was able to get back to bed by myself and the pain seems to be getting less intense as the days go on. Even though my sleep was broken up, I do feel very rested and am so glad I got to come home after one day.
The nurse is coming today at 11:00 and PT is also coming out today as well. I have 3 weeks of home PT 3 times a week and no out patient PT at all.
So far recovery is going very well, my advice for all of you that waiting to have your surgery, make sure you keep the pain managed and under control and use the ice packs! Ice works just as well as the pain meds!!
United States
It was a relief though to get into the van. I was able to see the sights instead of red knuckling it down the mountain. I'm a chicken not going to lie.
