Hello all my lovely BS friends! Apologies for the radio silence. So tomorrow I am three weeks post op for my second THR. It feels like so much longer as the period of recovery from my first THR on the 1st of June is blurring into this recovery period, having them only six weeks apart.
So they do say that each THR is different, even in the same person, well this is true with me.
The surgery went well, and no issues with the actual surgery. I was not nervous at all, that was until they WHEELED ME INTO THE OPERATING ROOM WHILST I WAS AWAKE! That was my minor freak out but one of the nurses distracted me and I was soon asleep. It was interesting to see the amount of people coming in and out of the room. It really does show how a good hospital works like a well oiled machine and that this really is a routine, everyday procedure for the nurses, doctors and staff. I wriggled onto the operating table which had a section on the left side that I could see that my leg would be strapped into. Soon after I was asleep and woke up in my room. I could tell my Mum and Hubby were there but I was so tired I pretty much just slept. My surgeon came in later in the evening and said it all went well and the only change from the last surgery was that the drain came out and they decided not to put one back in for fear of introducing infection. So last surgery the day after my surgery, my surgeon came and put a local anaesthetic into the incision via the drain and then removed the drain so this wasn't done.
I soon noticed how much more swelling there was in my leg because there was no drain - my leg was huge and the skin painfully tight. I woke up for a little before my husband left. That first night the pain just continued to get worse. I had a different doctor prescribing my medication from my last surgery and he did not give me any long lasting medication, only endone for break through pain! I kept asking my nurse for meds and there was little she could give me as what was prescribed was only the endone and panadol. She was lovely but I don't know if she understood the degree of my pain. By 11.30pm I had again called a nurse after I had tried all manner of positions in my bed- feet up high, head up high, level, all of the above! The nurses had changed and I had a nurse I had for my last surgery and she remembered me. She went away and returned with an injection of some sort that was given in my leg (i wonder if it was intra-muscle or sub-cut as it didn't hurt- probably sub-cut) and also something into my drip. Thank goodness it worked and I got some sleep for a few hours. Around 2am i woke up to another top up in my drip.
I had baked choc chip cookies and mini banana and banana choc chip muffins to thank the nurses and decided this was the time to give them to this lovely helpful nurse and ask her to share with the other nurses.
The doctor who prescribed the medication came the next day and I said that endone on its own wasn't enough. He seemed reluctant to give me any more but he did. I said that the meds last time didn't make me sick and I had been feeling a bit sick but he prescribed me something different (why fix it if it isn't broken?). So the remainder of my stay I felt nauseaus which wasn't great but the pain was controlled. My stay wasn't particularly restful - i had a lady across from me who didn't speak English (Italian) and the nurses tended to yell at her in English. IF she doesn't understand you, yelling wont help. They had they Italian Cleaner help interpret for them. She loved my cookies and told me every time she came to my room
This woman also must have had some chest infection or cold as she was constantly clearing her throat but not getting anything up so it was just another cough a few minutes later. I felt bad that she was obviously not well but it was like torture for this constant noise. Everyone kept leaving my door open too! I did have a bigger room this time around and it was at the end of the ward so was quieter in ways than my last stay, but the ward was busier so it was noisier too. There was a gentleman yelling out "help, someone help me" at all hours of the night. at first i thought he wasn't being helped so I pushed my buzzer and an annoyed nurse rudely said they were already in with him. Sorry for trying to help someone yelling out in a hospital! I worked out also on this night that my buzzer wasn't working! My favourite nurse came and i told her I had been buzzing for about 50 minutes and she was appalled and gave me a phone number to call the nurses station if it stopped working again. This was early in the morning around 1am and she sent the security guard on a mission to find me some ginger ale at another nurses station kitchen.
So overall I had some wins and some losses in that stay. I stayed for four nights at the hospital and was glad to be home. I will write more later about when I got home and my visit to the emergency department (all good, dont stress) and my time now at home.
I hope all is well, I will check some posts and say hi!
United States
![[Bonesmart.org] Candi's hip journey - two THR and a revision](https://data.bonesmart.org/attachments/44/44150-47688f36c8daf366169b46436d5e3530.jpg?hash=R2iPNsja82)
![[Bonesmart.org] Candi's hip journey - two THR and a revision](https://data.bonesmart.org/attachments/44/44151-0ff59b711e7fd49319fc25c94798ad3a.jpg?hash=D_WbcR5_1J)
