craftdee
graduate
Well here I am on "the other side"... I have to say my pre op anxiety did not improve and was totally debilitating. Even after I had my pre med the surgeon came in to see me and said that I didn't have to go through with it, we could leave it for a few more months, I had already bailed once and did realize the op was inevitable.. if I wanted an improved life! The anethesist was SO understanding, he even stroked my arm to help calm me and never made me feel ridiculous - even though I felt ridiculous myself. So hint one is get a surgeon that you feel truly comfortable with, I think I am actually in love with mine and if you can score a fab anesthetist too BONUS!
I went ahead, woke up in way more pain than I was expecting, strapped to the stoopid abductor pillow which freaked me out! I got the pillow removed as soon as I was in my room. pain under control within an hour and haven't gone past 3 or 4 on the pain scale since! So many of the things I was worried about proved to be basically non-events, some little things I thought wouldn't raise any issues have... my heels and butt cheeks have given me more discomfort than the wound site... and it's a pretty chunky wound site being posterior approach with some "technical difficulties" not discovered until mid op.
I was very glad to hear from my surgeon that my hip was "stuffed" (I love Australians, such a way with words, lol) and that there was some congenital malformation that made it a technically difficult operation, which he enjoyed as it "broke his day up" !!!! I was so worried I had gone too early for the op, this info really has helped me see the necessity of it as the whole joint would definitely not have lasted until next year, and as the bulk of the collapse is on the pelvic side it would have been a more difficult operation.
I got up on Day 0, even though I had a general anesthetic (again, understanding anethesist said it removed one of my major anxieties, being able to hear the op, so I went with his advice) I walked around my room on crutches in the morning of Day 1 and have been doing all my exercises and about eight laps of the Orthopedics floor since Day 1 afternoon.
I'm on Day 2 now, on tablets for pain control, because I ambulated early I don't have TED stockings or Warfarin injections to deal with, I showered myself this morning (hubby dried my legs for me though, lol), I'm eating every prune offered, so no constipation issues, my precautions include only a much more restricted 70 degree bend, which is standard protocol for Posterior approach in this hospital but my surgeon is happy for me to practice only 90 degree precautions once home - they seemed like too much before surgery, but relative to 70 degrees 90 feels like a win!
I am something of a poster girl for Posterior approach, I had admiring hordes (well three lots of staff, lol) popping their heads in my room saying Look, she's only Day 1- did give my ego a boost; that and the fact that they kept checking my DOB, so I've obviously retained my youthful good looks, lol.
I really feel for any of you pre-op who are suffering serious anxiety. No one can tell you not to worry, because all us worriers just "know" that they're going to have problems; but seriously I'm going home tomorrow (Day 3) after a technically difficult Posterior THR, and I'm nothing special ) My advice before hand is to prepare as much as you can bearing in mind some things are outside your control... I practiced sleeping on my back for a couple of weeks prior to surgery and that really helped me as I hated it the first couple of nights, getting very poor sleep. I thought it would be good to have some sort of handle on it before having to switch to back-sleeping straight after surgery when there would be many other adjustments to make... it was SO worth it, for me at least. I actually found it more difficult on my back with my bad hip because the position of my leg was very uncomfortable... I have noticed since the op that my leg stays "upright" with the toes pointing to the ceiling like they're supposed to, without effort or discomfort - so essentially you're not comparing apples with apples when you anticipate sleeping on your back post op while you still have a bad hip.
If you get a "reacher" ahead of time take it to hospital with you because you'll no doubt knock your bell onto the floor a zillion times and being able to get it at least some of the time and not have to yell for your nurse is so satisfying!
The other thing would be get some gel booties, they're not expensive and they can help prevent your heels getting sore and your hubby looking at you like "are you serious, you've got a major wound site, and your complaining about sore heels' Also we have a four wheel drive car, which is a little different to enter than using the usual protocols... the ones they give you on the fact sheets, Our physio today had me go up onto a step (easy by the way) and we asked where we could get one like it, the answer was a sports store as it's a Step Class type step - perfect as it's a little wider than a standard step tread and it means I can climb up on it, have room to turn around and enter the car bum first like you would in a sedan! Buying it from a Sports store means a) there's more available, b) cheaper than anything from a medical supply store.
I'm only on Day 2 and I'm sure there are challenges ahead but it's all a lot less stress than I thought it would be so far.... stopping myself from doing things is probably the biggest challenge, especially when the bit of pain I've got (which the nursing staff are super keen to keep on top of, so never anything to fear) goes completely.
I went ahead, woke up in way more pain than I was expecting, strapped to the stoopid abductor pillow which freaked me out! I got the pillow removed as soon as I was in my room. pain under control within an hour and haven't gone past 3 or 4 on the pain scale since! So many of the things I was worried about proved to be basically non-events, some little things I thought wouldn't raise any issues have... my heels and butt cheeks have given me more discomfort than the wound site... and it's a pretty chunky wound site being posterior approach with some "technical difficulties" not discovered until mid op.
I was very glad to hear from my surgeon that my hip was "stuffed" (I love Australians, such a way with words, lol) and that there was some congenital malformation that made it a technically difficult operation, which he enjoyed as it "broke his day up" !!!! I was so worried I had gone too early for the op, this info really has helped me see the necessity of it as the whole joint would definitely not have lasted until next year, and as the bulk of the collapse is on the pelvic side it would have been a more difficult operation.
I got up on Day 0, even though I had a general anesthetic (again, understanding anethesist said it removed one of my major anxieties, being able to hear the op, so I went with his advice) I walked around my room on crutches in the morning of Day 1 and have been doing all my exercises and about eight laps of the Orthopedics floor since Day 1 afternoon.
I'm on Day 2 now, on tablets for pain control, because I ambulated early I don't have TED stockings or Warfarin injections to deal with, I showered myself this morning (hubby dried my legs for me though, lol), I'm eating every prune offered, so no constipation issues, my precautions include only a much more restricted 70 degree bend, which is standard protocol for Posterior approach in this hospital but my surgeon is happy for me to practice only 90 degree precautions once home - they seemed like too much before surgery, but relative to 70 degrees 90 feels like a win!
I am something of a poster girl for Posterior approach, I had admiring hordes (well three lots of staff, lol) popping their heads in my room saying Look, she's only Day 1- did give my ego a boost; that and the fact that they kept checking my DOB, so I've obviously retained my youthful good looks, lol.
I really feel for any of you pre-op who are suffering serious anxiety. No one can tell you not to worry, because all us worriers just "know" that they're going to have problems; but seriously I'm going home tomorrow (Day 3) after a technically difficult Posterior THR, and I'm nothing special ) My advice before hand is to prepare as much as you can bearing in mind some things are outside your control... I practiced sleeping on my back for a couple of weeks prior to surgery and that really helped me as I hated it the first couple of nights, getting very poor sleep. I thought it would be good to have some sort of handle on it before having to switch to back-sleeping straight after surgery when there would be many other adjustments to make... it was SO worth it, for me at least. I actually found it more difficult on my back with my bad hip because the position of my leg was very uncomfortable... I have noticed since the op that my leg stays "upright" with the toes pointing to the ceiling like they're supposed to, without effort or discomfort - so essentially you're not comparing apples with apples when you anticipate sleeping on your back post op while you still have a bad hip.
If you get a "reacher" ahead of time take it to hospital with you because you'll no doubt knock your bell onto the floor a zillion times and being able to get it at least some of the time and not have to yell for your nurse is so satisfying!
The other thing would be get some gel booties, they're not expensive and they can help prevent your heels getting sore and your hubby looking at you like "are you serious, you've got a major wound site, and your complaining about sore heels' Also we have a four wheel drive car, which is a little different to enter than using the usual protocols... the ones they give you on the fact sheets, Our physio today had me go up onto a step (easy by the way) and we asked where we could get one like it, the answer was a sports store as it's a Step Class type step - perfect as it's a little wider than a standard step tread and it means I can climb up on it, have room to turn around and enter the car bum first like you would in a sedan! Buying it from a Sports store means a) there's more available, b) cheaper than anything from a medical supply store.
I'm only on Day 2 and I'm sure there are challenges ahead but it's all a lot less stress than I thought it would be so far.... stopping myself from doing things is probably the biggest challenge, especially when the bit of pain I've got (which the nursing staff are super keen to keep on top of, so never anything to fear) goes completely.
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