It was suggested that I ask for my medical notes as well as my X-rays, and eventually a huge pile of paper arrived. Much of it blank! I guess it is more efficient to take the whole file and run it through the copier. Not much of interest. I was hoping for some insights on the op itself, as some people here seem to get from their OS, but his notes were brief and almost entirely illegible. You’d think a surgeon might have better handwriting, it’s fine motor skills after all!
He wrote: Left total hip. Posterior approach OA (I could guess those hieroglyphics. Sort of a Rosetta Stone.)
Femoral prep UA 9. (guessing here and wildly speculating below)
Acetabulum prep 50 - TVR , Oestephylum, 40 ^ Philutum
32 1.0 (or maybe I.D) Pilz
Reduced with 32 Denton + 1
Stable/length/offcut (? offset?). Regrrr (regular?)
Closure
Any experts on here able to translate?!
Here is what else I could glean of interest:
My anticipated stay was 3 nights. This is how long I did stay, but I was always told 2 and thought it was my unexpected low Bp that delayed leaving.
My pre op, baseline, BP was 111/69
First reading during surgery was 95/53, it reached a low of 72/40 about half way through the operation but finished at 101/61. Most BP readings over Day 0 and 1 were round 100/55. Morning day 1 my BP was 93/60 supine, down to 81/53 when the physio tried to get me to stand. Readings remained around that level, down to low of 82/43, but next day were round 100/65. Which was considered ok for being discharged.
I went in to anaesthetic room at 10.10 and in to theatre at 10.40. Surgery started 10.47, finished 11.30, out of theatre 11.34. So about three quarters of an hour for the surgeon, which explains how he can do 7 a day.
There was over a page of labels, complete with barcode, from all the instruments used. Retractors, readers, drill, screwdriver...
Plus the labels for the prosthetic parts.
Blood loss, which they estimate from number of swabs used, was 300 ml. About half a pint, or as Tony Hancock would say, almost half an armful.
One thing annoys me. They have a Falls Risk score on which I was just into the high range on day 2 (medium is 11-19, I was 19 on Day 1 and 21 on Day 2). They have a Falls Management Plan on which they ticked off all the things for medium risk except “family consultation”. The items for high risk were not ticked. They all applied to hospital environment, eg location closer to nursing station, check hourly if need toilet. I feel a bit that the purpose of the exercise was to cover themselves so I didn’t fall in hospital. If they had warned me, and husband, that I was high risk, and provided the information sheet that told nurses what precautions to take, I probably wouldn’t have ended up falling at home. No lasting damage but it was unpleasant at the time.
Another thing that annoys me is the anaesthetist wrote that “patient was v anxious, reassurance given throughout”. Since it took him 3 goes to force a needle into my arm before he got started poking around in my spine, I think a little anxiety is understandable. Also, being told that it has never before taken 3 attempts is not what I consider reassuring.
Anyway, grumbling over. All over now, papers filed away and hopefully never relevant again.