Ok, It's been a busy day today, I'm finally getting a chance to update about my Post-op appointment.
I am very thankful that I took morphine before going to the appointment! They were saying they could take out the staples while I stand up, but I nixed that and told them, "Only if you want to find me on the floor and have to pick me up." LOL! They got me up on the exam table and let me half sit/half recline. Good thing, because taking the bandage off was on the painful side and there were a few staples that I guess really dug in that were very painful when she was taking them out. I would have been on the floor.
I don't think I ever posted here that I called myself a squid because of the leg cuffs and the cords/wires that hung down all the time...I felt like I looked like a squid. Anyway, when she took the cuffs off and took all the cords and everything, I almost shouted, "Yay!! I'm not a squid anymore!!" Dogdude started shaking his head
....I think he might have been slightly embarrassed.
It's ok though, that's what I'm there for...keep them grounded.
I've decided only to take morphine in the morning, but I only have one left. So I will see how I do with just Tylenol. If I need more pain control, they said to go ahead and take the Percocet...I might be visiting the Party Girl when I have PT then, I guess.
I talked to them about my concern that I still can't put all my weight on the Op leg. She assured me that it is perfectly normal. She said give it a week or so and I might be able to get down to just one crutch. So, they weren't concerned about it at all. So that made me feel much better. We did a couple of errands while we were up there and then came home. It was nice to be out of the house for a little while.
After I got home, I got a call from PT Guy, asking if it was ok to come at a certain time. When he got to the house, I had a lot to talk to him about. I told him I didn't like the other lady that came because she kept trying to get me to do things I knew I wasn't ready for. We talked a lot about issues we had at the hospital and I told him what I wrote on the survey I got in the mail, and we discussed that. Because there are some issues that they have been pretty much trying to tell the hospitals/committees that they are finding need to be done, things that need to be improved, so he was glad to hear that a lot of what they have been saying was expressed in my comments on the survey. We also talked about my current abilities in walking. He was not expecting me to be down to 1 crutch, or to be using a cane yet. That was a relief. Because of the years of "coping" with the old hip, the muscles that were not being allowed to move for so long are very weak, and he said that before I can get to using a cane or one crutch, those muscles need to be strengthened. When he was having me do some side stepping, he said he could see that my legs were shaking after a bit, and he said that was all we were doing. I asked him about when I'm walking for a little bit of a distance why I start feeling shaky and kind of weak, even my arms begin to get shaky, I was concerned about that, wasn't sure if it was some other issue, or my sugar level, or what. But he said, "No, it's because your muscles are very weak." He even said that he thinks I may have to go to PT longer than the 4 weeks that were prescribed to get me using a cane, or walking without one. That was a little bit of bad news, but, we will just see how it goes. Before surgery, I was having to lift my left leg up to get into the car and put it in the car, because of the impingement of the bone spur, and that had been going on for a few years, so it makes sense that the muscle may have atrophied.
Oh, and I only have to wear compression socks on my Op leg now, for 2 weeks and then I'm done with them! I think that's it. I've got steri-strips on my incision now and I'll be allowed to shower tomorrow afternoon, although, Dogdude won't be there to help me, so I'll probably get one on Wednesday! Looking forward to it!
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