LMBC,
I wanted to wish you well tomorrow. Your surgery will be done before you know it and you will be on the road to recovery. I just had a RTHR on 15 October, posterior approach, so I am on Day 5 of recovery. I also was an avid runner with undiagnosed dysplasia for a long time, which completely wore out the joint. I went quickly from being able to grit my teeth and run through the pain, to bone-on-bone and unable to even walk a quarter of a mile.
It’s been a bit of a roller coaster because I had low blood pressure post-surgery and was delayed in being able to get up and move around, but since that resolved, I can tell that I improve a little bit every day in terms of pain level and mobility. It’s so wonderful to not feel any popping or grinding or pain in the joint anymore, even though everything around it is still pretty sore.
Before this I’ve never had any surgeries, and like you I also was nervous about the spinal. But that was literally the easiest/best part of the entire procedure. I was sitting up on the edge of the bed and told to lean over, I remember feeling two very, very tiny shots in my lower back. For comparison sake, these 2 shots hurt less than a flu shot and much less than when they inserted the IVs earlier. I almost didn’t feel the spinal shots. As the second shot of the spinal was being administered, I asked the assistant sitting in front of me and watching me closely what was the next step. He said they would lay me down on my back, and then turn me onto my side and put my arms up in front of my head. That is the last thing I remember ... asking that question. I don’t even remember being laid on my back. The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room as they were changing my gown. So, the spinal was really nothing at all to be concerned about after all. And it feels wonderful until it completely wears off, which for me was almost exactly 7 hours after surgery.
I just wanted to share that experience to hopefully ease your anxiety about the spinal. I know everyone is different, but honestly for me as the patient it ended up being the least dramatic aspect by far.