This is my experience only but I genuinely have a very high pain threshold so I thought my perspective would be worth sharing for others who also have a high pain threshold or think they do. Mine has gotten me in a lot of trouble absent the warning system most people have.
So, 10 days post out patient surgery LTHR on Friday 11th. 5 in home visits post surgery so far with 2 more to go.
Started back at work remotely (IT work) today. Thought I'd only be up for 2-3 hours but ended up putting in 6 (Good news because I'm self employed). Surgery is already expensive without losing additional income.
I'm still on the walker but switching between it and the cane. Little to no discomfort but again, "pain threshold" so I'm being conservative because I've been told that the 2-6 week period is when you can be fooled into thinking it is ok to do something stupid that pain would tell you not to do otherwise.
I hated sleeping in the recliner initially because maintaining the position on my back got old. I moved to trying the bed (2 different ones) on day 7 and 8. It made me very nervous to the point of waking me up in fear of turning over and popping my replacement. I very happily moved back to the comfort of my recliner last night and slept like a baby.
I took the heavy duty pain killers on a half dose every 4 hours for the first 2 days, then only at night for sleeping...and then by day 6 I was only taking Tylenol.
Takeaways:
They told me before surgery to hydrate really well which I have been told for the other 2 surgeries I had experienced where I had zero issues. So the day before, I had drank around 3 liters of water. Then in preop they put another liter into me via IV and then when I came out of surgery they encouraged me to drink more water which I did, another 2 liters. You see where this might be leading right?
So, you have to pee..but you can't and the bladder is one of the last organs to wake up after anesthesia.
Around 10:30, I was speedy gonzales walking around the ward with my walker with no thought of any impact on my left hip. Did it 2 or 3 times. Then when I tried to pee..nada.. followed by a spontaneous eruption of water out of my mouth due to sudden nausea around 10 seconds after giving up on trying to urinate.
Needless to say, that was a slow and dejected (but not painful) walk back to the bed.
They let me continue to try to pee over the next 90 minutes with multiple instances of nausea until they finally got that perhaps I should not be drinking more water. I was put on a drip for nausea and they scanned my bladder to see if it was full and of course it was. Little did I know what was coming.
The medicine used as part of the surgery is a slow release (I don't know much about it) but they told me it could not be mixed with lidocaine and other medications used for numbing or it would release 100% into the body in one instant instead of across 4 days.
So, full bladder, in pain now because I can't pee and I'm told they have to use a catheter and by the way, my urethra etc is tight because of the fact I need to pee so bad.
2 minutes later, I'm groaning and trying to stay calm through the closest I can imagine I have ever experienced coming to the fairer sex giving birth. Needless to say, I NEVER, EVER want to feel that again. Maybe others have had better experiences but OMG.
1.5 liters later in a bag, a couple of spontaneous eruptions into bags with nausea and I'm at least relieved of the pain and then that damn thing has to come out which honestly was nothing close to going in. Just unpleasant.
And I still have not peed by myself which I have to do to be able to leave.
So fluid only through the IV going forward and the surgeon and anesthesiologist worriedly coming in and out and asking me if I had ever experienced this in the past which of course I had not.
Doc says, you have to pee at least once or I have to send you home with a catheter and you need to see a urologist. Oh boy..now that's some motivation right there.
I peed the first time at 4:45. The they called the doc because he has already left and he says he wants me to do it again....huh..ok
Another IV and thankfully I went again at 5:50.
We went through 2 shifts of nurses and the on call folks were out processing me. We left at 6:15pm when typically people are done by 2-3pm.
Wondering if others have had similar experiences. I have my first appt follow up on Wednesday and while the surgery was fantastic and the recovery has been so far too, that Friday was hell.
So, 10 days post out patient surgery LTHR on Friday 11th. 5 in home visits post surgery so far with 2 more to go.
Started back at work remotely (IT work) today. Thought I'd only be up for 2-3 hours but ended up putting in 6 (Good news because I'm self employed). Surgery is already expensive without losing additional income.
I'm still on the walker but switching between it and the cane. Little to no discomfort but again, "pain threshold" so I'm being conservative because I've been told that the 2-6 week period is when you can be fooled into thinking it is ok to do something stupid that pain would tell you not to do otherwise.
I hated sleeping in the recliner initially because maintaining the position on my back got old. I moved to trying the bed (2 different ones) on day 7 and 8. It made me very nervous to the point of waking me up in fear of turning over and popping my replacement. I very happily moved back to the comfort of my recliner last night and slept like a baby.
I took the heavy duty pain killers on a half dose every 4 hours for the first 2 days, then only at night for sleeping...and then by day 6 I was only taking Tylenol.
Takeaways:
- This is a big surgery and will hit you like a truck so plan for the most conservative recovery period. If you do better great. If not, great. Use the recovery time.
- Listen to your body - your body will let you know you are overdoing it - you'll feel awful and want to sleep.
- Be ready for a period of disinterest - you won't care for a while and consider it part of the process of healing. Consider I'm posting this thread here 10 days post surgery. There are reasons that is the case.
- Make sure you have help. I still couldn't get through this without my wife today on day 10.
- We have dogs, you have to be ultra conscious of the damage they could do when you are a fall risk.
- Easy things will be hard. you don't realize how much walking you are having to do when grilling and not having to think about it while using a walker and carrying stuff ....
- When showering, you're also showering your walker...lol..at least in my case.
- Ice is definitely your friend but can also be your enemy if you do not use correctly.
- Be prepared for complications and the unexpected whether on the day of surgery or afterwards and follow all instructions given to you by your surgical team.
- Yes, I had complications on the day of surgery which I will go in to below.
They told me before surgery to hydrate really well which I have been told for the other 2 surgeries I had experienced where I had zero issues. So the day before, I had drank around 3 liters of water. Then in preop they put another liter into me via IV and then when I came out of surgery they encouraged me to drink more water which I did, another 2 liters. You see where this might be leading right?
So, you have to pee..but you can't and the bladder is one of the last organs to wake up after anesthesia.
Around 10:30, I was speedy gonzales walking around the ward with my walker with no thought of any impact on my left hip. Did it 2 or 3 times. Then when I tried to pee..nada.. followed by a spontaneous eruption of water out of my mouth due to sudden nausea around 10 seconds after giving up on trying to urinate.
Needless to say, that was a slow and dejected (but not painful) walk back to the bed.
They let me continue to try to pee over the next 90 minutes with multiple instances of nausea until they finally got that perhaps I should not be drinking more water. I was put on a drip for nausea and they scanned my bladder to see if it was full and of course it was. Little did I know what was coming.
The medicine used as part of the surgery is a slow release (I don't know much about it) but they told me it could not be mixed with lidocaine and other medications used for numbing or it would release 100% into the body in one instant instead of across 4 days.
So, full bladder, in pain now because I can't pee and I'm told they have to use a catheter and by the way, my urethra etc is tight because of the fact I need to pee so bad.
2 minutes later, I'm groaning and trying to stay calm through the closest I can imagine I have ever experienced coming to the fairer sex giving birth. Needless to say, I NEVER, EVER want to feel that again. Maybe others have had better experiences but OMG.
1.5 liters later in a bag, a couple of spontaneous eruptions into bags with nausea and I'm at least relieved of the pain and then that damn thing has to come out which honestly was nothing close to going in. Just unpleasant.
And I still have not peed by myself which I have to do to be able to leave.
So fluid only through the IV going forward and the surgeon and anesthesiologist worriedly coming in and out and asking me if I had ever experienced this in the past which of course I had not.
Doc says, you have to pee at least once or I have to send you home with a catheter and you need to see a urologist. Oh boy..now that's some motivation right there.
I peed the first time at 4:45. The they called the doc because he has already left and he says he wants me to do it again....huh..ok
Another IV and thankfully I went again at 5:50.
We went through 2 shifts of nurses and the on call folks were out processing me. We left at 6:15pm when typically people are done by 2-3pm.
Wondering if others have had similar experiences. I have my first appt follow up on Wednesday and while the surgery was fantastic and the recovery has been so far too, that Friday was hell.