THR second time easier (so far)

[BarbaraR]

Songlady, glad you're doing so well.

 

[Liveringer]

Songlady You are doing wonderful and sounding like your being a good patient. Glad to hear you are doing well.

 

[Kim22]

Hi Songlady, I have just caught up with your post op thread. Congratulations on your second new hip. It will be wonderful to have 2 good ones won't it. It's great that you are getting lots of rest which is just what you need at the moment to get you on the road to recovery. I hope you enjoyed the burgers prepared by your 19 year old. The iron in the red meat will also do you good.

 

[Poppet]

Hi there Meg, don't you just love those naps... I used to fall asleep in mid sentence, hubby said 'obviously his conversation wasn't captivating enough' lol

 

[Elosarabrab]

Songlady, Hi fellow April rainbow. I just caught your recovery thread. Sounds like you are doing well. I don't feel so tired this time for some reason. I am on elbow crutches to get around. I have a downstairs loo so only have to tackle the stairs when I go to bed. Ed is looking after me this week so all I have to do is relax. Happy Healing
Barbara

 

[Songlady]

Day 6 post-op.
I was running very slight fever in the hospital and the OS said he wasn't concerned, that this was not uncommon after the assault of surgery.
But I think I'm still running it. On and off - more in the evening, less in the morning. Range is from 98.9 to 100 (just a few minutes ago.)
So, tomorrow is Monday and I will call the OS's office.

I am wondering if it's a UTI. At one point in the hospital I had this intense feeling of needing to urinate for some hours during the night, even though I was catheterized. I was convinced that it was "habit," that since I usually get up at about 3 am to visit the bathroom, my body was wanting to do that even with the catheter.

Early the next morning I asked the nurse to check the catheter. She found a little kink in the tubing and when she unkinked it, 650 ccs of urine filled the bag! This happened at least one other time.

And then, Several hours (10? 12?) before they took the catheter out, I'd coughed a good, cleansing cough and felt something go <pop> - I think the cath dislodged itself and was just lying in there for about 6 hours. I had thought so at the time, but then when the nurse came to remove and said "you'll feel a pinch" I felt nothing except the hose sliding out: it was already unattached.

Tomorrow I meet the home care nurse (a different one from the one who came to do the intake Friday and to check on me Saturday) and I start home PT. So I'll talk to the nurse, call the OS, and hope for the best. I've trying to wish this away and hope for a spotless recovery! But now I'm a little nervous....

Sigh...

 

[alexthecat]

Meg, I had that fever too. It happened almost every night until I was about two weeks post-op. I saw my OS's assistant 8 or 9 days post-op. She asked me about it before I even got around to mentioning it. She said it was very common and not to worry about it.

 

[Songlady]

thanks, Alex, that makes me feel better.
The OS' instructions had been to call if the fever went above 101, and so far it has not.
I'll see what the nurse thinks in the morning.

 

[Allycat]

I had a fever too, but best to rule out the UTI. In hospital, my OS told kept telling the nurses to hurry up and take the catheter out or it could lead to a UTI. While I loved the "freedom" of not needing to get up for the loo in the early days, I did NOT want a UTI.

 

[Songlady]

Just being able to vent here did a lot to help me ditch my nervousness!
No fever at all this morning when the nurse came! And so far still this evening, none.

However, my skin has reacted to the waterproof plastic cover the last nurse had put on so that I could shower. So now I have gauze and paper tape and I'll have to skip my shower or wrap the area in Saran wrap.

I actually have two blisters and some angry red skin where the adhesive was! Hmmm, I thought it felt itchy and hot!
The incision looked good, though.
The PT also came today and had me do a variety of foot pumps and very slight leg lifts, and I walked around the downstairs of the house with her. It was fun.

She was pretty impressed with the hives on my back, too, which had started in the hospital. Now to figure out if the Dilauded there was the culprit, or the tramadol or percocet. I'd forgotten about it, but i think last time I had some itchy rash issues with the tramadol. Ho well...!

 

[sandybeach]

Songlady those first days home are always the worse. You experience stuff you would never think could happen. It sounds like some of the things are getting resolved though for you and you are up doing some PT, good for you. I hope all the skin issues soon clear up. Main thing to remember is to rest as much as you can...that's the best thing you can do for your body now.

 

[Songlady]

A good day!
Lots of rest, every hour or two a constitutional around the first floor of the house, and even two trips out the back door and down the driveway so I could admire my pansies!
The rash on my back is responding well to cortisone cream, as the home nurse suggested.
I can notice differences in strength in the little things: last night when we sat to watch TV, my husband needed to help my lift my leg onto the footstool. Tonight I did it by myself with no problem!
Yay!

 

[Songlady]

I walked up to the corner with a cane and the physical therapist this morning! Then I came home and napped. A nurse came to change the dressing and found that the incision was completely dry; the only issues were the blistered areas from the adhesive. He put a call in to the OS' office to ask permission to leave the dressing off... but then this afternoon the OS called me to ask how I was doing, and he told me I could take off the entire dressing. Whew! Maybe the skin will heal now.

 

[Songlady]

I have two questions for Josephine -
First, I am on xarelto (blood thinner) for 3 weeks post-op. I've been taking the pill each morning mid morning. Today I forgot and just remembered and took it, about 7 hours later than usual. Shall I just take tomorrow's on the morning schedule? And, when I was trying to find this out online, I kept reading "do not stop this medication suddenly" - is it ok that I am to take it for 3 weeks and then stop it suddenly? I am wondering - is this warning more for someone who takes it for months or years?
Secondly, my mother has become ill this week and today was admitted to an area hospital. My dear husband was the one who fetched her and brought her in. I am assuming that I should simply consider myself unable to go visit her (I've only been out of the house for 2 days, I am not yet back to driving, hospitals and germs, etc.) Assuming that she's not about to breathe her last, in which case I might do what I wanted to anyway, am I right to just tell family that I simply can't be Mom's "point person" this time?
Thanks -

 

[Elosarabrab]

Songlady you need to put the Josephine to tag her or she wont see it. I have tagged her now for you

 

[Songlady]

Thanks, Elosarabrab. I couldn't figure out how to do that!

 

[Josephine]

First, I am on xarelto (blood thinner) for 3 weeks post-op. I've been taking the pill each morning mid morning. Today I forgot and just remembered and took it, about 7 hours later than usual. Shall I just take tomorrow's on the morning schedule?

Don't fret about the timing - you just need to take it once in every 24hrs is all.

when I was trying to find this out online, I kept reading "do not stop this medication suddenly" - is it ok that I am to take it for 3 weeks and then stop it suddenly? I am wondering - is this warning more for someone who takes it for months or years?

Yes, that is for people who are on long term anti-coagulant therapy because they've had a heart attack or a stroke.

I am assuming that I should simply consider myself unable to go visit her (I've only been out of the house for 2 days, I am not yet back to driving, hospitals and germs, etc.) Assuming that she's not about to breathe her last, in which case I might do what I wanted to anyway, am I right to just tell family that I simply can't be Mom's "point person" this time?

Absolutely right! There are times in our lives when our own health and well being supersedes all others. Put yourself first. Anyway, you are in no condition right now to do anything else!

 

[Songlady]

Josephine, and also Elosarabrab
for helping me out technically! -
Thanks. I'll try to be less nervous about the anticoagulant - and I'll also try to remember to take it.

And thanks, also, for confirming my hunch about what my role needs to be in this particular "Mom health crisis." I'm usually the one who is with her a lot in the hospital and makes sure she and the medical staff understand each other (she is hard of hearing.) So I feel sad to not be able to help, and my instinct is to want to be with her, but when I think it though logically I know I wouldn't be much good there!

Mom had been in and out of the hospital and rehab for 3 months last fall with a septic knee, and I thought she seemed stable recently so I could go ahead and do my hip, but now she possibly has pneumonia. Argh.

 

[sharonslp]

For what it's worth, Meg, my mom got pneumonia the year after my dad died...Mom was 88 at the time, and I was sure that would be her undoing. But no....my tough cookie mom rallied round, and survived another five years. Wish I could have bottled her amazing recuperative power....I'd send some along to your mom. Hoping for the best....for both of you.

Sharon

 

[Maeve]

Hi@Songlady,
Good wishes for a speedy recovery. Sounds like you are handling all the little issues...meds, rashes ... that cause panic for newbie hippies in a very calm fashion helped by having gone through this before.
I'm sure your Mum will be just fine and that the rest of your family will rally around so you can put your energies into a quick refovery. Cheers
Fran