Monthly Archives: December 2015

Day 3 Post Hip Replacement Surgery

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Day 3 – Morning report:

Last night’s sleep at KCOI wasn’t very restful. Lol. I woke up with heel pain from having to keep my legs in the same position during sleep. Then my ice pack sprang a leak around 3am. They had to change the bedding, then do a blood draw around 4:15am. My room felt nice and cool until the outside temperature dropped and then the cold woke me up at 8am. I have warmed up blankets piled on me now, rolled up towels under my ankles, and I’m drinking coffee. They do have decent coffee here. (*it really is the small things in life….😊)

I have a great nurse in the daytime and a different great nurse in the evening. It’s funny though, the nighttime nurse puts pillows under my knees and lower legs, and then the daytime nurse comes in and lectures me on how I’m not supposed to sleep with pillows like that because of the risk for blood clots. I tried to get rid of the pillows this morning before she saw, but I only got one put away before she came in and busted me. Lol.

It’s amazing how a single digit number can make such a big difference with your hemoglobin. I came in to the surgery with my hemoglobin at 12.2, up from 11.5 two weeks ago. Then it dropped to 8.2 by early yesterday morning. That’s when I felt the worst…cold, shaky, and lightheaded. They checked my blood results today and my hemoglobin is up to 10.6. It went up a little higher than the 2 point gain they usually see after a transfusion. Just 2 little hemoglobin points made such a difference in how I feel. Crazy.

I get to go home today! I’m doing so well with my PT that my doctor doesn’t see a need to keep me here for my afternoon PT session. So my morning schedule is to wait for an hour after taking my thyroid meds to eat and take my 1st round of pain pills today, then do my PT around 10:30am or so. Then I can start with the business of being discharged. Yay!

And later the same day……

Waiting for my pain pills to kick in so I can do my last round of PT here.

I talked to my surgeon yesterday. He said I had several large bone spurs on my hip joint and that he removed ALL of them. I asked him how the hip looked after he took it out and he said it was bad…lol. That it definitely needed to be replaced. I asked if he kept it in a jar to show me, lol, but sadly he said they can’t do that anymore…it’s now considered bio-hazardous waste and has to be disposed of. Bummer…I wanted to see it. Lol. Take it to my diabetes class for Show & Tell. 😳🙈

I told my surgeon that I promised to set my old joint aside for my Tunwin Stephanie and he just laughed. She had dibs on it, she said my bad hip was probably better than the one she had now. Lol.

Still later….same day…..

One trip in a wheelchair down to my van and we’re heading home!! Discovered quickly that I couldn’t maneuver my right leg into the front seat of the van, so I hopped in the middle seat. I made my nurse nervous as she didn’t know how I would manage stepping up on the running board and into the seat….she and Joe B said I was like a cat the way I climbed in with ease. Hahahaha.

By the way, I am not liking the pain meds. They upset my stomach on the drive home. It was very windy, plus I’m not used to sitting in the back like that. I thought I was going to be carsick for the first time ever, but we made it home without incident.

And it feels wonderful to be home. 🙂

Day 2 Post-Hip Replacement Surgery

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Day 2 Post-Hip Replacement Surgery:

Today was kind of an eventful day. My blood count went down, which is expected after surgery and usually not an issue, except that I have anemia (just a touch). My surgical team elected to go with a spinal block and sedative to get me through surgery because they said the spinal block results in less blood loss for reasons they haven’t figured out yet, as opposed to a general anesthesia. But my hemoglobin count went down to 8.2, so I needed a blood transfusion, 2 units of O positive. At least I know now what my blood type is. It took about 5 hours for 2 units of blood.
I was feeling lightheaded, shaky and cold this morning. I feel much better now.

Aaaaaand, I had 2 sessions of PT. My muscles are strong from all my weight training and I’ve impressed my PT lady and my doctor with my progress. I can walk the very short set of stairs right around the corner from my room, I can walk bearing all my weight on my formerly bum hip leg. And I can do leg raises in all directions except across the center plane of my body. So I got cleared to move around the hospital room and my floor without the safety belt and without having to call a nurse to assist me. It still has to be with the walker, but at least I have some independence.

I don’t mind the IV, or the daily blood draws (except I wish they didn’t have to do them around 4:30-5:30am), but the drain near my incision is kind of freaking me out. I have to clip the little flat cylinder to my gown whenever I get out of bed, and they empty it once a day. Yuck. But the drain is far preferable to having a hematoma, which is a swollen spot under your skin where the blood has pooled near the surgical sight. I had read about some hip replacements that were done several years ago and the patient described feeling like they were sitting on a golf ball. That would be much worse that this freaky little drain.

One more night and morning here and headed home! Thank you again for all the positive stuff headed in my direction. I got flowers today from Jeri and Cadence and Christian, and I had students take Snaps of flowers and send the snaps to me. Lol. And I really appreciate the visitors, texts, phone calls, inboxes, tweets, etc. 😊

Post-Surgery Update: Day 1

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I’m going to turn my FaceBook updates into blog entries since they are long enough to do so. I’m starting with the day of my surgery, Day 1. I’ll post the subsequent updates soon after this, so it’s like 2 weeks of blog entries all posted in one day. Lol.

2.5 Hours Post-Surgery

I am bionic now. 🙌🏼💪🏼

😂😂 Everything went well. I don’t have any nausea, I ate some soup and crackers and took my first round of pain meds. Spinal block is starting to wear off, I can wiggle my toes and move my left leg. My surgeon was very pleased with how smoothly everything went. And they tell me I’ll be up and on my feet sometime today.

Can’t thank everyone enough for all the prayers, good thoughts, texts, inboxes, tweets. Everyone from my students to friends and family. Hated the worry it caused for my family and friends…glad to report that I am doing great within 4.5 hours of my surgery. Dr. Scott Cook is amazing. Another day or 2 here and I’ll be home. 😊

And later the same day…….

So this just happened. 5 hours post-surgery and they got me on my feet and I took a stroll down the hallway. 🚶🏽
With my walker assisting, of course.

I feel like Rocky now. 💪🏼Hahahaha. Maybe that’s just the pain pills.

So thankful for my lifting partner – my sister Sharon, the two trainers I’ve had in the past year, Travis Barrett and Dustin Kinsey. The PT lady was surprised at what I could do in my 1st PT session. I have muscle strength that they are not used to seeing in hip replacement patients. And no nausea or light-headedness. The incision area is a little achy, but the joint area just feels like a very sore muscle.

I seriously thought she was crazy when she said we were going to stand up. Lol. So I’m ready on my way to recovery!

Hip Replacement Surgery in 2 Days!!

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Verilast Hip

I am scheduled to have Right Total Hip Arthroplasty surgery on Monday, December 14, 2015.

I am as ready as I will ever be.

I set the surgery date this summer. Right around the time I quit contributing to my own blog. Lol. I didn’t feel like writing or doing much, except continuing to weight train in preparation. I was really motivated for awhile to lose weight, get my body fat percentage down, build lean muscle tissue….and then for the most part I lost most of that motivation as the surgery, and life’s other unpleasant distractions, began to loom.

I did what I could. What I was mentally and physically able to do. Fought off depression several times, and I feel like I’ve been strong for my kids. Sure I could have done more…if I were friends with me, I would have tried to push me harder. But I didn’t anticipate how low I would feel on different days. I didn’t anticipate the severity of other life’s challenges that have occurred since this summer. So I did the best I could. And I had good help (thank you Sharon & Dustin).

So it’s here. In the past 2 weeks I’ve had my physical with my primary care provider to clear me for surgery. I had my first chest X-ray and my first EKG….I felt like a car battery being hooked up to about 20 jumper cables. I worried about what might happen if the nurse let the ends touch, especially because all the little clamps were in a big tangle as she hooked me up. I met with a nurse for my pre-surgery assessment. Very nice lady, but she talked to me like I was an eternal couch potato….gently encouraging me to try to do tricep dips and start building my upper body strength. And telling me to practice these very simple moves to get used to the motion and to get my hip moving. She didn’t ask, but had she, I could have told her my weight training regimen for the past 16 months. That I’ve pushed an 60-80lb prowler with well over 100 lbs of plates stacked on it….that the motion of gently raising my knees and sliding my heels towards my body is covered very well with the leg presses and hamstring curls I’ve been doing…that the sliding my leg out to the side is done with a resistance band around my ankles. Not to mention the deadlifts, endless curls, pulls, pushes, flies, throwing that weighted ball against the wall to build my core strength and the detestable kettle bell swings. It took all I had to just nod and smile…and then I was grateful for my ability to do all that activity, because Joe B said that she is probably used to seeing older patients, or patients whose joints are so broken down that they are very inactive. And the nurse reassured me that I have an excellent surgeon who has a strong record of good outcomes. That speaks to the health professional in me, and it helped.

I met with my surgeon for my pre-surgery consult. And the picture above is the hardware going into my hip. It’s deluxe….it reminded me of Robo-Cop, or the Terminator type stuff. It’s the best thing technology has to offer for a young, very active, hip replacement candidate. And I am the first of 5 hip replacements my surgeon will be doing on Monday. I hope he has plenty of coffee, or does his yoga, or whatever his morning routing requires for him to be energetic and focused.

He said the surgery takes about an hour, but he never looks at the clock. It takes as long as it takes. He will meet with me to briefly review what will happen, and he will ask me which hip I am getting replaced. He said not to freak out about that, that he knows which hip he is replacing, but that it is his standard practice with each surgery.  I will be getting a spinal block and a sedative instead of general anesthesia. They will have me up and around on my feet before I leave the facility, and he thinks I will be home on Wednesday! They will teach me how to navigate the stairs in my home before they release me. Joe can bring me whatever food I want. Lol. I will be in a walker for 1-3 weeks, then I go right to a cane. Home PT for 2-3 weeks, then outpatient PT.

In preparation, my dad bought me a walker. My dad is awesome. He is so sharp and he just turned 80 a few weeks ago. He checked around and found the best walker for me. Asked me to get a prescription for it to avoid paying sales tax, then asked me if my insurance covered medical equipment like this. I wouldn’t even have thought to ask about any of that. And he blew up my phone checking with me to see if I had called….my dad knows me so well. I probably would have put off calling about any of that had he not kept calling me. Turns out Joe’s insurance covers 85% of durable medical equipment. So I have sleek new ride to bring to the hospital with me. I found myself doing tricep dips with my walker, and then swinging back and forth on it. It reminded me to keep an eye on my youngest who will surely try the same thing.

So this weekend it’s the final prep. I have such a good support team. Our nanny and close friend Makyla set up a Meal Train for me and my family, and I have people scheduled to bring dinner to my family for a week. My good friend Jeri arranged a holiday potluck lunch at my house the Friday after I come home. I have someone to clean my house the day before I come home. Joe took leave from work from the day of my surgery until he has to go back at the beginning of next semester. Our daughter Samantha is coming from OK to help out with her sisters. My 9-year old is my source of happy thoughts. She watches my mood, and when it drops, she reminds me of everything I can’t do now and that I’ll be able to those things again after my surgery. I love her pep talks. I have lots of people praying, sending good words, good thoughts and energy, and making me laugh. Everything is truly, deeply, appreciated. I am surrounded by awesome people.

This is getting long…so I’ll end here. More blog entries are forthcoming, as I get used to resting and being less active during my recovery. I’m looking forward to writing about my experiences so it won’t be quite as scary to anyone else going through this. Wish me luck!