Muscles? What muscles?

I was getting dressed yesterday morning and was beyond shocked at what has become of my leg. Since children I have given up on the gym but I have always been muscular. I think atrophy would be too "light" of a word to use. My muscles have disappeared and been replaced with fat..... Or maybe jello. It's only been 3 weeks but my legs are un-identifiable to me. Will they ever return????

Post-op Appt

Post Op Appointment I went in to my first post op appt with one goal in mind- to discuss pain control. This week has been pretty bad and the Norco I have been taking just wasn't cutting it anymore. I had to go back and add in Percocet and I was taking a lot of pills. My OS was very pleased w my progress but not happy with my pain levels. He offered me Dilaudid which I felt was way to strong for me. He told me to try it since some people respond differently to different drugs. So I reluctantly accepted the prescription and had it filled immediately. I have to say it is my new wonder drug. As I write this it is 430pm, I took one pill at 7am followed by 2 Tyelnols at 11 and am having the best day I've had all week. I'm also taking Lyrica 3x/day and icing as needed. I definitely have some side effects from it, in the morning I felt a little woozy but nothing like the way I feel on Percocet. Functionally, nothing has changed. I still basically lay around all day. I can't drive and sitting is uncomfortable. I know that this is the norm but its a tough pill to swallow for me. My kids are off from school next week which will make for a very interesting week.

2 weeks Out From Open Surgical Dislocation

The last 2 weeks have been pretty rough and I'm not sure how prepared I was for this. I knew this surgery would be like no other but I must say the recovery has taken me by surprise. The pain is not horrific but I most certainly need my pain meds. The pain is mostly lateral, in the place where I imagine my leg was sawed and screwed back together! I have started to be able to sleep on my non-op side w pillows between my legs but the angle has to be "just right" or I start to feel a lot of pulling laterally. I spend the majority of my day in bed still. Over the last few days I have been able to tolerate sitting at the table for dinner. Everything is exhausting. I left the house for the first time on Friday for an acupuncture appointment. It is about a 2 min drive but I was worn out and paid for it the next day with increased pain and swelling. I have been using my CPM a few hours/day. I don't find it as helpful as I did after my last scope but I am using it. I am completely unable to care for my kids, luckily my mom is still here running he show. I have a toilet seat riser and a shower bench that are a must after this surgery. My incision has to stay dry until I see my OS so I cover it with tegaderm when I shower. I know my blog used to be a lot more detailed and I never held back info, I will try to provide all the info I wanted pre-op. You can always email me for more Info. One of the things that stressed me out pre-op was what to pack for the hospital. I'll give you a list of what I decided to pack and then I'll tell you what I used! Of course I was concerned about post-op underwear. I'm sure there are many people who found this blog post just by googling those words! I had 2 hip friends recommend 2 different things, one recommended men's boxers and one recommended Victoria's Secret string bikini as the band wouldn't touch the incision. I went w the string bikini and have been very happy w that choice. So I packed a few pairs of underwear and few pajama sets (pants and shirts), a robe, a sweatshirt, socks, bras, toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, dry shampoo, lip balm and hand cream. Additionally, a friend gave me a pre- surgery care package with sucking candies, a silk, flax seed filled eye pillow/ mask, and a few other toiletries. I also packed a loose pair of sweatpants to come home. I had no dressing on the incision by the time I came home but there was significant swelling. I wore nothing but a hospital gown the entire 4 days. Surgery was Monday, the catheter came out Wednesday. At that point I had no energy, or a care in the world. I started using a bedside commode that day and couldn't even imagine having to remove clothing. The first time I tried on my new underwear was when I got dressed to go home! I used my toothbrush and toothpaste (the hospital provided but I prefer my own), deodorant, lip balm(all day), hand lotion and sucking candies. I didn't touch the dry shampoo- the morning of my surgery I washed my hair twice and blowdried and flat ironed it hoping to get a long run out of it. It worked. I also recommend to anyone going into the hospital to get an eye mask. It made a huge difference. All the clothes I packed remained un-touched. I laugh now at how stressful the "packing situation" was when in the end all I needed were some comfy hospital gowns! I keep wondering when my leg will stop feeling "broken". Hopefully soon and hopefully I will be cleared for increased weight bearing soon!

Open Surgical Dislocation....Over

I had my open surgery 5 days ago. For the entire week prior to the surgery, I was a mess. I was constantly on the verge of a panic attack. The only reason I was able to finally calm down was because of my acupuncturist who is the most amazing woman I have ever met. If you live in the NYC/lower Westchester area I highly recommend you see her for just about any ailment. http://www.acupunctureforlifeny.com/ I see her for anxiety, which is directly related to this surgery. The Monday before my surgery I was feeling panicky so I stopped by her office so that she could put in tiny needles in my ear at points that help me control my anxiety. I felt so much better the next day. Maybe it is just a placebo affect but when I went for pre-op testing in Wed, I was expecting my blood pressure to be through the roof and it was normal. I couldn't believe it. I saw her for a full treatment Thursday and on Monday, the day of my surgery, it was still normal. My pre-op blood pressure is usually really really high! I was on the same floor that I have been for my previous 5 hip surgeries and my shoulder surgery. I was surprised they didn't have a sign that said "welcome back Susie"! I got my favorite nurse who in the past has been a goddess getting my IV started. Unfortunately this time my veins weren't cooperating and it took 3 times to start my IV. The other difference was that I had to put on TED stockings prior to the surgery to help w my circulation. The surgery was done using a spinal epidural and sedation with the anesthesiologist maintaining low blood pressure to prevent too much blood loss. I was brought to the OR around 430 or 5. The next thing I remember was waking up in horrific pain, probably the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I was so nervous about this happening and I had a long discussion abt it w the anesthesiologist and with my surgeon's PA. The floor I had surgery on is where mostly the arthroscopic surgeries happen. The bigger surgeries happen on another floor. I was afraid the PACU wouldn't be able to handle me! It took 2 hours and whole lot of dilaudid to get me comfortable. Once I could think I realized that the epidural had worn off on the right (op side) and not the left. Not good! I had a pain pump w Dilaudid in it so they kept telling me to press the button on it. I don't think it helped too much though. At around midnight they moved me to the PACU on the floor where they do the "real" surgeries and I spent most of the night there. The nurses was great and let J stay with me since there was only one other patient in there. I began to feel very itchy from the meds so she gave me some Benadryl in my IV. I had a strange reaction and began to cough. We didnt think much of it and it worked so quickly I just fell asleep. By around 5am I could move my legs an acceptable amount and was transferred to a room. I was comfortable and in no pain as long as I didn't move. I had a urinary catheter and an epidural still in place. The pain pump went right to the epidural and the catheter was a blessing in disguise because there was no way in hell I was getting out of bed to use the bathroom. I was getting meds round the clock, I don't know why I was getting some of them but I was too out of it to question or argue. I was getting iron, a multi vitamin, aspirin, Percocet, toradol in my IV, Zofran in my IV and Nubain in my IV for itching since I had a weird reaction a second time to the IV Benadryl. As far as the surgery went, I have spoken w my OS a few times but need to get the op report to know exactly what he did. From what I understand, the old allograft had actually incorporated nicely but wasn't functioning at all. It was pretty easy to dislocate my hip. Once he put in the new one it created a good seal that could be seen since it was an open surgery. I think he also said he shaved down bone under my psoas but I will have to confirm this when I am less drugged. The epidural and catheter came out on the 3rd day and I began using a bedside commode since I wasn't doing great in PT. I think I got as far as sitting at the edge of the bed and standing on the second day. The 3rd day I took a few steps and made it from one side of he bed to he other. By day 4 I was feeling a lot better and really wanted to go home. I pushed myself in PT and walked far enough to make them happy and did a few steps. The best part of coming home was taking a shower. I got to use my fancy shower bench and I have to keep the incision dry until my OS can check it, but it was a real shower! My incision is closed with dissolvable sutures and steri strips. Since I've been home I have spent most of the time in bed with my CPM. I have to take aspirin and wear TED stockings to prevent blood clots.

Post-op