Sunday, December 16, 2012

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!

2 comments:

HipRN said...

Hi Susie, I've been following your blog awhile (found out about yours through a mutual friend SZ). I had the SDD 3 yrs ago so know just what you're going thru. I also had 2 PAOs and 3 scopes. I will say, the SDD was heinously painful initially compared to the PAOs. My surgeon (Dr. Zaltz) mentioned that because the lateral thigh is where the most soft tissue is, that is one of the reasons it can hurt so badly. I remember the exhaustion too. It gets better around week 4-5. My screws were extremely painful though and were removed a year later during my PAO. They started to bother me to the point of not sleeping around month 8. Miserable! Anyway, if you have questions feel free to email me at marcie_15@hotmail.com, and I can give you my blog address too if you'd like. Hang in there! You'll start noticing a turn around soon :)

Carrie said...

You have great friends...especially the one who gave you the VS underwear suggestion and the pre-op care package! ;)