the 3 B's

Brace. Booties. Barrel. This is the goureous contraption that keps me safe while I sleep. It's very helpful because it keeps my hip from externally rotating (turning outward). This motion stresses the stitches on the joint capsule.  The brace also keeps my hip from moving too much and it's quite the fashion statement! 

Here's the brace in all it's glory!

day 2 post op

After the first night at home I spent most of my day sleeping. The car ride home and the surgery itself can be incredibly exhuasting (and even more so for open surgery). I wasn't eating very much at all due to the medications what I did eat tended to be beige and bland. The first few days of recovery were so exciting!

The brace, boots and barrel!



close up of the brace and ice machine



10 things to do while you're on bedrest

1. flap your arms on the bed and pretend you are a velociraptor
2.eat yogurt
3.contemplate your future
4. paint your fingernails bright colors
5.convince someone to paint your toenails because you can't bend beyond 90 degrees
6. watch disturbing television shows about beauty pagents for small children
7. feel guilty about watching those shows; study for the biology SAT subject tests
8. play with play dough
9. watch videos of animals with British voice overs
10. take pictures of your feet

day 1

For the first 24 hours or so post-op I was in the hospital. During that time I would be awake for about 15 minutes then nap for an hour. Very exciting. I was also hooked up to a morphine pump (PCA pump) to keep my pain under control. When I woke up my hip/thigh felt like it had been hit repeatedly with a baseball bat, though everyone's experiences tend to differ. In addition to the pump, I was attached to and IV that kept me hydrated with fluids. I also got three infusions of antibiotic during my stay as this the norm for all surgery patients at my particular hospital.


relaxing on the inpatient floor

Due to the tendency of my hip to dislocate I had to keep my hip immobilized in bed until my brace was delivered that afternoon.

the lovely Pillippon hip brace!

In the late afternoon I was sent off to physical therapy to practice walking on crutches and using stairs. Most hospital won't let you leave until you pass those tests! Then I was drugged up and loaded into the car to head home.

The big day

After starting the day with my breakfast of champions (apple juice and water) we headed to the pre-op clinic around midmorning for general admitting and some basic pre-op testing. Not pregnant? check. Allergic to anything? check. Not wearing any jewelry? check. Vital signs? of course. After that we headed up to the pre-op holding area where I waited on a bed to meet with my surgeon and a whole bunch of other people. We got some hard news from the surgeon who told us that he didn't know what shape the cartilage would be in and that removing part of the labrum would be my best option. We all knew it would be a waiting game to see what was going on.

Let's do this!

The lovely anesthesiologist placed an IV and gave me something and I was out before we even reached the operating room.

so sleepy

It seemed like 10 seconds had passed and I was waking up in the PACU (recovery room). I was monitored closely and I drifted in and out of sleep. Soon my parents came in with good news. My labrum was perfect and we had the pictures to prove it! They mentioned something about my other surgeon coming in to talk to them, something about my femur and a brace. We were all so excited about my labrum that we didn't pay any attention to  it.



Ready to roll to the inpatient floor!

As we were getting ready to leave for the floor, the phone next to bed rang and the nurse answered it. Then she gave me a funny look and said "it's for you" and handed it to me. Apparently it is not standard for surgeons to call their patients in the recovery room.  He talked to me for close to 10 minutes. I was still quite sleepy and I think I understood about 30% of what he was saying. Every few minutes he would pause and I would say something like uh huh...really? oh jeez. yup. really? mhm... ok. From what he said this is the basic explanation of the wild shenanigan my left hip has decided to pull on me. After looking at the cartilage through the arthroscope he noticed that my femur was all dented, like a golf ball. (normally it should be nice and smooth). He then must have called in my other surgeon, the one who does open surgery, to come and help out. He imitated my walking pattern as the other one looked at my femur through the scope. As my leg was going though the motion of walking my hip was subluxing-coming out of the socket a little bit- with every step! I do have very very loose joints. (If you were wondering, we are looking into the possibility of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome at my post op appointment but more on that later). As a temporary fix he placed a few stitches on my faulty hip capsule. (known as capsular reefing). For my rehab we have to be super careful to prevent a full dislocation as my joint is compromised from the surgery. I am currently in a Phillippon brace-pictures soon! I am also on crutches, touch down minimal weight bearing, with the brace for 4 to 6 weeks plus 2 more weeks on crutches without the brace. The interesting thing is I am currently on bedrest without a CPM machine (constant passive motion) or ANY physical therapy as the goal is for me to make as much scar tissue on my capsule as possible!

The night before hip surgery 7/25/11

* This is the first part of a series of posts written (almost) everyday for the first few weeks while recovering from a hip arthroscopy. Hope you like it! *

Since we live about 80 miles away from the hospital where I have my surgeries, my family and I decided to spend the night before my surgery at the hospital's family housing complex. This was a complete godsend to us as my pre-op appointment was at 10:30 the next morning and we would have battled nasty morning rush hour. To help get rid of pre op jitters we went to a fun dinner and headed back to our room for some pre-surgery preparation...



chocolate milk, cookies and trashy magazines? yes.

Since you can't eat after midnight before surgery why not have your last meal be milk and cookies? We also borrowed the movie The Incredibles ( I know it's a kids movie, but it's pretty fantastic). Plus it turns out I have more in common with elasta girl than I might have thought...more on that coming soon!

I made it!

Tomorrow will mark one week after my fifth hip surgery. Whoah. Under the circumstances I'm actually feeling pretty darn good. I've got lots of pictures and I hope to start tomorrow on a day-by-day chronicle of my surgery and recovery. As you may know from experience it takes at least a week to beginning to feel "normal" after an arthroscopy. I'm taking it very slow right  now and it's a bit difficult to make my brain focus on writing right now so I'll keep the posts short and sweet!
Ty