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!