I’ve got a new left hip joint!
Six days ago Dr. Scott Parry and a team of specialists up at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George did the honors…in about 90 minutes!! I was walking with a “walker” four hours after surgery, and today, six days after the event, I am hobbling about the house and neighborhood with the use of a cane.
It is amazing!
I am SORE, for sure, but not as bad as I thought I’d be. My upper thigh area feels like a sturdy mule kicked me in my left hip. What actually happened was the surgery team opened me up about six inches and, then, contorted my pelvis, muscles, femur, and the rest so that they could excise my ball socket joint, saw off the femoral head, replace those things with titanium replacements, shove all of the goodies back in place, and sew me up with a combination of dissolvable sutures and 14 exterior staples.
In an hour and a half!
The only hiccup to the procedure occurred about 4 hours after surgery when my nursing team got me up from bed and had me walk (with walker) to the bathroom. I got very light-headed, felt pale and clammy, and proceeded to pass out. Anyway, they got me back into bed and elevated the foot-end of my bed to get some blood back to my head and heart. My blood pressure had dropped to 65/36 during the excitement.
Thanks to the excellent nursing staff, I suffered no injury from my fainting spell and was back to my normal self within 30 minutes. Scary, though.
Overall, the hospital is the finest that I’ve ever seen (and I used to work in hospitals!), the staff is the nicest and best-trained, and the food is restaurant-quality…no kidding! No Jello, no “fat-free” diet, no tasteless meat and veggies. Every meal was excellent, right on time, and hot.
Again, hard to believe!
An in-home nurse arrived at our home the day that I came home to change my wound dressings and check my vitals. The next day, a physical therapist arrived to check my progress…which was good, so I was taken off the walker and put on a cane. Another nurse arrived today (Day 6) to replace my bandages and check me out. In-home nursing and physical therapy will be making brief appearances here at our home for the next week.
I am taking Norco (hydrocodon opiate) pills to combat the pain. They are needed, believe me, but my intent is to wean myself off of them within the coming week. I started out getting two pills every four hours, and have graduated to two pills every eight hours. My hope is to reduce that to one pill every eight hours by the end of the week. We’ll see; depends upon the pain.
I am now walking with my cane outside in the neighborhood, approximately 300 yards at a pop. Then, I go home and ice my wound site.
Each day I will try to increase the exercise a bit, and decrease the rest and pain killers. According to those who’ve done this before, I should be in good shape by Christmas.
We’re all hoping for that!
