First of all, I’m going to say that I’m pretty impressed with myself for writing a blog post just 24 hours after coming out of surgery. Also, this was my first ever surgery, so I thought I’d share some thoughts and feelings about the whole experience. If you’ve been following me for awhile you are probably aware that I was diagnosed with a labral tear in my left hip back in March (MRI was back in January). Of course, with Covid-19 any kind of surgical consult, let alone treatment was pushed back and back (also I was floated around to 3 hospitals because very few surgeons specialize in hip arthroscopy apparently).
I didn’t choose the surgical route lightly. Actually, I took advice from several physicians and healthcare professionals before making the decision. My rheumatologist (actually my rheumatologist was on mat leave so it was the one covering for her) diagnosed the hip tear and sent off for a surgical consult. She also told me to start physiotherapy for the tear as it is often helpful. Because things closed down because of the pandemic, I started virtual physio with my regular physiotherapist mid-April. Though exercise helped a bit, it was minimal. I added chiropractics, and massage back into my routine care (because of my undifferentiated connective tissue disease as well) in July, and then most recently started seeing the naturopath again at the end of September. All helpful, but not enough to take away the excruciating discomfort cause by the tear. They all also offered opinions, some differing, on whether I should have surgery. At the end of the day, with research done on my own, I decided that as my naturopath put it, surgery was really the only option to fix the problem.
Now, I actually wasn’t nervous about the surgery, especially after finally meeting with the surgeon mid October, and literally being booked for surgery less than a month later. He was confident, read me off the risks which were minimal, and again, I did some research on long-term outcome studies. Yesterday, after I had been checked in, and then taken into the pre-op area for some vitals and questions, I started to get nervous. However, the amazing healthcare team (all the pre-op, op, post-op nurses; pre-op and op anesthesiologists and assistants; and of course my surgeon and surgical team) made me feel at ease. According to my surgeon after surgery, it went “perfectly.” Also a relief.
Post-operatively not so fun. I wasn’t actually nauseous at first and the pain in my hip I rated at a 6-7 (for which they had me on morphine) after about 30-45 minutes later (really was out of it and couldn’t keep track of time) I rated the pain about the same, so they gave me oxycodone, which then made me nauseous. It took another 2.5 hours for me not to feel “as nauseous”… basically the least amount for me to go home (and my pain was also down to about a 4 at the time). Long day. Probably longer for my amazing friend, Mike, who picked me up from my appointment and then took care of me at home (even brought groceries, and Starbucks!). The nausea stayed until like 7:30pm. Honestly, I think food helped. And I was pretty out of it all day. Oh yeah, they gave me Gravol for the nausea which totally made me drowsy. But we had sushi, and watched Netflix until like 9, when I passed out in bed.
At this point I’m more annoyed about the post-op complications I guess? First, sore throat which apparently is common after coming off of general anesthesia, but I didn’t know that. I’m trying to drink a ton of liquids to help! Second, I have numbness in the groin area… maybe I’ll share more about that on a later post but let me say, not fun. Finally, living alone and trying to get around on crutches post-op is not fun. I have to ice my hip constantly, and then it took me forever to get coffee/breakfast ready for myself this morning. If it weren’t for the pandemic, my mom would’ve flown out to help me. Oh well, I suppose this is Chronic Pain Warrior life.
That was mostly thoughts… as for feelings, I’m tired and sore and frustrated (about the numbness) but also relieved to have the surgery over with, and hopeful that I will have significantly less pain in my hip. I mean, if I’m going to be a practicing therapist soon I need to be able to sit for long hours without looking like I’m in discomfort, so I can be present on focused on those future clients of mine!
If anyone else has an op/post-op experience they’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you. And remember, keep making the most of it. 🙂
Chronically Living 