16 days POST PAO!

I've been doing so great recovering! I'm really impressed on my progress and how much I am able to do! I did find out today that I am not suppose to be doing any active hip exercises, which someone failed to tell my PT! I stopped doing them and hopefully I didn't hurt anything. Every day I can feel the progress, however. I'm getting stronger and my range of motion in the joint is increasing. So far I've been out of the house a few times! It was Memorial Day weekend so I've gone to bonfires, cookouts, shopping etc! I'm still being really careful though! Right now is the time where someone can think they can do more than they really can. I need to keep telling myself that I still need to keep myself limited to what I'm suppose to do and not go to far.

I always loved when other bloggers told me some tips on what they needed for their recovery so here you go:

-Underwear (boy short style) that is 1-2 sizes bigger than usual for the swelling
-Crutch pillows (I bought them at Walgreens and they help so much!)
-Grabber
-Back Scratcher (since you can't really reach your legs/feet very well)
-Shorts/Pants that are usually used for maternity (they have a band on top so it doesn't hurt the incision)
-Good living room chair to sit in with enough support and arms
-Pill organizer (I take meds every four hours so its nice to have something to organize everything!)
-Fan (I found that when I get hot I get sick from the pain meds. Keeping a fan on makes me feel a whole lot better!)
-Family/Friend support (you need a lot of help in the beginning)
-Shower chair

What I'm most excited about today is that I finally got my X-rays from during surgery!!! I can finally see my internal body bling!!!

One week Post PAO

I'm seeing improvement every day. It is amazing how much can change within one day. Sometimes I am in extreme pain when the pain medication wears off. But overall I'm seeing a decrease in pain. I'm getting around better and becoming more and more independent! Yesterday I got completely ready for the day ALL BY MYSELF! (with the help of my boyfriend getting the items from around the house for me of course). This included washing up, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed in pants! I was even able to lift my left leg on my own! I'm so happy to be in such a good spot one week after surgery. Last Monday I would have never imagined I would feel this good!

Hal

I had my first PT appointment the day after I was discharged. My PT's name is Hal. I couldn't have a better home-based physical therapist. He knows so much about everything. He thinks on his feet and knows all the tricks. He can look around the apartment and come up with equipment out of household items. Here are some of his ideas:

• Use a cookie sheet under the heel of your foot (on your bad leg) upside-down to reduce friction. Bend your leg up and down and much as you can. You can put a tissue under your heal also if there is still too much friction. This helps you use your muscle that our usually wouldn't be able to.
• Homemade ankle weight: Put two soup cans in a long sock and tie it around your ankle.
• Use a milk carton (or something the height of a milk carton) to help boost yourself up and the top of the stairs. This is helpful so when you are scooting yourself up the stairs, you aren't on the floor at the top. It gives you a little boost so that you can then boost yourself into a chair from there.
• Use a leather belt and wrap it around your foot on your bad leg. Use this to help move your leg where you need it to go. 

Hal is great and makes me really want to do my exercises. He knows what exercises that help the most and I'm really seeing improvement fast!  He even personally got me a shower chair really cheap from someone he knows that owns a discount shop!

Coming HOME!

I was discharged on Friday (4 days after surgery!). I felt great and was so excited to be home. Luckily I only live 40 minutes from the hospital. I'm glad because the pain medication can make me a little car sick. I got into the car fine. I ended up scooting backwards onto the bench seat in the back of my boyfriend's car and had my left leg resting flat. This was the easiest way to get in. Getting out, however, was a different story. I had to maneuver myself around and get out of the door I was resting on. It was difficult, but I did it!

My hospital bed was set up right as we were pulling up to my apartment. Perfect timing! I got inside and felt immediate calmness. I missed being home! My favorite part of coming home was the reaction I got from my cat, Callie. She came around the corner and looked at me, her eyes lit up! She meowed and meowed really loud and ran over to me. She rubbed up against my leg telling me she was so glad to see me. This made me feel so good! Later that night she made sure to come and snuggle with me to make me feel better. This is something she doesn't always do, so having her do this meant a lot! She tried to lay right on my incision. When I didn't let her, she moved to my right hip.

I think she knows that my hip is hurting. I really felt this when I was lying on my stomach a few months ago on the couch. She came up and sat on my back and started massaging my LEFT hip! It was hurting really bad at the time and it really made it feel better! Animals seem to be able to sense a lot! I love my little kitty :)

Here are some pictures of the car ride home:

Day 2-4

The last days in the hospital went pretty well. However, there was one big problem. My epidural ran out of fluid and the nurses didn't know how to change the bag!!! This was on Day 2:

I woke up at 6am from my epidural machine beeping. I paged the nurse to have her check it. She said she would call anesthesia because she didn't think they were allowed to change it. (This meant I would have to wait for someone from anesthesia to come up to my floor and change the bag. That would take forever!). About half and hour later she came in my room with a new bag. She said they told her that she was allowed to change the bag. What a relief! Right? Wrong! No one on the entire floor remembered how to change the bag and the password to unlock the machine. They were messing around with it for an hour before they finally decided they needed to call someone. (This has been 1 1/2 hours without the epidural controlling my pain. I was in so much pain I couldn't move. I started crying but had to stop myself because it hurt so much. I think I was gripping the blanket so tight my knuckles turned red). They kept messing around with it and it seemed like forever until they got someone that knew the code. Luckily, my boyfriend came as quick as he could and got to be with me the last half hour of this. I think I almost broke his hand I was squeezing so tight! Overall, I was without an epidural for around 2- 2 1/2 hours. It then didn't kick in right away. The anesthesiologist finally came up around 8:30 and boosted up the amount and told the nurses to give me some pain meds. Finally the pain calmed down.

Sometimes this happens. Things go wrong and people don't know what to do. I was a very unique case and the nurses weren't trained in my specific surgery. However, what really made me upset is that...IT HAPPENED TWICE!!!! The next night again the nurses didn't know the code to unlock the machine. They didn't take in account the increased amount of fluid from when the anesthesiologist changed it and it ran out quicker. I was thinking to myself "NOOO!!". But luckily they worked quickly and got the code within half an hour.

My hospital stay was very nice. Everyone was very kind and seemed to care about me and how I felt. Other than this the pain was controlled extremely well. This was the only major hiccup.

GREAT INFORMATION!

If you are wondering about my situation and the surgery this is the best article! It has excellent information and describes everything very well so everyone can understand. Please read this if you are interested in learning more about Hip Dysplasia.

http://www.hipandpelvis.com/patient_education/periace/page1.html

(There are 4 pages to the article. At the bottom of the website you can go to the next page)

DAY 1

The first day actually wasn't that bad. The epidural was working great! I barely had any pain in my hip. The only pain I had was from the incision. I wasn't allowed to eat anything other than clear liquids which was making me hungry. All I had was tea and broth.

The PT came for my first session. I sat up and got to the edge of the bed pretty easily. I felt good and then she had me stand up. As soon as I stood I got really light-headed and told her I had to sit down. The last thing I remember is her saying, "O.k. lets sit back and the bed". The next thing I know, I was lying down with the PT in my face saying my name over and over again. I was so confused. As soon as she said I passed out I remembered what was going on. I think this happened because of a few different things. I was dehydrated, I wasn't eating real foods, and I was lying down for almost 24 hours straight. My body just couldn't handle it. She gave me some exercises to do and said we would try again tomorrow.

They started me on real food finally after this. They realized that I needed the nutrition. I felt so much better once I started getting "real" food. I say "real" because the hospital food was probably the worst food I've had since I was in my middle school cafeteria. I try to eat as healthy as I can. This food was processed, dry, flavorless crap. However, I was so hungry I would eat anything. I also was thinking that I was already paying for this so I might as well eat it. I was very surprised how many calories they would let you eat. Before I choose my own meals, they gave me disgusting ones. For instance, for breakfast I had eggs, potatoes, canned fruit, bread, cereal, etc. and on top of that a Sara Lee doughnut type thing that was 450 calories!!! All together, that breakfast was way too much. Picking my own meals was much nicer.

Overall, Day 1 was a success. Family came in and out. Everything seemed to go by pretty quick. My favorite part of the day was when my sister came with my brother's present who lives in Texas. IT WAS A KINDLE! I love it!

Waking up...

Waking up from surgery...how can I explain this. It kind of felt like I passed out and didn't really know what happened. I couldn't see anything when I woke up. I had double vision and it was completely blurred. I could make out the outline of the nurse and could hear her talking to me. However, the epidural wasn't working. The pain was EXCRUCIATING! I couldn't move. I felt like I was paralyzed from the pain and all my muscles were tense. The nurse was talking me through it. If it wasn't for her being so awesome I don't know what I would have done. Finally, when the pain started to decrease I remembered where I was and that I just got out of surgery. I kept falling asleep and waking up again. I some how figured out the time and asked if I could watch the Indians game because I was really looking forward to being out of surgery before it started. However, that TV didn't get that channel. I was able to watch my other TV show Gossip Girl. Again, I kept falling asleep so I got bits and pieces of it.

My throat was also really dry waking up. It felt like I was dehydrated and slept with my mouth open. Which was pretty much what happened. The nurse gave me ice chips to suck on which really helped. They started to wheel me into my hospital room and told me my family was on the way up. It was around 9:00p when they finally got to see me for the first time. Of course, I have a huge family so they barely fit in the room. (I got the room to myself the entire time I was there!) They were very excited to see me and I actually felt pretty good considering I just had a major surgery. Everyone kept commenting that my hair looked awesome. This made me feel good because I was worried I was going to look like crap when I came out. My family was starting to get loud and they actually got kicked out. Visiting hours ended at 9p so they had to go. My boyfriend stayed over night with me because I was nervous. He wasn't allowed to stay in my room with me but he slept in the waiting room. The nurses were really nice and let him come in and visit every hour. They also gave him a pillow and blanket to sleep on.

The first night at the hospital I barely got any sleep. They had to wake me up every hour to check my vitals/ take blood. Unfortunately since I was so dehydrated, they couldn't get any blood. They kept poking me and blew all my good veins. This was bad because they had to take blood the next two nights as well. The first night they ended up taking blood out of my IV, which I guess was risky. The entire time I was there they kept having problems getting blood so my arm looks like a pin cushion! And its not over yet, I'm on a blood thinner now so I have to get blood drawn once a week! But I'll talk about that more later.

MORNING of PAO Surgery

I went in on Monday for my PAO surgery. I had to be there at 10:30a and was so nervous all morning. I took my last shower and made sure to soak in the feeling of it since I wouldn't be showering for awhile. I got everything ready and headed out the door with my boyfriend and sister there to calm me down. However, they seem to make you try and forget about how nervous you are by making you as uncomfortable as possible that morning. I couldn't eat, drink, chew gum, or go to the bathroom before I got to the hospital. My stomach was growling, my mouth was dry, and I had to pee SOOO bad. Luckily, as soon as I got to the check-in desk she let me go pee. They finally called me back to get ready for surgery. My family was not allowed back with me at the time and it made me really anxious. Usually, they would distract me from my thoughts but instead I was sitting in a little room all by myself worrying. They let me get changed and by the time they were about to put in the IV my mom and boyfriend sneaked back into the room. They know me well, they knew I needed them there. I'm glad they were there too because the woman could not get the vein for the IV and brought me to tears from the pain. My hand is still bruised. Luckily, her second try in my arm worked and didn't hurt as bad. However, after I stressed about that all the anxiety started flowing out of me. I finally calmed myself down when the doctors came in to tell me everything was ready to go. They wheeled me back into the operating room. The first thing they did was to put in the epidural. IT HURT! Now, I'm very good with pain. I have a very high pain tolerance. Putting the epidural in my back was probably one of the worst experiences of my life...and they had to do it twice because the first time didn't work. As soon as that was over, they laid me down and put the mask on me. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist saying its going to smell like plastic.