All I did was ask for chicken soup and I got some weird faces staring at me.
Since the beginning of time, chicken soup has been the ultimate cure (except for chickens of course, for them it cured nothing).
It’s not Tuesday about 24 hours after my surgery and I am feeling very good, pain is mild too non existing, I am on the couch, with a book the TV remote (with a DVD inside ready to play) my lap top, water, ice pack on my thigh above the bandagers and a pillow under my leg,,, all the essentials are here.
I also have a team of specialists taking care of me; a pharmacist (alla) a nurse (mom) a DR and a physical therapist (Alla’s sisters Inna and Rita) so no need to worry.
In the realm of normal outcome there were 3 possibilities for this surgery
1. Creating a hair line fracture to the hip- this is worst case- meaning I can’t stand for 8 weeks
2. Shaving off the bone and cutting the extra cartridge which means the fastest recovery but not the best long term result
3. Or shaving off the bone and sawing the soft tissue back together, which is a longer recovery then option 2 but better in the long run- since I need the tissue, and it doesn’t grow back
Lucky me it ended with option 3
So now I have 2 weeks on crutches, the slow recovery with lots of physical therapy and hoping to do a 5 k in November and a triathlon next July (if you don’t aim high you never get anywhere)
I kind of kept this operation a secret, not because I think it is a secret, I just didn’t want to think about it.
I started having pains on my left hip months ago, in the beginning I thought it was related to my turn muscle from last year, so I ignored it, later I waited more (while practicing to the 21 k run) which wasn’t smart, but it grew worse and worse, so I decided to check it (or more accurately, alla said enough is enough and booked an appointment for me).
The issue was quickly diagnosed as a labarum tare- meaning my hip bone is genetically bad (always blame the parents), it’s not the shape it should be, and because I am an active person (this injury is for active people), the bone pinched the soft tissue causing it to tear. There is no medication solution, for a while I took an anti inflammatory which just helped with the pain and prevented my continuous limping, but it only masked the problem and didn’t solve it. Unfortunately this problem has but one solution, shaving off the bone. I think they used a Gillette razor.
We didn’t want to schedule it earlier because of the wedding ,but didn’t want to wait too long since I am still damaging my hip which may lead to hip replacement if I don’t take care of it now. I sure don’t want a hip replacements, I like mine (usually) we are attached to one another so bone shaving it is.
I wasn’t nervous the days before, my new job at work kept me very busy which is for the best since just thinking about it would make me nervous, so I just didn’t. alla was worried for us both.
Lucky there is a very good surgeon for this kind of problem here in Cleveland. The best in the world is somewhere close to Denver, but I didn’t want the hassle of flying back with a bad hip.
An orthopedic in Israel told me that no one in Israel is good enough for this operation since its fairly new and you need practice with the new technique, so again we were lucky to find an experienced surgeon 15 minutes from home.
The morning of the surgery I was finely anxious, since I had nothing to do but think about it, I brought a book with me to the OR, but read half a page before they called me in. the room had a nice photo of green terrace in Malaysia and I was trying to focus on that, while they plugged me to the IV and all the pre op stuff. At some point the anesthesiologist came in and he was clearly un American, he asked where is my accent from, I asked the same back, but he has no accent- he said it was from Philadelphia, I meant to ask where is he from- I think somewhere between India and Persia, but I don’t know the answer, a few seconds later I was out.
They told me that they will take the breathing tube out of my throat when I wake up but I may not remember this, and I don’t. I woke up without pain- but still took 2 ‘Vicodin’s within the 1st hour.
A nurse came in an explained about the discharge process, the rehab exercises and what am I expected to feel. Both alla and mom were in the room at this time, since I was somewhat drowsy. I thought it was the medication causing that, but it was probably the nurse! Speaking in a monotonous voice, she gave all the info and was very efficient, just a little boring.
My meds now are Vicodine for pain- I took 1 last night, I can take more, but have not so far, since the pain is under control; Valium for muscle spasms which are the main cause for discomfort for this type of surgery, had 1 yesterday and 1 this morning, also a lot less than I am allowed to take, which means I am in good condition. And Naproxen which is what I took before the surgery, it eases the inflammation in the hip- this med I must take no matter what, so I do.
I slept the 1st night without pain which is great.
The major problem for me is #1
I didn’t know it before but I am allergic to be iodine(which is not a med, just iodine) I had more than a few scratches in the past, I don’t recall being allergic to that, so they gave me lots of Benadryl.
This caused 2 issues
The 1st dry mouth- that was annoying, I was thirsty nonstop, just because it was so dry, this feeling is almost gone. The 2nd problem was my relaxed muscles- it’s a good thing to have a relaxed hip- but there other muscles it affects
Going to the bathroom is a problem, which no one told me about, the muscles there do not listen- no need to go to details, but this was the main discomfort issues the 1st day, and it got slightly better as the day went by, I think it should be ok by now
Going to attempt it now, wish me luck.
Oh, one more thing, the chicken soup, the faces I got is because chicken soup is not a breakfast soup, and I was offered burkas instead (burekas is not a breakfast soup either, but never mind that), the soup was good.
More updates on day 3…
No comments:
Post a Comment