Week One Post Op

I spent the whole of week one in  hospital. It was supposed to be a 3-4 night stay but unfortunately I had some non-hip related complications.

 

I wont bore you with a day by day account of my stay in hospital suffice to say I stayed  the 4 extra days due to a low haemoglobin count (7) which meant I could not walk very far with out feeling faint. Even going to the toilet on the walking frame meant I had to be followed by the oxygen trolley - just in case - and it exhausted me so much that I was a dithering wreck by the time I got back to bed. It is quiet a shock to go from being able to walk 3 miles  a day one week to being like that. I can remember spending a lot of time sitting on the toilet clinging  to the grab handle on the wall, resting my head on the tissue paper dispenser, my head spinning, whilst the nurse waited outside!!

My catheter was removed on the 2nd morning after surgery (so Wednesday) and the pain buster removed later the same day. It was running up to Christmas, so and I could see the Christmas decorations on the nurses station outside my room, that was nice. And from my window I could watch everyone coming and going from the main entrance and also see the Cornwall Search and Rescue helicopter landing on the helipad for Treliske hospital.

Helicopter from my window!

 

My temperature control was all out of sync I seemed to get very hot all of a sudden, I spent most of the week with the window open and a fan. Crazy in the middle of December.

 

I stayed very itchy all over for about 4 days, That was the worse part really. The pain was managed well with 1000mg paracetomol, 400mg ibuprofen and 60mg codeine  4 times a day, with the occasional oral morphine and also diazepam at night as I was having spasms in my groin. I used the CPM machine a lot, I really liked it. It gave my leg something to do instead of trying to fidget! for the most part, the CPM did not cause pain, but there was a certain point every now and  again, when the flattest moment of the CPM coincided with the air pump cuffs around my legs being deflated, so my leg was at its straightest. That pulled quite a lot on my hip. 

My CPM machine (continuous passive motion) this
prevents the hip joint stiffening up prevents
 the build-up of adhesions

I made slow progress with physio due to my low haemoglobin/fainting tendency. So on the 3rd day post op I had a blood transfusion. This seemed to take for ever to organise and it ended up starting at 11pm and took until 2pm for the 2 units to go in. The two nurses were great  fun though and kept bringing me tea & custard cream biscuits, .

The blood transfusion going in!

 

The next day (day 4 post op) I felt a bit better and was able to progress a bit further with physio, finally mastering the crutches. The day after that I did the stairs and also had a shower which was marvellous. My can of dry shampoo could do no more for my hair after 6 days!

I went home on the Sunday. The trip was 2.5 hrs and I loaded myself with relief beforehand, I still wasn’t really in much pain, my lower back felt the best it had for years.  We had to stop at Cullompton service Station but we managed to get the disabled space right outside the door. I felt very unsteady and self conscious on my crutches but made it through the door and saw that the toilets were all the way across the costa coffee shop, it seemed like miles away. But I made it and used the disabled loo ok.

When we got home, I went to bed in the downstairs spare room and slept until dinner time. Are my dinner then went back to sleep. Rock and Roll!

My cat Pie came to see me as soon as I got home

And my other cat Tooie slept on my bed all night!