This surgery was to go in and remove the two screws left from the open surgical dislocation last June as my specialist thinks one of the reasons I am still in so much pain is my body's reaction to the screws which where still in the hip. As well as injecting my right hip's bursa with a steriod injection to try and settle this side down as I have been unable to lie on this side for a while now and that side ends up going numb also.
We drove up to Christchurch on Thursday (27th) as check-in wasn't until Midday. We had time up our sleeves so popped into Riccarton Mall so I could pickup some loose cargo pants for after surgery, though no stopping at the Tank juice bar as there was no drinking or eating after 7am that morning!
Made it to Southern Cross hospital at Midday and checked in. I was only booked as a day surgery, though EVERY nurse questioned that and made me also think I should at least be in overnight!
Went through the usual routine of being admitted and answering a book's worth of questions - getting my special hospital bracelet and a second one for any drug reactions or allergies (no NSAID's for me and none of a particular antibiotic that didn't agree with me) this one was bright red with highlighted pink wording - this is where fashion trends start lol. Then got changed into the stylish gowns and sexy gauze underwear (which I am not sure of the point as when you have a hip op you go into theatre wearing them and come out with only one leg left in them anyway!!)
We got settled and started watching Four Holidays on the inroom TV then the nurse came back to record the pre-op vitals & to give me a "relaxant" plus 3 Pandol (I have a fine balance with my stomach most days with the amount of painkillers I take so wasn't liking taking all that on an empty stomach!)
I had never been given a pre-med relaxant before any of my other surgerys so not sure why they did this time, so I had no idea what it was like. Settled back again to watch the movie while we waited and after around 10mins I fell asleep and though I was woken up when the surgen came in to answer pre-surgery questions I have absolutlely no memory of talking to him!
I had a number of questions to go over with the surgeon as I had not seen him since he applied for the surgery many weeks ago - main points to cover were;
Keep the screws please
Still going ahead with Steriod Injection to the other side's bursa?
I asked my partner if I asked these questions (I had them on paper anyway) and aparently I did and made sense at the same time lol. I can't even remember the surgeon pressing round my right hip making sure the bursa area was the worst for pain on that side and him marking it with a dot for later.
I did remember a couple of flashes before I got into theatre - one being when they put the IV into my hand (I hate needles so they put the numbing patches on each hand to help but it still hurt and they ended up putting it in an odd place near the outside of my hand (photos to follow). Second thing I remembered was in theatre and getting layed on my side and having the round bollard-type things bolted to the table to support me so I could lie on my side without falling off the table (how thoughtful :) then the plasticly smelling mask with the gas appeared over my face and nighty night.
Woke up in recovery (for what I thought was my first time waking up) and was asked the normal question what is your pain on a scale of 1-10, it was about an 8.5 from what I could tell through the foggyness. Then the nurse says "So your pain level has increased?" my reply was "But I have only just woken up - this is the first score I have given you!"
This particular nurse didn't have the most nuturing of nature and dismissed what I said and went and recorded notes. I was in and out of a sleepy state over the next hour in recovery and finally got a friendlier nurse who administered more pain-relief.
Pain relief is always a struggle after operations as I have been on Sevredol (Morphine) on and off for over two years my body has a higher tollerance to the drug than most people who would not normally take it and because of this when they give me the normal dose in hospital it is never enough to get on top of the pain. With my big surgery last year - the open dislocation it took till I was at home managing my own medication for the pain to be settled. This time when I woke I was very sore and they gave me extra in recovery and though it was charted the grumpy nurse was constantly trying to not increase what I was given.
Finally got back into the room around 4.30pm still a bit groggy and in a little more pain than I wanted to be in. The next nurse who was looking after me had a trainiee attached to her side and was really lovely - she gave me another couple doses of painkillers just to get on top of the pain and it worked well bringing it down to around 4 on the pain scale.
I had a little nibble with the pain killers and drifted off to sleep. Was in and out of sleep till around 6.30pm when I felt much more awake and 'normal'. The nice nurse was still questioning me being discharged that night but I had already booked a nice motel unit for the night and felt up to traveling the short distance there, plus I don't like staying in hospitals if I don't have too!
After going through the discharge papers etc and being given more pain relief for the trip we were on our way. At the motel I managed a light meal and fluids but was very tired and slept most of the evening with the help of LOTS of pillows :)
I woke around 3-4 times during the night and kept on top of my pain relief and was awake around 8am the next morning. Attempted to have a quick shower with the help of my partner however was in a lot more pain than I was expecting and it ended up being a superquick one indeed - but managed to get most of the iodine off which I am sure they slop on with a broom - seriously it was EVERYWHERE!
Getting sleepy again so second half will follow :) thanks for all the lovely messages xox will reply to each when I have more energy!!
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4 comments:
Hey I hope you're feeling good soon x
How are you feeling now Nicky? Hanging out for the 2nd half :-) What are the op details?
Haven't heard from you and wondering how you have been !
Nicola, how are you doing? I found your blog via Erin's. Ha! I live in Wellington but had my surgery at Southern Cross in Christchurch 25th August! We may have passed in the corridors already...small hospital/small world!
Rietveld was my surgeon. The following is from his op notes: 'arthroscopy showed that there was significant contuse of the anterior labrum and significant fraying of it and some degenerative changes throughout, therefore decided not to repair this but rather to resect it, I used the Vapour and the Burr to do this. Then I resected the anterior acetabular margin where there was chondral damage and used the Burr to this, got this back to a stable margin. I then looked at the head/neck junction and ran the hip through a range of motion and found it was significantly impinging anterolaterally, I used the Burr to resect this.' He say to me that "it was pretty ugly in there!" Because he couldn't repair the Labrum and I still have pain (less in the groin and at night but more in the day and butt/back!) that I still might need a hip replacement. Very like some of the other blogs I've just been reading it has an epic journey for me and taken more than SIX years of pain/ stress/ a surgery for endo/ a colonoscopy/ a neurologist/ tests/ insomnia/ antidepressiants (my GP kindly suggested it might "all be in my head!") and finally a pain specialist to get a diagnosis and this surgery. Anyway, I wish you well...how is it minus the screws, hope you're out with your camera now or soon will be?!
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