what a week. I've realized that you can go into something, feeling completely prepared, prepped, and educated by trained, PHD professionals...and still have completely different results.
I had hip surgery. it was "non-invasive arthroscopic hip surgery." "we'll put you under, the actual surgery will only take about 2 hours and you'll wake up probably 20-30 min after that. we'll hold you in the out patient recovery room for about an hour then you can go home. it will be fairly quick and simple because of your age, health and strength. you'll probably not be able to put weight on it for 2 days or so and then you can start walking gradually on it. easy."
mmhm. right.
but first, you're probably wondering, "wait! why? what?? why did you need THAT?" I run. I ran. I wish I could run. I had a tear in the labrum in my hip joint as well as a compacted femoral head joint. the tear needed to be fixed and the compacted joint needed to have some bone shaved off so I had better range of motion.
so...
pre-op started at about 1pm, 2 and a half hours later than originally planned, but no big deal. during this portion, I got into my sweet paper gown, gramma circulation sock (on my NON-surgeryized leg, mind you?!), footie's and a cool paper hair cap. they started IV's and walked me to the surgery room. I sat on the side of the bed, they explained that they just needed to put a sticky monitor on my back first. they did and then....well, then I heard myself saying, "where's Keith? where's Keith?" "who's Keith?" "oh, Keith? he must be her brother." "KRISTINE...KRISTINE...he's here, we're getting him." I guess if you yell to a person coming out from under anesthesia, they hear better?! not sure.
surgery went as planned, Keith and Sandi were there to greet me when I woke up, as planned. I however, did NOT wake up, as planned. I guess I was in so much pain that they kept giving me valium shots, every 10-15 min just to ease the pain. Keith says I'd start moaning and my brow was all wrinkled up, so they'd give me a shot and 30 seconds later, my head would fall back and I was out...only then, they'd have to start yelling at me to breath because I'd quit?! all I remember is just wanting to be left alone so I could relax and sleep my way out of this awful situation.
then came the cinnamon apple sauce. WHO gives a patient, IN PAIN, coming out of being heavily drugged, CINNAMON apple sauce?!!? seriously. so, they crush my pill up, hoping it will give me longer amounts of pain relief...and put it in my apple sauce. apparently, I wasn't ok with the cinnamon!
3 and a half hours later, the nurses finally kicked me out of out patient recovery, half drugged and not remembering a thing. I guess I don't respond so well to anesthesia?! note to self.
Keith, Sandi and Renee carried me up the stairs to my bed, gave me some meds upon which I immediately threw up. but, the best part? Renee wanted to take care of me, so was right by my side (her AND her weak stomach), took my puke bucket to the bathroom and immediately threw up herself! all of a sudden, I hear her laughing hysterically...yeah, her stomach is weak. quite.
the next few days consisted of great friends making sure my ice machine, pumping ice cold water into a brace around my waste and hip was always functioning, bringing me crackers and 7-up, keeping track of when I took my meds, and carrying flowers in to the end tables so I could see them. I, was miserable. and, after 4 days of not being able to keep anything other than FRESH apple sauce with no cinnamon (thanks to Sarah!), and cottage cheese down, I began to wonder what was wrong. so, after two days and many calls to my surgeon, I realized my meds were way to high of a dose and had new ones prescribed. IMMEDIATELY I felt like a different person.
I'm happy to say I ventured to Walmart on day 5, crutches and all and made it! I had to get out! and, I definitely needed those pain meds upon my return!! steps are still a challenge, but can be handled, one at a time.
my lesson: if you've never had surgery or anesthesia before...you just really, really don't know how you'll respond till you experience it for yourself. no matter how many stories you hear, no matter how many opinions you get, educated and uneducated...you just won't know.
I'll live. I'll be fine. I may even run again one day. I sure hope so. for now...I'll sit on my couch, take a few meds, watch the olympics and be grateful the "bad" meds are out of my system and I can eat and think straight again.
