It has been 8 days since my hip surgery. I wasn't expecting to be in as much pain as I have been. I wasn't expecting the complications that I have had either. I'm sure if I had a magic crystal ball that would have foreseen these issues; I would have been more reluctant to have the surgery in the first place.
The moment I woke up from anesthesia, the post-op nurses were directed to take x-rays of the area I JUST had operated on. Luckily, they were able to leave me in the bed and slide the x-ray trays/slides underneath me. Unluckily... they had to roll me around and manipulate my newly operated on leg. It was EXTREMELY painful, let me tell you!
Then, as I got to my room, the nurses gave me IV morphine, which wasn't helping a bit! They had to move on to bigger and stronger drugs after that. I spent the evening pretty out of it, trying to manage my pain level. It hovered from a 7 to a full blown 10 throughout that first night. During my surgery I had a catheter put in (the surgery was 4 hours). I asked my surgeon before hand if he would take it out before I woke up, since I really didn't want to deal with that. Well, hindsight is 20/20 because as the evening wore on, I had to pee. First, the nurses tried the bed pan, which was SUPER uncomfortable. Not to mention that my body has quite the physical aversion to peeing while lying down in a bed. After about an hour of attempting that, they put me on a commode next to my bed. Let me remind you that I cannot have my body at more than 45 degrees at the hip; so basically I have to keep my trunk straight. Not so easy a task, urinating while trying to sit sideways on a commode... So another twenty minutes of that, and my pain level is now at a full blown ten and I am just shy of screaming. Poor Jesse was out in the hallway during this time, and I know it was difficult for him to hear that.
The next step was a bladder scan. Their machine that measures the urine in the bladder only measures up to 1,000 milliliters, and I had just that, so a catheter was necessary unless I wanted my bladder to rupture. The catheter experience was made even worse when they had to use the non-latex tubing (I'm severely allergic to latex) which is much much stiffer than the latex version. Once they inserted the catheter (after three attempts) they drained more than 2500 ml of urine out of my bladder!!!! Yowza, no wonder I was so uncomfortable.
The next hiccup was when they put a pad underneath my back that had hot water in it. It was attached to a pump that circulated the water through the pad in order to help the extreme back pain I was having. That helped; that is, until the pad ruptured and completely soaked me and the bedding. At this point, I was having blood pressure issues, and every time I attempted to stand upright, I would feel faint and my blood pressure would plummet to a scary number (at one point 74/46). So the nurses had to keep me laying flat and roll me from side to side in order to change all my wet bedding. Enter in at this point, much more pain meds including IV, oral and a nice heavy dose of morphine via intramuscular to try to get a grip on my pain level.
I ended up staying in the hospital an extra night. Not because of my pain (although that was certainly a side issue) but because my blood pressure could not be stabilized enough for me to stand up. I wasn't able to use the bathroom, or do much of anything with the physical therapists. Basically, I couldn't meet the list of requirements needed in order to be given the clear to be discharged.
Despite all of this, I will say that my experience with my nurses and the hospital staff was pretty incredible. Everyone was so efficient, so caring, and so knowledgeable that I felt in such good hands. I had very compassionate nurses who were sympathetic to my anxiety's of not being able to breathe well (it's amazing what 36 hours of laying flat on your back will do to your lungs) and my fear of fainting from my low blood pressure. They were also immaculately clean, washing and disinfecting their hands every time the entered and left my room. I had a cleaning person in the room every day as well, which is something I don't normally see in hospitals. For a germaphobe such as myself, it was comforting and a little less stressful to know I was in good and capable hands.
The moment I woke up from anesthesia, the post-op nurses were directed to take x-rays of the area I JUST had operated on. Luckily, they were able to leave me in the bed and slide the x-ray trays/slides underneath me. Unluckily... they had to roll me around and manipulate my newly operated on leg. It was EXTREMELY painful, let me tell you!
Then, as I got to my room, the nurses gave me IV morphine, which wasn't helping a bit! They had to move on to bigger and stronger drugs after that. I spent the evening pretty out of it, trying to manage my pain level. It hovered from a 7 to a full blown 10 throughout that first night. During my surgery I had a catheter put in (the surgery was 4 hours). I asked my surgeon before hand if he would take it out before I woke up, since I really didn't want to deal with that. Well, hindsight is 20/20 because as the evening wore on, I had to pee. First, the nurses tried the bed pan, which was SUPER uncomfortable. Not to mention that my body has quite the physical aversion to peeing while lying down in a bed. After about an hour of attempting that, they put me on a commode next to my bed. Let me remind you that I cannot have my body at more than 45 degrees at the hip; so basically I have to keep my trunk straight. Not so easy a task, urinating while trying to sit sideways on a commode... So another twenty minutes of that, and my pain level is now at a full blown ten and I am just shy of screaming. Poor Jesse was out in the hallway during this time, and I know it was difficult for him to hear that.
The next step was a bladder scan. Their machine that measures the urine in the bladder only measures up to 1,000 milliliters, and I had just that, so a catheter was necessary unless I wanted my bladder to rupture. The catheter experience was made even worse when they had to use the non-latex tubing (I'm severely allergic to latex) which is much much stiffer than the latex version. Once they inserted the catheter (after three attempts) they drained more than 2500 ml of urine out of my bladder!!!! Yowza, no wonder I was so uncomfortable.
The next hiccup was when they put a pad underneath my back that had hot water in it. It was attached to a pump that circulated the water through the pad in order to help the extreme back pain I was having. That helped; that is, until the pad ruptured and completely soaked me and the bedding. At this point, I was having blood pressure issues, and every time I attempted to stand upright, I would feel faint and my blood pressure would plummet to a scary number (at one point 74/46). So the nurses had to keep me laying flat and roll me from side to side in order to change all my wet bedding. Enter in at this point, much more pain meds including IV, oral and a nice heavy dose of morphine via intramuscular to try to get a grip on my pain level.
I ended up staying in the hospital an extra night. Not because of my pain (although that was certainly a side issue) but because my blood pressure could not be stabilized enough for me to stand up. I wasn't able to use the bathroom, or do much of anything with the physical therapists. Basically, I couldn't meet the list of requirements needed in order to be given the clear to be discharged.
Despite all of this, I will say that my experience with my nurses and the hospital staff was pretty incredible. Everyone was so efficient, so caring, and so knowledgeable that I felt in such good hands. I had very compassionate nurses who were sympathetic to my anxiety's of not being able to breathe well (it's amazing what 36 hours of laying flat on your back will do to your lungs) and my fear of fainting from my low blood pressure. They were also immaculately clean, washing and disinfecting their hands every time the entered and left my room. I had a cleaning person in the room every day as well, which is something I don't normally see in hospitals. For a germaphobe such as myself, it was comforting and a little less stressful to know I was in good and capable hands.
Wow, Carli- I had no idea what a rough time you had before you got to come home from the hospital! I am so sorry it was that bad! At least the hospital itself and the nurses were all fantastic. I hope that you are at least starting to feel a bit better day by day. Surgeries are such a hard recovery, I don't think anyone really realizes it until after. You are in my thoughts cousin, nothing but good vibes coming your way! Love ya!
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