Dday+1-2....bed baths, blood pressure and food fit for a king!

iat some point in the night the moment came when my bladder gave in and i had to pee i was given the option to get out of bed or a bottle to go in - well i was so tried/drugged i opted for the bottle - now i had it in my head i was dehydrated because i hadnt drunk at all for god knows how many hrs.....but i had failed to take in to consideration the bags of fluid given in theatre so i starts to pee in the bottle and i just pee and pee and pee and pee - and now the bottles getting full and im trying to stop the flow to swap the bottle all i can say is thank god nobody was watching it must of looked hilarious..... but enough of the bottle and on with day 1

so i was wide awake at 430 asking for pain relief and coffee, i was given fast acting octy...... and pain was no hassle by 7am when the student nurse arrived to offer a bed bath !!
long story short i managed and i have never been so relieved to have a wet flannel round my bits and get some pants on........

next breakfast and more coffee and meds, visit from my lovely wife and the anticipation of the physio coming to get me on my feet eeeek

physio arrived around 1130 and got me out of bed and stood with a zimmer frame then took a few steps which all be it very very weird were comfortable and far better than i imagined - within 5 steps the zimmer was gome and crutches were the order of the day and off i went and walked to the bath room for a wee minus the bottle! came back and physio suggested staying up in the chair to eat my lunch good idea says I! lunch arrives i take 2 bites of me jacket and beans and come over all queer..... cold sweats and light headed rings the bell and they get me back into bed for a nice rest and a snooze

slept on and off for the rest of the afternoon interspersed with visitors and some of the best braised beef ive ever tasted.......in the evening i felt a little better and walked again a few times with yvette and the boys - then it was a similar story of meds, rest, food, drink and the dreaded calf pumps!!

day 2 was basically a carbon copy of day 1 - meds and food early, 1st shower OMG that was bliss, visitors, physio came and took my crutches of me and gave me sticks then showed me how to do stairs and told me to walk as much as i felt comfortable with for the rest of the day - had a few nice plods with the boys which was good for me and even better for them to see dad on his feet and looking almost normal........

the drama came later in the day when i rang the bell for something (it escapes me what!) and then in short succession had to buzz again for something - WELL BUGGER ME 3 nurses came bursting in running at a great rate and looking like they had seen a ghost! turns out the nurse who came in the 1st time hadnt cancelled the buzzer and a 2nd press would indicate and crash team was needed!!!! oh well 10/10 for there response - biggest problem was they couldnt get the cardic arrest buzzer to cancel and it was sounding up and down the ward for 2hrs whilst an engineer came...........
oh and the food......venison sausages like ive never tasted with veg and mash followed by cheesecake my word........

tired now ill do "the homecoming" soon

laters sng

The worlds biggest plaster has been removed......

Dday........

so this is how it went (or how ive chosen to remeber it anyway?) -

sunday night was a last super as i had to starve from 530 am and there was no way i was getting up that early just to eat.......
monday morning was spent with william which was good as he calmed my nerves - whilst yvette moved all sorts of bits and pieces to her mums as she had decided to stay with the boys whilst i was in the hospital....

set of to the hospital at 11 ish and go there and shown to my room where yvette, william and sat and waited.... not for long though then it was a constant flow of people - Nurse to book me in, anaesthetist guy to discuss options, physio to talk post op, pharmacist to discuss meds and finally the surgeon to draw an arrow on my leg and get me to sign my life away......somewhere in all that yvette and william left and i shed a tear or two - as i wont lie i was scared to death and after weeks of scary dreams leading to this point i wasnt convinced all would go well :(

moments after the surgeon left i was walking to theatre in a backless gown showing my ginger cheeks to the world - into a little pre op room where i chatted and chatted and chatted - nerves i guess - whilst numerous peeps started to prepare me for sugery - canula in, spinal administered (this deserves a paragraph of its own) and finally some fluid going in...

so the spinal - i knew what to expect after discussing it earlier but i had no idea how uncomfortable it would actually be or how quick it would act! - sit on edge of bed with feet on stool and curve your spine please Mr W then first my back was sprayed with the coldest thing in the world "fuck thats cold i say" to a round of giggles - then small amount of local applied to the area with the obligatory message only a scratch "you lying so and so that hurt" i say another giggle or two more local this time deeper in my back with you may feel a scratch thrown in for good measure "a scratch it feels like youve got a carving knife steady on" at this point the anaesthetist  has no idea if im joking or not and has to ask to which i reply "never felt a thing mate" - now he is sure im ok he does the spinal and starts with the cold pray again to determine it block is working and sure enough we are good to go...

into theatre and im basically fastened to the table with various clamps and supports whilst my new anaesthetist buddy chats away and give me a bit of sedative and things get underway listening to coldplay and thinking im sure ill sleep soon, im sure ill sleep soon THEN the smell of burning flesh gets me and i have a coughing fit - my buddy looks in again and says "oh are you not sleeping - ill give you a tad more" - so more sedative applied now coldplay is not really my cup of tea but i could have coped with it louder as the next thing to drift through my ears was "im going to need some help i cant dislocate the bloody thing hes go legs like a bull" - needless to say more sedative needed and given - never really went to sleep i did hear everything and felt the sensations of the hammer the drill etc etc but i never felt a thing - just continued to have a bit of crack with my buddy..........
then its all over and im been moved to recovery at wich point i throw a bit of a shit fit and go into shock - so nice warm air blacket and a shot of something and im back in the room!

laid in recovery for half an hr or so having a bit of crack with the male nurse and then back up to my room - where finally the sedative kicked in!! and i slept a bit...........shortly after yvette and the boys arrived with balloons and gifts/cards a plenty and ive never been so pleased to see anyone!

the rest of the evening had a regular pattern of dozing and visitors (mum and dad) and drugs and more dozing and of course my obs done everytime i dropped off! at some point i ate a sandwich and drank water/coffee and around 10pm i woke once again and felt kind of normal but with loads of pain because the spinal had worn off so more drugs more sandwichs and more coffee and i was fine......

now to try and sleep the night.......... not easy i had calf pumps fitted that basically gave my calfs a good squeeze every 45 secs or so which doesnt sound too bad BUT when your trying to doze the bloody things make you jump!! left leg not too much of an issue - operated leg bloody hell that hurts!

but thats how the night went i drifted in and out of sleep had more drugs, more coffee and to be fair felt fairly good

dday+1 - 3 to follow

sng

The aftermath.........

build up to Dday..........

so the build up to my new hip wasn't smooth around early November the locking issue started to get really bad and on more than one occasion i scared the kids with my screaming in agony - it got to the point that i dreaded going to the toilet as each and everytime i sat down i was "stuck" and new that once i managed to get moving i would suffer for 10hrs after so the morning dump became the route of my days agony......

i visited the hospital for a pre op assessment on 26/11 - and even managed to worry this into something it wasn't - not sure why i got it in my head but i was convinced my blood pressure was going to be an issue ? (i guess short fat and ginger may have worried me!) - but all went well bloods, swabs, ecg, blood pressure and pee in pot all indicated i was fit to go ahead..........

then the same night a problem hit - at work that day i felt some discomfort in my right shoe and didnt really think anything of it it was just irritating - got home shoes off and..... bloody blisters all over my foot - now having had infection control rammed down my throat in the build up to this op i was seriously worried - got onto surgeons PA who said "Oh thats a concern.... ill talk to Mr ........." - 24hrs later i rang again and she still hadn't managed to speak to him - so this is Thursday before the op on Monday and no idea if it will go ahead! - finally got a call late afternoon on Thursday to say "ive spoken to Mr ...... he says whilst it is not impossible, its unlikey that it would prevent the op" so should i be relieved ? i had no idea but made a mental pact with myself just to go with the flow and go with the flow i did........

so spent Saturday and Sunday preparing myself mentally and getting my gear ready etc and most importantly spending some quality time with my beautiful wife and the boys...... last job i wanted to do before reporting to the hospital for 730 am Monday was put my boys to bed and read them a story so off i went - then the shout from downstairs come "you better listen to this....." Yvette comes upstairs house phone in hand (we never use the house phone.......) - basically a message from the hospital left days beforehand telling me that i no longer had to report at 730 Monday am rather 1130 Monday........ so no massive change BUT i went into serious meltdown - no idea why but i just lost the plot and couldn't deal with it! so after Yvette peeled me off the ceiling...i once again i just got on with it and tried not to loose the plot...........

to be continued.......
 

My new hip....

im back.............with a shiny new hip...

so not only did i suffer through the last weeks but so did my blog

through november and the last few weeks leading up to my operation i suffered - i really suffered - the condition of my hip dropped off a cliff and pretty much every day i spent some time "locked" or "stuck" in screaming agony which left me totally exhausted and certainly not fit for any form of exercise - that said i managed the physio drills most days and walked the dog at least a mile every day, i was not going to be beaten!
all be if id looked closely i would have realised i had already been beaten :-(

But moving right up to the present im sat here at day 8 post op with a nice new hip in place and feeling pretty good - sore yes but a good sore

im going to tell the story in full over the next while but im living and i have no arthritis pain - what more do i need to say...................

:-)

sng