Four weeks ago today was my surgery on my hip. So technically speaking I had arthroscopic surgery on my right hip with femoroplasty (shaving the femur bone), acetabularplasty (shaving the acetabulum), a labrum repair (cushion in the hip socket), and Psoas (ligament in hip flexor muscle) release, along with a cyst removed from my femur and some of the cartilage sewn back with the labrum.
Why all this you may ask......I tore my labrum at some point between October 2013 when I started running and February of 2014. Since then I have not really been able to exercise, relax my hip or have good range of motion. So I spent the summer insisting on testing and such to figure out for sure what was wrong....with the encouragement of some co-workers.
So December 5th I went to Georgetown to have my surgery. I expected it to take a couple hours, spend an hour in recovery and be home in the afternoon.....well the afternoon turned into evening. The surgery went well, they repaired and fixed everything they should have, as said above but they did have to make an extra incision because when he went in my hip was full of blood! So definite damage in my hip. So as far as I know surgery took the amount of expected time.....recovery took a lot longer! It is funny the things I remember, because I did not have general anesthesia, I had a spinal. So I remember going into the OR, the time out, and then laying down. When I woke up I heard the nurses talking about my heart rhythm....I was shivering severely. They couldn't tell if my heart rhythm was in A-Fib or just from shivering. Thankfully it was only shivering....which was uncontrollable. I could not stop shaking, she gave me some Fentanyl and it stopped.....since that experience and since with my pain.....one of my pain responses is shivering and getting very cold. I know it sounds strange and I think it is, but if I think about it, I would never rate my pain 10/10 in my entire life......but I shivered anytime it got high. My body's way of coping. So my recovery took longer because then instead of my hip hurting, my back and stomach began to hurt. Which turned out when I couldn't have anymore pain medicine and I thought about it, it was my bladder. It had been three hours without going to the bathroom and having continuous fluids going! Once I was able to go, I felt much better. So I spent about 4 hours in recovery instead of 1 or 2. Then I moved to "phase 2" recovery....where I got dressed and got discharged. We drove home and I showered and went to bed after dinner and medication.
So the weeks after.....pain was worse in the beginning and being on crutches was hard, but I built up my upper body and by the time I went back to the doctor I was done with the narcotics mostly. I began physical therapy the next day as well. I was shocked at how tired I was just in general. I did not expect to be so exhausted from everything. I (being my normal over achiever self) thought, whatever I will just be on crutches, other than that I will feel fine. Nope! Anyway, it has gotten better, I am currently still using one crutch with the advise of my physical therapist and much to my dismay. And I am still not driving but will have to next week. I will be done with the crutches soon. It is just there for support. So I thought I would be back to work a lot sooner but it will at least be another week if not a little more. Or just shorter shifts. We will have to see. So I am doing exercises that are just tightening individual muscles and stretching right now. Not allowed to do too much more than that. And I am not allowed to do the elliptical until at least 6 weeks out and no running for 3 months!
After all that is said, I am doing well, only taking medicine when I need it mostly at night. Getting around more, but still tired. I hope maybe this post may help someone who is going through the same thing and will update those who are wondering about me. I am thankful for all those who prayed for me and continue to pray. I was not anxious at all the day of surgery and did not need anything to calm me down.
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