helena Fri 06-Nov-20 17:18:47
Thanks.. I’m a bit apprehensive, especially about all the rules afterwards.
Like you, I was apprehensive, I haven't been in hospital for almost 60 years. Let me take you through my experience.
My left leg had been getting more and more painful, I just had to see my doctor. She had me sit on the couch, legs stretched out in front. Then she placed the palms of her hands on my right thigh and rolled it, like a rolling pin. No problem. When she did it to my left leg the pain was so intense that I grabbed her arm, almost involuntary, just to stop the pain. Doctor got me an appointment for an x-ray.
The x-ray confirmed the need for a replacement. There was a considerable waiting list, so I chose to go private.
Before surgery, I had two separate appointments with my surgeon, he explained the procedure, the aftercare and the recovery timescale. I had to report to the hospital on the morning of the surgery. My operation wouldn't be until the evening. I tried to settle into my room but I was, as you say, apprehensive.
Come surgery time, the anaesthetist came to collect me and we walked to the theatre together. He was doing his best to relax me. By now I was undressed apart from my theatre gown. One of the doctors was counting down my spine to find the entrance in which the epidural will be injected. That done and my lower body was paralysed, couldn't feel a thing, not even the part that I had dreaded, the catheter being inserted.
The theatre nurse picked up on my apprehension, she simply held both my hands in hers and smiled. Just under two hours later it was all over. I never felt or heard a thing. I seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness and wondered if that had been contrived, but it didn't matter. A porter wheeled me back to my room and with a nurse, lifted me into my bed.
Six o'clock the next morning I had a nurse wheel in a wash bowl of sudsy water. She explained that I couldn't bathe or shower yet but the anaesthetic swab on my body had to be washed off. She was such a kindly lady, Nigerian I think, she explained that modesty and dignity can be difficult but handed me a flannel and told me to wash the crown jewels. That done, she spun me around and washed my backside and as she did she said, "I'll wash the credit card swipe." Some might find that inappropriate but I thought it hilarious.
The first time on my feet was to use the loo after the catheter had been removed. It took me an age, clinging onto the zimmer frame, I thought that I would never walk properly again.
The next day I was x-rayed. Seeing that x-ray on a screen was a new experience, I asked the radiographer if it was possible to have a copy. "Give me your mobile number," she said. "Ping," went my phone. One x-ray.
The next day I was discharged, my wife collected me and drove me home. As others have said, the exercises and physio are essential to help muscle repair and become strong around the new hip. All that was three years ago and I have been back enjoying the pleasure of ballroom dancing for most of that time, I just have to remember a ditty my wife told me. She said, when climbing or descending stairs think: "up with the goodies, down with the baddies," it certainly helps.