I'm baaaack!
I've been wanting to get back to my blog to share my experiences. I even had a few pages of stuff I'd written in the hospital. But the longer I waited to blog, the bigger the task seemed of documenting every single thing that's happened. See? I do this to myself. I know I should do something, but then I feel a bit overwhelmed by it so I avoid it and, of course, then the task grows larger and more daunting.
I have to stop myself and ask, "self, WHO is makin' the rules here, anyway?" Geesh. I kill me.
So. Scrap all that (in terms of literal scrapping, not scrapbooking...) and here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to start with the here and now. I'm sure that's going to be a much shorter post. :)
I'm going to start with my "Top 10 Blessings" list:
10. I didn't have to get a spinal
This is one of the things that I spent wasted many hours, well, okay, not hours, but minutes worrying about. Sigh. It was an unpleasant experience last time when they put an epidural into my spine - and they did it before I was asleep. Yuck. Yes, it did provide many hours of pain-free recovery pleasure afterwards, but still. The anticipation was killin' me. So when I found out I wasn't getting one, I was quite relieved. Here's how it went down: I'd been wheeled into the pre-surgery prep/waiting area, feeling pretty much like the next slab of meat up for butchering (no offense, Dr. D - it wasn't you, it was me). The attendant was expressing her delight at the first-thing-in-the-morning challenge of finding a suitable vein in which to insert an IV on someone as vein-less as I (yes, I AM a "hard stick" and I have THREE cotton balls stuck to me now from attempts to draw blood yesterday to prove it...) and I said, "will I be getting a spinal?" to which the attendant stared at me blankly. "Do you want a spinal?", she asked. "Well, no! I'm just wondering if that was something that was going to be happening...". "I can check the dr.s orders....", she muttered. "No, no! I was just curious. It's not at all a request!" Geesh. Try to ask a simple question... End result - no spinal ordered, no spinal given. THAT was a blessing! :)
9. I actually have an appetite
Last time the food just seemed so totally yuck to me - and maybe it was. Whether it was the hospital food or just me - I just didn't feel like eating anything at all. This time, however, I was given a menu to choose all of my meals from and then, when I was hungry (or thought I would be hungry in about 45 minutes) I called and placed my order. Okay, it wasn't The Waldorf Astoria - or even Perkins - but really, it wasn't too bad. And I actually was able to feel hunger and eat some food. I will say my appetite still isn't as strong as usual, but I consider that a good thing and I'm just fine with that. But I'm glad that I do at least feel like eating stuff because eating stuff is one of the things that will enhance my healing. So, a good appetite is a blessing!
8. My pain level never got unmanageable
Oh, man, that was one of my biggest fears because last time my pain was out of control quite a few times. And I am here to say that I am NOT a fan of pain. The new big thing in the hospital is "the pain scale". It's from 1 to 10 with 1 being a big ol' smiley face and 10 being a big ol' scrunched up face in pain and covered with tears. (Personally, for me a 10 would be more like that painting, The Scream... Just sayin'.) They asked me at my pre-admission appointment what my goal was for a pain level and initially, I said a 6. After thinking about it, I changed it to a 5. This was based on "Jan's Pain Scale" which is 1 being no pain and 10 being the most pain I could ever stand, so 5 being about medium pain I thought I could live with. Then I thought I'd better look at the actual pictures on their pain scale. A 6 was called "severe" pain and a 4 was called "moderate" pain. So a 5 would have been more than moderate pain, just under severe pain. What was I thinking? I changed that baby to a 4! I can honestly say that my pain level only got as high as a 5.5 (not quite severe) - once, but it usually was at a 4 - or less! Truly! What an amazing blessing! Somehow during surgery my cornea got scratched (not by me!) and I would be hard pressed to say which bothered me more when I woke from my surgery - my eye or my hip. I was sleeping a lot, so the eye was slightly less of an issue, but when I was awake, it was bothering me every time I blinked. Finally, they came in with some numbing drops (instant relief!) and ointment and that continued for the next few days. (It's fine now.) So, I'm hangin' out regularly with something around a 1. A 2 is "mild pain" and I really can't even say I have that most of the time. And it's getting better every day! Blessing!
7. I didn't get any staples
Well, this wasn't real high on my list of "Things to Worry About Before the Surgery", but it did make the list. Of course, getting the staples would be no big deal because I would be OUT when I got them. (Thinking about getting them is pretty yuck though, so I try not to go there.) It's the "un-getting" of the staples that worried me. Again, the whole not a fan of pain thing. So, yeah, after the doc was done slicing me open, yanking out defective pieces and hammering in new metal hardware, he slapped on a little glue to hold me together. That's comforting, huh? When my leg is swollen like a mini-blimp from the trauma of surgery, am I re-thinking the whole "staples" idea as opposed to glue to hold together all my stressed and swollen delicate parts that I have to be so careful not to dislocate for, well, the rest of my life? At first I had a few tiny concerns. But I can now say that I'm a glue-believer. And I'll tell you why. The tape that Chris has to rip off and re-apply with a new dressing every day? That stuff is STICK to the ICKY! In all actuality, it feels like staples are being yanked out each and every time those dressings are changed. Did I mention that was daily? It's LIKE I'm getting staples removed - every. single. day. The first time he tries to ever-so-carefully - and slowly - remove the tape, I'm all "what in the holy *^%$#@&! is THAT?!!!" Good GRIEF! And he's like, "well, I'm trying not to hurt you when I remove this tape...". So I'm like, "well rip those suckers off of there as FAST as you can, okay???" Geesh. Can we say T-O-R-T-U-R-E? Pain scale? NINE! See my VERY unhappy face? Okay. Deep breath. I'm not loving the tape. And dressing-changing time is now no longer the time of intimate bonding and husband-wife relationship building that I was hoping it would be. Hmmmm. Why did I say my #7 blessing was not getting staples? Well, at least I'm not sitting here twisting a gut in dread for that day. My thinking is that if the tape is that sticky, then the glue is probably just as sticky as it needs to be. Thankfully, the glue will come off on its own. For that, I am blessed.
6. Home on Day 4
I had to see it to believe it. When they told me in my pre-admission appointment that I would probably be home in 4 days, my response was pretty much "Shut UP!" There's no WAY I'm going to be coming home in 4 days! That's for people that get their new hips cemented in and get up and walk to Bingo at the firehall on the second day. That's not for ME. Heh! But, dang, if I didn't feel perfectly ready to come home on the 4th day and that's just what I did! Especially due to #'s 7, 8 and 9. Did the fact that I had a whakadoo roommate influence my readiness? No. Not at all! I'm home! What a blessing!
5.. No nightmares
Last time I had me some reaaaalll good pain medicine. It worked great and made me feel luciously sleepy. Being that I hadn't slept well for, like, a YEAR before my previous hip replacement, post-op sleep was SO welcome and even seemed luxurious. But, after about the 2nd day home, my prescribed pain meds began to gve me rip-roarin' nightmares and my dear husband wasn't in the bed with me to wake me up (he had to sleep elsewhere since I was in a small guest bed). I struggle with nightmares ocassionally as it is and, when they're bad, I have to wake up immediately and then read or do something to get it out of my mind or else I go right back into the nightmare. And that was happening last time a couple days after I got home with my pain meds, too. So, another item on my "list" was a fear of having the nightmares. But, here I am, 5 days home, and not an inkling of a nightmare. Same med, too. I have had some strange dreams, I have to say, but so far, so good! That's such a blessing because I really like sleep!
4. My rented hospital bed
I love my hospital bed! First of all, I can make it just the right height for getting in and out of, so I don't even need Chris's assistance in the middle of the night for the bathroom call(s). (Which means HE gets to have our king bed all to himself upstairs, uninterrupted. It makes him a happier servant, I'm sure!) Second, I can raise it under my knees just so and raise the head up just so for optimum sleeping conditions. This is oh, so important because I have to sleep on my back, normally not my fave. And - my favorite part - I love how I can raise up the head when I want to read - which I do every night AND morning! I've gotten into the habit of lazing around in the bed every morning (what else am I gonna do, really?), sipping my first cup of coffee brought to me so dutifully by my devoted servant husband and either reading or checking my iPod for fb, email, blogs, etc. Lovely. When I'm ready to arise and face the day, Chris comes over and helps me with my a.m. exercises and then I'm up for the day. Unless I take a lovely little nap after my p.m. exercies. Which, with my schedule, is not a problem. And I can adjust the head and knees just so... My hospital bed is such a blessing.
3. My recliner chair - WITH foam padding
So, a couple weeks before my surgery, Chris got this brilliant idea of renting one of those power chairs that lifts you up to almost standing and powers into a recline. This was a GREAT idea! I could get some assistance with proper height for standing up and then recline back for a nap when needed, all while maintaining my >90-degree hip angle thingy. And, it seems, we got not only a brand new one, but the ONLY one to be found (rentable) in Lycoming County! Sweet. And it has been great. Except for one thing. I could only sit in it for about a half hour before my bee-hind just started hurting like heck. I mean, both the chair AND I are very substantially padded. What the....??? I guess it must be that expensive Venetian vinyl or something. So we tried a pillow. Nope. Then we tried my super-thick foam chunk (for giving me proper height in an otherwise too-low chair), Nope, too high and threw off everything else for sitting in that chair. Then Chris said he thought Ben Franklin (the store) might carry a thinner foam. And, they did! About 2" as opposed to 5". And, VOILA! Problem solved! Now I can sit here ALL DAY and be pefectly comfortable. Good thing, because I have to sit here ALL DAY. So, the chair PLUS the foam pad - mucho blessing!
2. I can put 50% weight on my leg!
Now this is such a MAJOR blessing, I almost made it my #1 blessing (yes, they're in order). DON'T PEEK! Anyway, when I found out after my surgery that I was going to be allowed to put 50% of my weight on my operated leg, I about fell over! I was in bed at the time, but, okay, I about fell OUT of the bed! Seriously. I'd been told that it would be like last time (11 years ago, by the way) and that I couldn't put ANY weight on the operated leg for 6-8 weeks. To find out that I could put, not a toe touch (which I was going to ask for), not 20%, which seems random, but I've heard of it, but 50 WHOLE PERCENT - wow! It's still so exciting and amazing to me! Okay, 50% is like if you're standing up straight and balanced - you have 50% of your weight on each leg. (Well, I had to have it explained to me.) I just can't even tell you how much easier it is to get myself around and - especially - to get up and down stairs and in and out of the shower. To be able to stand at the sink and do my hair, brush my teeth, etc. Oh. This is SO major and is the main contributing factor to why I feel SO blessed. This is going to make this 6-8 weeks of having to sit around and watch videos, read, get on the computer and other such recuperative non-activities SO much easier to bear. Seriously, though, I am so blessed by this!
And the #1 blessing is: I have a new hip! I'm so, so blessed and so thankful for everyone's prayers. I feel them, I really do. This is the beginning of a life that I now have the power to make better. Notwithstanding the much needed and abundantly supplied power God gives me each and every day. My life will be physically better, sure, but when you're better physcially, it touches other areas of your life, too. I'm perfectly content to take the rest of my life with my new hip one day at a time. I know it will be infinitely better. I'm so motivated to make good use of this gift. I. am. blessed.
Dang, that was long after all, huh? (I promise much more concise updates in the future!) Well, God bless you if you read this far. And even if you didn't...
Now I feel a nap coming on. Where's the remote?
