Today marks my second day home from the hospital... and my 27th birthday! Word on the street is that your "Golden Birthday" is supposed to bring you great luck and fortune. I suppose it's a bit ironic that I am spending mine recovering from major surgery, but I feel quite fortunate to be able to celebrate this day at home and with a brand new hip! My best girlfriends from PT school even drove out to my parents' house to celebrate with me! And they brought so many delicious goodies :) I couldn't have asked for much more than to spend it with my family and best friends (even though they'll tell you that I don't really remember much of it haha). Happy birthday to me!
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After an extremely successful surgery, I was discharged home on day 6. I don't remember a good chunk of time from my stay in the hospital, but I had plenty of visitors to help fill in all the gaps for me :) but first... in-patient recovery
day 1
day 2
day 3
day 4Today was a big day! The epidural had been turned down substantially and I have been able to manage pain fairly well with oral pain medication. The most exciting part of the day was walking for 100 feet without stopping! Slowly but surely, I was starting to feel a little bit more like myself :) day 5
day 6
Day of paoIt seems almost a bit surreal to even say that this day has come. It has been a long road and the hope of this being the final piece of the puzzle and the answer to all my prayers is a lot to take in. I can't help but think back to the day I found out that the first surgery had failed. My heart was broken and I was completely devastated. Being in PT school, I knew far too well the impact rehabilitating from PAO was going to have on my life and... I was scared. I wasn't scared of the pain or anything like that. I was afraid of lost time. I had already spent 2 years of my life either extremely modifying my lifestyle in preparation for surgery... or recovering from surgery itself. I am a yoga instructor, an avid skier and runner. I love to hike and climb and explore this beautiful state that I call home. All of these things are what truly make me who I am, and for the past 2 years, I've been struggling to reinvent myself to fill the gaping hole that was now in my life.
As cheesy as it sounds, I really do believe that sometimes you don't truly know who you are until you have lost yourself. This roller coaster ride has offered me countless opportunities for self reflection and growth, and I know that I am only stronger for having experienced it. As I enter this next battle, I do so knowing that this time next year, I am going to be better, faster & stronger than I was when any of these pictures were taken--and I am SO READY. May 13th, 2015Dr. Mei-Dan performs a staged procedure for PAO consisting of two surgeries spaced 1 week apart. Today was the first stage... and boy was I ready! This surgery was fairly quick, as the labrum was still in-tact from my previous scope (Aug. 2014). The main purpose of this surgery is to clean things up inside and ensure the joint is healthy enough before proceeding with PAO. Because I had a lower than expected dGEMRIC index, I was afraid that I was going to wake up from this procedure only to find that there was too much damage and I was no longer appropriate for PAO. You can only imagine my relief when I woke up to the good news that he could still preserve the joint! As this was my second scope, I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect post-operatively. I had a lot of work done during my first hip scope and I struggled with pain management. This time, though, pain was hardly an issue and was able to ween off narcotics within a few days. The biggest difference between the two scopes was that I had a really hard time managing nausea this time around. Zofran helped a little bit, but I definitely threw up a few times. There is this really awesome scopolamine patch they can put behind your ear that stays on for three days and let me tell you... It. Is. Magical. I had one after the first scope but unfortunately did not have one for the second. I made sure to request it for the PAO :) The easy part was over now and I was just counting down the days to the big surgery. One week from now, I would be back at University Hospital for the final phase of hip preservation. |
AuthorJust a physical therapist and her journey being on the other side rehab. Categories
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