Diary of hospital stay
&
recovery progression
Diary of Hospital Stay
Diary of my
Resurfacing Experience
Tuesday 13th November 2001
We arrived at the hospital in Belgium, and whilst they showed my better half to her room, I was quickly whisked away for x-rays. They made X-rays of:
1. my chest
2. full pelvic shot with my legs in the straight position
3. shot of just my bad hip with my legs in the straight position
4. shot of just my bad hip with my legs in the Frog leg position
Then they took rather a large number of blood samples which were whisked away to the lab, and straight after came a nurse to give me an Electro Cardiogram (ECG). The ECG was actually a surprise, as I expected a huge machine, but it turned out to be something resembling a portable fax machine.
This all took about 45 minutes. They do not play around in a Belgian hospital. as I was shown many times later!
I was then shown to my room where the staff of the ward came to introduce themselves to us, very nice welcome indeed.
Nadege and I had dinner together in my room, and at about 7pm I had a chat with the Anaesthetist, a very nice guy, and seemed quite young for such a job. He filled me in on what would happen, as well as asking how many cigarettes I smoked per day. At the time I had a slight nose conjestion, but he said that it would cause complications.
This all went smoothly, and after he left, the nurse came in to prepare me for the next day. This included all the usual blood pressure tests & temperature. They got out a BIC razor and shaved my leg and thigh.. which made Nadege giggle a little.., they then squirted a 400ml bottle of liquid inside my rear end, which after about 5 mins made me go running to the bathroom, with little time to spare.
They finished by giving me a shot of FRAXIPARINE (Nadroparinum Calcium 4ml)). This shot was continued every night at 8pm, and is a blood thinner variant of HEPARINE. It comes in a great little self retracting safety syringe that I have never seen before. I will take this shot every night at 19.00h for a further 6 weeks after arriving home.
I also started with pills 3 times a day to reduce the risk of calcium formations on the prosthesis. ( Cant remember the actual medical name for this, but its on keiths site)
The pills are called INDOCID, 25mg
I then got introduced to my room mate, a great guy called William who was a Belgian Fire Fighter. He spoke good English , and over the coming days was a great moral lifter and source of inspiration. We still keep in touch.
Wednesday14th November
I woke up at 7am with the noise of them taking my room mate for surgery. He was booked in for 8am, 1st of the day, and me for 10am..second of the day.
I fell asleep, and was woken up at about 8.30am.
They gave me some premed, put on my TED (Anti Thrombosis) Stockings, and gave me 15 mins to chat with Nadege before I went down to the theatre.
The night before I already gave one of the nurses a letter that I composed over several weeks, that should be given to Nadege if anything went wrong in the surgery and for example I did not wake up.. (just one of those things ). You can immagine the sort of thing, instructions what to do with certain aspects of my life, bank account numbers etc, and a load of sweet soppy things that I wanted her to know.
They carted me off at around 09.30am. I met all the assistants in the theatre, and the last thing I remember saying was something like ...Please just make sure I get a BHR....and the world turned black.
ZZZZZZZZZ::::::::::::ZZZZZZZZZZZ::::::::::::::ZZZZZZZZZZZZ:::::::::ZZZZZZZZZZ
I woke up to that nauseous, sleepy sensation, and an uncomfortable feeling in my hip, its hard to explain, but it was like a combination of having a brick implanted in my hip / and having a sprained muscle. At this point, i would to say that it didn't hurt, but thats not true. It does hurt, but if compared to the pain that the Arthritis gave me, it was manageable.
I waited a few mins, and got the strength to lift up my head and look at my feet.. they were both still there, and I had a huge foam wedge between my legs.
(THE FOLLOWING WAS A SCREWED UP MOMENT)
A recovery room nurse came over to ask how I felt, I said fine, and then asked her if she knew what type of prosthesis I had.
She asked what type of prosthesis?
I said 'in my hip, did I get a THR or a BHR?'
She looked at me and said well, if you have the foam wedge between your legs, it means that you did not get the English one, because for that we never use the wedge, so you must have a T.H.R.
I died!!, I went back to sleep actually feeling something what I have never felt before, and I would think it was an instant depression.
I was woken up by the Surgeon some time later, who also asked how I was.
My reply was something like 'well, it didnt go so well did it?'
He said 'why do you think that?'
I said 'well, the nurse says that I have a THR, because you never use this foam wedge with a BHR!!'
He looked at me and said
"Everything went very well, you have a BHR I just used the wedge because you were moving around a lot in the recovery room!.. so dont worry, go back to sleep, and have sweet dreams! "
And I did have sweet dreams!
I spent the rest of the day drifting in and out of unconsciousness, but feeling very happy and content with myself! The only thing bothering me were some muscle cramps and twitches. At the time caused by having my legs Velcroed in to the wedge and I couldnt flex my hip muscles.
What I learned also after explaining this to the Surgeon, was that he took the opportunity of lengthening my leg by about 2.5cm. no wonder I had muscle cramps.. a whole year of teenage growing pains in 1 hour! J
That night I didn't sleep too well, and needed a few painkiller tablets. Nothing major, just a couple of dispersible pills, like the ones you get over the counter at the drug store.
Thursday 15th November.
Surgery +1
The painkillers that they gave me the night before eased the pain enough so that i got a little sleep, but not too much. So come 06.00am, I was shattered and aching, so they gave me a shot of painkiller. I dont know the name and didnt care, but it came with a syringe & the BIGEST bloody needle I have ever seen attached to a syringe. That went in my left thigh muscle and how it missed the bone I will never know.. J
5 mins later I was loving life again, and the world was a beautiful place with bright lights and lovely colours hehe
I had a light breakfast at about 07.00h, and the Physiotherapist came to show my room mate and me some bed exercises. This went on for about 20 mins, after which he asked if I could get out of bed and try the crutches.. I wanted to , seeing as I had no pain but I was dizzy as hell and couldnt stand up.
After lunch at around 2pm, I asked if we could try the walking bit again, and they said its better I use the Zimmer frame for the first attempt, just in case I was still a bit high from the injection.
This was a great surprise, and I walked about 10 meters down the corridor and back, putting around 50% of my 100KG on the operated leg.
It felt great! No joint pain, just the incision flexing, and tight muscles.
I was very happy with things. Later in the night the pain came back, and this time was handled just by a COCODAMOL tablet at 10pm, and although I slept very bad, I never needed another painkiller until 07.00h the next morning.
Friday 16th November
Still lots of muscular pain, but after the loosening exercises it subsided enough to become comfortable. Went for a walk with crutches, and did about 50 meters with 50% weight bearing.
That afternoon I had a great chat with the surgeon, and was telling him about how nice it feels with 50% weight bearing. He looked at me surprised , and told me that I should be 100% weight bearing!
This took me by surprise, as I understood most people are not 100% until about 6 weeks later.
My next walk of the day I put about 80% weight bearing for 50 meters, and the next walk 100% .
This I found incredible, and my girlfriend did not believe it, so I got her to put a finger between my hand and the handle of the crutch, and took a few steps to show her that I was only using the crutch for balance, and not actually putting any weight on them.
She turned white.. and me also!!
The only pain I have is from the muscles, and I think probably from the stretching during leg lengthening. The incision is just a dull ache.
I had a very bad case of rear end gas today, and my room mate also, and luckily my room mate & I share the same sense of humour.
In total today I did 5 walks, at about 50 meters each.
Saturday 17th November
Friday night proved to be the worst nights sleep I had yet. I just could not get comfortable, and woke up every 15 mins fighting with the sheets and the pillow.
It is now 3 days since the surgery, and overall I think its going very well, and I think that my muscular pain is now about equal with a normal surf patient, that has not needed leg lengthening. I have kept up with my room mate today, after been behind a few days because of my cramps.
The extreme muscle tightness is loosening up, and I think that this is what really put me behind.
My Range of motion (ROM) is now greater than it has been in the last 8 years. In fact, there is very little difference (when laid in bed) between my good side and operated side when I straighten my legs with my feet pointing upwards, and then turn my feet outwards, or inwards.
When I pull my feet about a foot inwards, so that my knees are bent, and push my knees outwards, there is no difference in the angle at all. And both knees can be almost touching the bed.
My walking is now at a stage where my leg is straight when it takes my weight, and I just need to concentrate on step length and step timing.
All in all today, I probably walked about 400 meters.
Sunday 18th November
Yesterday was my best day yet, doing 8 walks. Just a dull ache from the incision, and the dull ache of the muscles, that are now really learning that they are longer than they were a few days ago.
The prosthesis seems solid, although obviously it takes 6 weeks for the ingrowth surface to take a solid hold, I trust my BHR completely-
For the first time since we arrived, I had a good sleep, so good in fact that I was woken by the staff at 07.15am, as my breakfast was sitting on my table for half an hour already!! J
A few of the nurses and ward staff have commented on how good I look, I put this down to a good nights sleep.
I did my 50 meter walk around the ward, and after breakfast I walked to the restaurant on the top floor to have a coffee with Nadege as she took breakfast.
This trip probably took about a few hundred meters in total, and we finished with a ward walk of about 50
Today so far I have walked about a few hundred meters, and its not even noon yet.
It is now 18.00h, and I have some severe cramps, this is not really surprising as between waking up and 14.00h, I have done a lot of walking.
I laid on the bed at 14.00h, and Nadege started running her fingers through my hair (which I love) and I fell asleep. As I have been so sleepless for the last 5 days, she let me sleep.
What she didnt realise, and of course I didnt either, was that I slept without a pillow between my legs... NOT GOOD!
Those muscles were a streching !
20.00h, and muscle exercises have loosened me up. Although I will never make this mistake again, it has probably worked well to help stretch the muscles.
Also, I woke up with a nasty looking red / purple mark , about the size of a melon on the inside of my operated thigh. It looks nasty but apparently its just the dead blood following gravity to the lowest part of my leg at the time. PHEW!!
Monday 19th November
After overdoing things yesterday, I took it easy today. I did 6 ward walks, and spent most of the day reading. All in all feeling pretty great with myself.
I called my Airline company to check if my return flight was still ok(after the nightmare with my outbound flight).. it was running on schedule.
I also told them that I would need special assistance at the terminal,and they said no problem.
Tuesday 20th November
Flew home today.
They gave me a morning dose of FRAXIPARINE for the flight, just to reduce the risk of an economy class induced Thrombosis hehe
Every 20 mins on the flight (flight time 1 hour 45 mins), I walked up and down the central isle twice, and spent 5 mins doing exercises.
The cabin crew were great about it, and gave me enough leeway as I wanted.
So at Bruxelles we got a wheelchair, but we had to confirm it at the check in first (long walk to get to the check in), and then collect it ourselves from the other side of the terminal & Nadege had to push me (I am a big guy) mmmmm
Nadege ( being the angel she is) told me to sit and relax whilst she went and got it.
At Barcelona, it was a different story. As we exited the aircraft, on to the mobile walkway, there was a guy waiting just outside the door of the plane with the wheelchair, and he pushed me all the way through the airport, baggage claim, immigration and then to the taxi rank!! ( he got a nice tip!)
Its good to be home!! I negotiated our 3 flights of stairs with no problem, although it did take some time. The way they recommend is time consuming, I believe that I could do it better my own way.. but why risk it for an extra minute.... right???
Thats about it for my diary of the hospital stay. If you want to check out how my recovery went... see the next page "RECOVERY DIARY"
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