Day 1
Surgery was at 7:30 am. Mom and I left Avon at 5:30. JJ was my nurse this morning in pre-op. She was great, a traveling nurse from Vermont. We chatted it up and my mom nabbed a few photos. She put in my IV and then came Dr. Ellstrom. Marisa said I needed to make friends with him so I did. He explained to me the risks of anesthesia (a little unnerving), I signed consent and off we were. He gave me something through the IV to make me loopy. Then he had me roll onto my left side so he could inject the nerve block to the right of my spine. I don’t remember anything after that. I know that I had to roll to my right so the nerve block would soak into the tissues in my right leg. And don’t worry my mom got proof.
I woke up a little groggy in the recovery ward with my leg in a continuous pass machine. My mom was there with my new nurse Julie. She said that the doctors had said that everything went great. I started to cry, I was virtually sobbing. The nurse looked worried and asked me how much pain I was in. I had to clarify that these were tears of relief, thankfulness, happiness. I struggled to get my thank yous out through those tears, but I did. And i’ve been thanking everyone all day long.
After my pain level went from a six to a three, I was moved down to my room. People were constantly coming in and out. I had a hard time to staying awake despite the fact I was so anxious to meet everyone. After a few hours Autumn, my new nurse, decided that she knew me, and we narrowed it down to a graduation party of a mutual friend, Jennifer Swaeby.
Five hours later Alex, the physical trainer came in and briefed me my surgery and my next two weeks. Then he got me into my brace, put me in some crutches and literally held me up as I navigated around my room Then he popped me onto a stationary bike, and I biked for twenty minutes at about 15 rotations a minute. Alex kept his hand on my right foot and helped me on every stroke. I got back in bed, Autumn changed the dressing on my hip, got my leg back into the CPM and I fell quickly to sleep.
I woke to dinner, salmon, rice, broccoli and lime sherbet. It was so darned tasty. My mom had spent the entire day with me, a trooper indeed. She left as Autumn and the rest of the day staff left at about 8. My new nurse Darcy rocks! Heck she even got me the power cord for my computer.
Dr. Huang came in about nine pm and chatted with me for a few minutes. He flashed a smile and gave me a firm handshake. He then told me that my surgery had gone great. They were able to fix numerous things and that he expects me to have a full recovery. I’m going to try to make that happen.
Dr. Huang
I can’t tell you how great EVERYONE at Steadman-Hawkins and the Vail Valley Medical Center have been. They are beyond friendly, beyond caring, beyond helpful, and experts at what they do. The level of care here is beyond what I could ever have imagined. Thank you, Thank you.
Yes, I was in pain all day, but who cares!?! My hip is going to be fixed! And of course, photos are here.
Filed by ryanroth at March 29th, 2007 under Life, Young & Hip