Here's Part one of my hip surgery:
Jeff Cranston Bilateral Hip Surgery 9-6-2001 to 9-20-2001
Overview: Age 46, Avascular Necrosis both hips from Prednisone use. Plan: Replace both hips with Wright Medical Conserve Plus resurfacing prosthesis. Fort Worth, TX resident.
Things I brought with me:
Hip Notebook, provided by Mont’s office.
Advanced Directive; Medical Power of Attorney; Cardiovascular approval form; Medical History with list of medications.
Two regular pillows (for flight back); reacher and dressing aid; laptop, music, dvds.
Clothes: all casual.
Events:
Flew to Baltimore 9/5. Super Shuttle $16 plus tip from Airport to Cross Keys Radisson. Approx. 25 minutes drive.
Radisson $109 per night with Sinai rate (tell them this upon making reservation). Outdoor pool only.
Obrecky’s Crab House, Pratt St, Downtown Baltimore, 15 minutes from hotel.
Good Hard Shell Crabs (peppery seasoning)
9/6 Right hip surgery day.
Discussed the Wright study and the need to return in 6 or 12 weeks, and 6 months, and 12 months. (I have no intention of flying back several times. Instead I plan to get xrays locally and mail them to Mont).
Wright Conserve Plus; Wright metal/metal THR as backup. (Originally told that Biomet m/m was backup. Wright m/m is fairly new one)
General Anesthesia only option (strange because one or more hippies said they had epidural with Mont. Found out later that this was do to pushiness by the patient).
Met Dr. Mont. Asked if he would possibly do both hips simultaneously. He doesn’t believe in simultaneous bilateral. Thinks it’s not as safe for the patient. So, will have the week delay between surgeries.
Schedulers messed up and put a revision surgery as first one in the morning. This delayed me from 7 am to 10 am. Dr. M was pretty mad that they did this. (Gave me time to start typing this story while I waited.)
I was in recovery from 2:30 pm to 7:30 pm, because the room wasn’t ready (boo). Then, no food at all from 6 pm the night before to 11 pm the day of surgery. Really bad planning.
9/7
On Morphine pump. Kind of sore in operated hip, but very bearable, PT got me out of bed in afternoon, This lateral motion causes spasms in the outside hip muscles. Once out, she taught me how to use a walker. I walked around 10 feet, then sat in a recliner designed for ortho patients. Spent most of the afternoon in the recliner. Got to see Mont only for a minute. He said my surgery was text book. A rehab manger had Jennifer, benefits person, on the phone. She asked if I was covered for rehab. I was pretty sure that I was. Apparently, whoever she talked to said different. So, now I have to wait until Monday to find out if I’m approved for rehab. Boo!
9/8
Off morphiine. PT in morning and afternoon. Walked 30 feet with walker. PT in afternoon. Walked 50 feet with crutches. Learned how to sit on toilet from walker. They don’t supply any parts here.
9/9
More PT. No pain meds. Walked 80 feet with crutches. The only trouble I had was a lateral move, sliding the right leg off the recliner stool, to the right. I still have limited motion in that direction.
9/10
More PT. Found out that Dr. Monts crew was still showing the wrong date for my surgery. Yikes!
Anyway, it's back on for Thursday.
9/11
Woke up to a terrible sight on television. A jet airliner hitting one of the World Trade Centers in NYC. I was stunned into disbelief. 20 minutes later, jet number two hit the second tower. Words cannot express my shock.
9/12, 13
Surgery on left hip. Went as smoothly as first hip, with the exception of numbness in half of the left hand.
9/14 thru 22
After 3 days, transferred to rehab facility on 5th floor. Thanks to a Case Manager from Blue Cross who knew her stuff. Discharged on the 22nd.
Part 2:
I'm back in Texas. Been avoiding my computer for a while, as I've tried for a few days, to get over PTSS (post traumatic stress syndrome). My emotions have been all over the place. Quite bizarre. Generally, OK, but now and then, I just fly off the handle. So, I decided to stay away from TH until I was seeing a bit better. Anyway, I think I'm recovering. I'm told that this is a fairly normal reaction.
Generally speaking, I'd say my surgeries went just fine, and my treatment at Sinai was very good.
Although Dr. Mont and I hardly spoke at all during the 15 days I was at Sinai, I do remember one touching moment, on Sept 14, as I was watching the recovery efforts of the World Trade Centers, Dr. Mont silently slipped in, and sat next to me. After a minute, tears were coming down is face, and I put my arm around him and we just watched in silence for a few minutes. Then he left. I really didn't need to hear anything. It did make him seem like a more regular guy though.
Anyway, I was able to get rehab for the second surgery. But, quite frankly, I don't think it mattered all that much. The in hospital PT at Sinai, which is provided as you recover, is just as helpful as the fancy rehab, with the exception of the really nice gym area they have. But, if you only have 4 days in rehab, it's not really enough time to take full advantage of it anyway, unless you live in Baltimore.
My flight back was fine, with the bulkhead aisle seat. Although, any seat would have worked fine. It's really not that big of a deal (unless you are a very large person, which probably would suit you better to fly first class).
But, it was delayed 3 times, so we didn't get to Dallas until 9 pm (10 pm Baltimore time!). We should have been home by 8. Oh well, no biggie.
Amazing how your brain goes through changes. It's very shocking. You loose that security of a nurse checking on you every few hours. And now, I've got to get into the habit again of taking my own meds. And all these low seats.
But, as Elisabeth and I concluded once again, all of life comes down to one thing .... Poop. That's right. When you take those pain meds, you can bet you're going to get constipated. I think I only went 3 times in the 15 days I was there. So, no matter what, your mind is always a bit preoccupied by thought, "How long till my next poop?" There's just no getting around it.
I found this subject particularly funny, when, a few days before my discharge, I was introduced to my new nurse Art. Art reminds me of David Crosby (as in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young), with the big mustache. We got to chatting, and he was an ex-detective who got into nursing when a romance went sour. He's also into motorcycles (no surprise). Well, around 9 pm rolled around, and my brain finally decided that the delay of 4 days with no poop was enough. So, Art brought his own concoction of Exlax and Prune Juice, heated. I drank it down, but, no relief after about an hour. So, I buzzed hip again. He came in with round 2 and said, "Nobodies ever asked me for a second one of these." I just smiled knowingly. Within a short while, relief came my way.
Anyway, just thought I'd let ya'll know I'm back again, and hope I have a set of hips that will last a lifetime.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow-up trip: 9 wks left/10 wks right resurfacing.
Flew to Baltimore. (Hips set off alarms in both Dallas, and Baltimore. The
frisk/scan revealed the truth that I wasn’t "packing" heat.)
Mark V. (a local friend who also had hip resurfacing) accompanied me (left resurfacing; 5 weeks).
Two gimps on crutches. Our favorite line when questioned at the airport:
Question: "What happened to you guys?" Answer: "One hell of a party!"
After our arrival in Baltimore:
Mark was approved by Dr. Mont to shift to a cane.
After xrays, Mont came in to see me with xrays in hand. He was very excited
and said, "Just look how great these look." A group of 7 followed him to the
doorway, as I sat on the waxed paper.
I said, "Yeah. They feel good too."
Again he repeated, "But look how great they look!"
I said again, "Yeah. They feel good too."
Then he said, "Ok. You wouldn’t know what you’re looking at. But, from a
craftsmen perspective, I can really appreciate it."
Well, I figured, if he was that happy with his work, then he must have done
a good job. So, I was happy.
I have two more weeks to go with crutches, and then NO RESTRICTIONS! That’s
right. His words: "Whatever your question is, the answer is yes."
I must say, I was a bit shocked. I can’t imagine, at twelve weeks, crossing
my legs at the hips, or planting my feet, and twisting to the right or left.
Of course, he prescribed more PT to strengthen the muscles to be prepared
for full weight bearing without the risk of falling.
As far as the hand numbness, which is somewhat better, he is still
surprised. (For those who don't know, the left hand, post left surgery, had an area in the palm and two fingers that became very numb). He said out of hundreds, he only had a couple with that. Well,
guess who the other is; my fellow traveler Mark. Very similar. Hopefully,
time will keep healing that one.
Almost ready to rejoin the "normal" again.