One day down, 12 weeks to go

Good morning! Sorry I didn’t post last night. I had double vision and some nasty nausea, so writing was out of the question. I feel much better today.

So surgery went well I’m told. This was Rich’s post to my Facebook wall, for any of you who didn’t see it:

“Jen is out of surgery and in the recovery room. Likely to be there at least 90 minutes. Dr said things went well but they did go long so he could get the sizing right so that she’s not shorter on the left than right. Dr said there was no breakdown at all of the parts he used last time so it must be that her body simply didn’t like having metal on metal parts. He said the original work still looked perfect (I think he was sad to have to take it out – perhaps he’s a little bit of an artist on top of the perfectionist). He says she will have more limitations for longer during this recovery. No 90 degree bending for 12 weeks instead of the normal 6 and she’s to expect more swelling that will take longer to shrink.”

Did you hear that? 12 weeks!! Ugh. Not excited to be in movement jail that long. And, the swelling he’s referring to is what I called my saddlebag last time – aside from the usual unsightly-ness of a saddlebag, it just looks weird having only one. BUT I’m on weight bearing as tolerated, so that’s a plus. And I don’t feel like I’m going to barf anymore, another plus.

So the nausea…turns out that I didn’t get Gary as my anesthesiologist, but I did get Jen and Lora. Diane had shared my Mayo charts with Jen, so she knew about the triple, but apparently due to side effects of one of the drugs, they just do two of the three drugs. Suffice it to say, the double was not quite enough, but oh well.

I start my group therapy sessions today. Riley said it sounds like we’re all going to sit around and talk about our feelings, but it’s actually physical therapy. And after the second session I get acupuncture, which I’m very excited about. My pain is pretty good, all things considered, but a nurse warned me that it gets worse today, so I’m not getting cocky. Yet.

Because of the nauseau they’ve been cranking the fluids in my IV. That, combined with their eagerness to get me up and moving meant I made 4 trips to the bathroom yesterday – walking! My mobility is really good compared to last time, which is awesome. What was not awesome was trying to “void” as they like to call it here. Apparently one of the side effects of anesthesia is that your body forgets how to pee. I felt like a toddler sitting on the toilet, legs dangling, wailing, “nothing’s coming out!” And I mean, really – I’ve had children, I pee when I don’t want to (if you girls know what I mean), so the irony of the situation was not lost on me. But it all seems to be ok now – aren’t you glad I shared that? I’ll get off my drugs and read back over these and be mortified, I’m sure.

Speaking of drugs, there’s more to report but I don’t remember it. Something about my bone is really thin somewhere and that’s the reason for the 12 weeks of movement jail. And I know there was stuff to clean up in there so I think that’s the reason for the extra swelling. Not sure. Rich has told me at least three times, so I probably won’t ask him again until I’m sure I can remember it.

Thanks so much for all the thoughts, prayers and messages! Let the healing begin!