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Post No. 3: Surgery and afterwards
Bill Unsworth describes his hip replacement surgery and the therapy immediately afterwards It's over and I'm back home. I had the surgery on Monday, July 24, at Dr Frank Kolisek said the surgery went well, and there were no surprises -- just want you want to hear. I arrived at Not too much happened the rest of that day except for me napping and watching some TV. I got to my room about One thing that is really good for us as patients is that the joint replacement business is very competitive. Hospitals are offering a great teal of amenities and special services. The food was very good, and if I keep eating those size portions I'll weigh 300 pounds pretty soon. Studies show that happy patients recover faster. The staff certainly tried its best to make sure I was well taken care of. I had three different "day nurses" (I must have worn them out): Chris, Tammy and Jamie. These ladies work 12-hour shifts three days a week. I had the same "night" nurse, Kathy. I was also taken care of by four certified nursing assistants Tina, Dina, Rebecca and Brenda. There is an old saying, "Doctors fix patients but nurses cure patients." I couldn't agree more. I asked Jamie why she liked working on orthopedics, and she said it was because she really wasn't working with sick patients. She was helping them recover from an injury, and it was fulfilling. As a coach I know that the most important part of any injury is the therapy part. In my first post I planned to get myself physically prepared for the surgery and the rehab. Let me tell you the stronger you are the better your rehab will be. I also mentioned that I was doing some self-hypnosis. Well it worked again! I focused on five items. The first two were being relaxed before the surgery and having a low blood pressure and a low pulse rate. After the surgery, I focused on feeling good, being pain free and recovering quickly. Before the surgery I was relaxed but eager, kind of like the feeling you have before a game. I was not nervous, but I was ready to get going (as athletes we can relate to this). My pulse was in the 60s and my blood pressure was 126/76. I really felt good after the surgery and the pain has been very tolerable. They set up a morphine unit I could use to self medicate if I needed it. They took it away Tuesday morning, since I didn't use it at all. Starting that morning I was given two pain pills every four hours and that kept my pain level to a one on a 10-point scale. The evening of the surgery two of the nurses came in and helped me get out of bed. I didn't walk around since I was hooked up to an IV and other monitors -- but standing felt good. It's kind of strange that here you are standing up just hours after having your old hip removed and a new one put in. It really boggles the mind! You are told it's going to happen and in my case I went through it once before but, really, it is amazing! Tuesday morning Jason from occupational therapy paid me a visit. It's his job to teach me how to use various apparatus to help me do "normal" things. For instance, since I'm not allowed to bend at the waist, I need help putting on my shoes, socks and pants. They have devices that help me do this. Probably the best thing they have is the "grabber." You need this tool to get things that are just out of your reach. Jason did a good job. Remember, I'm a coach and I know a good teacher when I encounter one. I got to see him again before I went home on Wednesday, just so he felt comfortable with my status. After he was finished with me physical therapy came in. There are many different ideas about doing therapy on a hip replacement, and I already know how Dr. Kolisek feels about it. Hips rehab themselves by walking and going about your daily life. You don't need to do a lot of different exercise in order to regain mobility. There are about three exercises he has you do that don't involve walking and that's it. I rehabbed my first hip by plenty of walking, and I was ready to actively coach on the field two and a half months later. So I can testify that it works. Leslie was the physical therapist and Chris was her assistant. Both of them are really good kids and very knowledgeable. I can says kids, because, let's face it, I'm old enough to be their father and to have coached them in either college or high school. All I did that morning session was walk with a walker down the hall and then back. They gave me some refresher points on using a walker, and I was pretty much done for that session. They did suggest that I put some wheels on the front of the walker that my gait would be smoother. That afternoon I tried their walker and they were so right. They really didn't have to motivate me to get moving, but I could hear them with the other patients. At the time I was there were five women (two hip replacements and three knee replacements) and one other man (hip replacement). I was the youngest patient by at lest 25 years, so in reality I was in a separate class as far as conditioning. I did hear them work with the other patients, and they were always upbeat and provided a lot of positive motivation. I had two sessions on Tuesday and another two sessions on Wednesday. I did do some work on climbing stairs with a walker and crutches. The physical therapists are the ones who make the decision as to whether on not you can handle living at home. A lot of it is based on if you will have someone else with you at home. One of the women said she'd go home either Friday or Saturday. After a hip replacement the doctors and therapists try to hammer into your head the importance of "Hip Precautions." These are things you must do for a period of time in order to prevent a dislocation of your new artificial joint:
These hip precautions are not that difficult to follow. You usually follow them for about a month after surgery. I found that I still followed some of them for all the years after my first surgery. One of them is kind of addictive, the high toilet seat! It is really so much easier using one of those. My wife had to use one after her knee replacements and after a year I asked if she didn't think it was time to go to the regular seat. She is not unhappy to be going back to it after my surgery. Another thing you have to consider is SEX! You're probably not going to be interested in it immediately following your surgery but eventually you'll get the urge. They even have guidelines for it: First of all you are not to engage in sex for a month after the surgery. Now I don't remember that restriction from my first surgery. I guess there are some things so horrible you don't want to remember. Guidelines for sexual activity after your hip replacement:
These guidelines were taken from Dr Kolisek's website www.frankkolisekmd.com Basically, you should lie back and enjoy it for a while. Let your partner do the work. Now that I'm home, each day is different. Some mornings I sleep in and some mornings (like this one) I'm wide awake at 5 am! I do nap a lot; you've got to get your rest! Thursday, my first day back it rained all day so all the walking I did was inside the house. Linda moved one of the cars out of the garage so I walked in there. Boring! Yesterday I wanted to walk outside but Linda had a very busy day and I don't feel safe enough to walk outside by my self just yet. Linda has to get ready to go back to school soon, her mother who is 91 lives near us and she has to help her out. She took her mom to the eye doctor and then went grocery shopping with her. Linda's brother and sister-in-law are visiting this weekend so she has to help her mom get ready for them, finally with all the rain we had the grass needed mowing. She also had to help me shower and get me back into my TEDs hose. You wear them on both legs after surgery in order to prevent blood clots. My legs are pretty muscular so it's a struggle to get them on and off me. (Of course one is swollen now. The swelling is not as great as it was after my first replacement and the incision is smaller). So I understand her not being able to go outside with me yesterday. I know she'll be glad when school starts so she can get some rest. |