On Tuesday morning very early I headed into hospital to get my left hip replaced. All this time I’d been in pain, all leading up to this moment, the operation. Of course I knew there would be recovery (I’m not a complete fool) but other than making sure the house was organised I wasn’t focused on it.
I had my operation at 10.15am, it went well and I woke up feeling good. Not general anaesthetic for me - a spinal local and some sedation which meant none of that horrid grogginess of coming round.
It’s in the book, but I think (I know I did) that this next bit wouldn’t apply to me. It says you may wet yourself. I have excellent bladder control so this was for the more advanced in years, surely. No - the reason you wet yourself if that you’re numb down there, you don’t even know it’s happened until you feel a wet patch! Nurses of course take this in their stride, but it was embarrassing.
I experienced a range of emotions in that first afternoon, including crying & assisting that I wanted to go home. But by 6pm of that same day I was Zimmering under supervision to the toilet and I felt epic.
I’d been in arthritic pain in that hip for a year so I thought I understood pain, I was wrong post operative pain is considered ‘acute’ and is quite the different beast. It meant I failed to recognise that my pain was getting out of control until I was resting my head on the body of a nurse called Carol, sobbing, whilst she held my hand and stroked my hair. She also provided me with the much needed pain relief.
Only 2 days later I was doing so well with my recovery I was heading home. Yay my own bed etc. I was glad to be back home, but home recovery is different again. I’d like to say at this point my husband is a gem, a saint if you will and his dedication to my care has been superb.
The thing is everything is still hard, I can’t do stuff for myself, I’m still needing very regular pain medicine. But today I got outside in the sunshine for my first post operative walk and I had a sense of achievement and then I was knackered.
I’m not sure what I expected from recovery, or how quickly or easily I assumed it would be in truth. What I’ve got is a recovery that has given me challenges, and will continue to do so. One that is going to take time and one that is giving me pause to reflect on life, what I’m doing with it, how I care for myself and who I choose to surround myself with.