Tuesday turned out to be a very long and slow, bad day. I woke
up feeling tired but generally ok and introduced myself to fellow patients.
There were six of us in total but had a special connection with a lovely lady
opposite me called Natalia. – She’d also had a PAO performed by Banksey and
immediately after me on Monday. We exchanged stories and it was amazing to have
a ‘hip twin’ who’d gone through almost identical previous experiences and that we
were embarking on this new experience together. The main differences being the
hip we’d had operated on (my right, her left), and that Natalia wasn’t having
her other hip reconstructed.
I felt ravenous (hadn’t eaten properly since Sunday night)
and ordered lots of breakfast, but could only manage a few mouthfuls and felt
full and unwell again. Natalia started her first physio session so I was
eagerly awaiting mine, but was worried that I wasn’t feeling up to it. Head
physio Caroline and her student Kate entered my cubicle and I felt well enough
to do the bed exercises. They were impressed with my strength and that I had
done some prehab exercises (mainly glutes, quads, abs, hamstrings and hip
flexors). The exercises they gave me were tough and painful but I managed them
all with their assistance. I felt very confident after this and was looking
forward to the next session after lunch. Once again though, lunch arrived and
couldn’t manage even a quarter of it. I was feeling very sick, dizzy and drowsy
and was beginning to regret having surgery. From this point on it went downhill
very quickly!
The nurse that was assigned to me for the day was very inexperienced
(her first week) and didn’t seem to understand what surgery I’d had. She didn’t
grasp that I couldn’t wash myself unaided and when I asked for a bed pan, not
only did she expect me to roll on to side by myself, but she attempted to roll
me onto my right side. Now I knew from my earlier PAO research that you can’t
lay on your operated side until at least week 6, and the physios and docs had
also warned me. I had to say “woah what are you doing? I have screws in that hip
so I shouldn’t be moved onto it!”
If you think that’s bad, it got worse still…
At about 1.45pm I started to feel some sharp pains in my
wound but didn’t think anything of it. I knew the spinal and general
anaesthetics would be wearing off so thought it was part of the process. My Dad
visited as soon as he was allowed (2pm) and I explained to him that I wasn’t
feeling great; the morphine was making me ill and I could feel the wound for
the first time. My local anaesthetic machine (that went into my wound) started
bleeping intermittently but neither of us thought anything of it as all the machines
have a tendency to bleep at times. The inexperienced nurse walked in to take my
blood pressure, temperature and heart rate and I stated that I didn’t feel well.
The next thing I know, my vision went blurry, my hearing was distorted, my body
was feeling very hot and cold but I was sweating profusely, I was retching into
sick bowl, and asking my Dad and the nurse to make it stop. I was very worried,
my Dad was very worried, and the nurse just walked out. My Dad told me this lasted
for 15 minutes and I recall saying “kill me now!” – I’ve never felt so much
pain and just wanted it to stop. It was incredibly scary and I know this sounds
dramatic but we both thought my time had come. I’m so glad my Dad was there and
he was holding onto me telling me it would be alright. I now know that this was
my body going into shock as the local anaesthetic machine was battery powered
and the bleeping was indicating the battery had died. It took the staff 40
minutes to find a lead and get the local anaesthetic working again so you can
imagine how annoyed, ill and upset I was.
The physios showed up and their goal
was to get me out of bed and stand on my left leg with the help of my zimmer
frame. My first instruction was to sit up which was extremely painful in my
hip. Then, using my upper body strength, I needed to shift my bum to the side
of the bed. – Once again, extremely painful. Then as the physio lifted my right
leg off the bed and carefully bent my knee to lower my feet to the ground, I
swivelled my hips around 90⁰ and moved my left leg to join my right. With both
feet touching the ground, I felt very dizzy and started getting the hot and
cold sweats again. I knew I was about to faint so both physios helped me back
to a lying position with both legs back on the bed. After feeling nauseous for
5 minutes and wondering what had happened, the physios explained that it was a
common response, especially as I hadn’t eaten for two days. After an unsuccessful
second attempt, I admitted defeat and took the physios advice; endeavour to sit
upright in bed to decrease the chances of dizziness, and eat something for
dinner and breakfast to regain my strength for Wednesday.
My friends Steph, Jo
and Jenny visited me on Tuesday and they arrived bearing cards, gifts and food
which cheered me up considering the day I’d had. Andy also came straight from
work and I was very grateful to all of them for their company, but they
definitely saw me at my worst. I was praying the day would end with a better night’s
sleep.
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