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Post-op day 22.
I slept straight through the night last night. I fell asleep somewhere around the 7th inning and I woke up around 6am, cheerful, rested, and not in awful pain from missed pills. I took my 6am pills and went back to sleep until 8:30, when Seatmate woke me to help with my clot shot before he left for work.
(Clot shot: subcutaneous injection of anticoagulant to prevent clots. The syringe is preloaded, the needle is tiny, the whole thing takes thirty seconds and doesn't hurt. I am about halfway through my thirty-day prescription of clot shots.)
Last night was the second time since arriving home from the hospital that I've slept through the night. It's clear and definite progress, especially the part when I woke up and wasn't in terrible pain. You have to count every little victory in a recovery this long.
But no, it hasn't escaped my notice that I haven't updated since September 4th. Where did the time go? How did it get to be three weeks after surgery?
I'll tell you where it's gone: I've been sleeping. Seriously. And when I'm awake, I've been using up my writing energy in long emails and messages, mostly to women preparing for the same surgery I had.
There's a great community of women online (hip dysplasia affects women disproportionately) who calmed me down, cheered me up, and got me ready for my first hip surgery. As a veteran, I like being able to give back to the community. I try to help out the next wave of scared women heading in to have their pelvises broken for the first time. It seems the least I can do.
Here's what you missed: Seatmate went back to work a week after my discharge, I slept through the night for the first time (and now the second), and my hands and wrists have started registering their complaints about weight-bearing. I have wrist braces, but they don't help very much. I can feel the bones slipping apart under the brace. But so far there's no damage, only annoyance, so I count myself lucky.
Last but not least, the Numb Spot has appeared. Most people who have a PAO end up with a temporary numb spot on their thigh, a result of pushing a nerve aside during the surgery. Last time, I didn't have a numb spot and my surgeon teased that he'd try harder in the future. This time, I didn't notice that I have a numb spot until the nerves started recovering after I got home. Hello!
It feels more or less like you'd expect: like small, repeated electric shocks in the numb area, lasting a few minutes to an hour or two, then subsiding back into numbness for a while. It's not my favorite feeling, but it's temporary. The numb spot will get smaller over time until it's either gone or mostly gone, taking the nerve pain with it.
So now you're up to date. What did I miss?
I slept straight through the night last night. I fell asleep somewhere around the 7th inning and I woke up around 6am, cheerful, rested, and not in awful pain from missed pills. I took my 6am pills and went back to sleep until 8:30, when Seatmate woke me to help with my clot shot before he left for work.
(Clot shot: subcutaneous injection of anticoagulant to prevent clots. The syringe is preloaded, the needle is tiny, the whole thing takes thirty seconds and doesn't hurt. I am about halfway through my thirty-day prescription of clot shots.)
Last night was the second time since arriving home from the hospital that I've slept through the night. It's clear and definite progress, especially the part when I woke up and wasn't in terrible pain. You have to count every little victory in a recovery this long.
But no, it hasn't escaped my notice that I haven't updated since September 4th. Where did the time go? How did it get to be three weeks after surgery?
I'll tell you where it's gone: I've been sleeping. Seriously. And when I'm awake, I've been using up my writing energy in long emails and messages, mostly to women preparing for the same surgery I had.
There's a great community of women online (hip dysplasia affects women disproportionately) who calmed me down, cheered me up, and got me ready for my first hip surgery. As a veteran, I like being able to give back to the community. I try to help out the next wave of scared women heading in to have their pelvises broken for the first time. It seems the least I can do.
Here's what you missed: Seatmate went back to work a week after my discharge, I slept through the night for the first time (and now the second), and my hands and wrists have started registering their complaints about weight-bearing. I have wrist braces, but they don't help very much. I can feel the bones slipping apart under the brace. But so far there's no damage, only annoyance, so I count myself lucky.
Last but not least, the Numb Spot has appeared. Most people who have a PAO end up with a temporary numb spot on their thigh, a result of pushing a nerve aside during the surgery. Last time, I didn't have a numb spot and my surgeon teased that he'd try harder in the future. This time, I didn't notice that I have a numb spot until the nerves started recovering after I got home. Hello!
It feels more or less like you'd expect: like small, repeated electric shocks in the numb area, lasting a few minutes to an hour or two, then subsiding back into numbness for a while. It's not my favorite feeling, but it's temporary. The numb spot will get smaller over time until it's either gone or mostly gone, taking the nerve pain with it.
So now you're up to date. What did I miss?
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