(It is important to note this was mostly dictated and since Apple is terrible at technology it doesn’t really fit stylistically with the rest of my posts…)
Day 1
I did sleep in bed last night, which was very painful. Had to get out of bed three times to go to the washroom of course because peeing is fucking stupid when you’re 56. Pain is not too bad until I move, unsurprisingly. Probably gets to about a six at times but the morphine is doing pretty well handling that. I am able to stand on my leg. I did stand on my leg in the kitchen for a little bit today and it wasn’t too painful, but I can tell my knee is cracking and moving around a lot more now than it was before I had my hip problems so that’s pretty disappointing. I’m gonna have to make sure that I’m strengthening my knee as well as my hip as time goes along but I do recall that my knee was affected after my back surgery too so I am going to assume it will pass.
Basically I’m just sitting on the couch watching the TV and nibbling on some small amounts of food I had hiccoughs for an hour yesterday and I have not pooped yet since the surgery. Not sure when that’s gonna happen but I am farting a lot, well a bit, so I don’t think I’m constipated. I just don’t think I’ve eaten enough food to really pass through yet. No jaundice this time, I did seem a little bit yellow yesterday but certainly not to the degree that I was the last time so that’s good news. I’m drinking plenty of water so hopefully that won’t happen and besides I think it’s too late for it to happen at this point.
I did my exercises. I gotta do those three times a day. That’s pretty easy to get done and the painkillers are making life tolerable so things are not bad at this point for day one of recovery. As far as the exercises go, I can pretty much do everything. The one thing I cannot do is lift my left leg up more than 45°, which is fully expected. All my other exercises are pretty easy, including the hamstring curls the calf raises and the quad flexions and all that stuff is all fine. I think the big indicator of strength and recovery of the surgery site will be the leg lift. I am aiming to be able to lift up to one step as a starter, at this point I can barely get my foot off the floor.
Day 2
Last night sleeping was terrible. It’s because everything gets locked up when it’s cold. It’s just so painful to try and get in and out of bed so I ended up coming down to the couch at 4 AM to sleep down here. Once I take the drugs everything seems to be a little bit better, and once my hip is warm it’s definitely better. I’ve just been walking around the house for about 10 minutes, which isn’t bad but the pain from the incision is quite bad, very tender. I did use some ice yesterday and some ice this morning. Hopefully that’ll help a little bit. I got a pill stuck in my throat this morning because it’s a gel cap. It stuck in my windpipe and wouldn’t come out cause it couldn’t cough it up so that’s been disgusting the last couple of hours. It’s so freaking hot now too, 40’s with the humidity so every time I get up I get so hot and sweaty. It’s gross, a lot of effort, but I can put weight on my leg which I guess is a good thing. I got my new (cotton, nice and thin) house coat off Amazon yesterday which is also helped because that other one is just too thick and boiling hot but I’m still so sweaty. I’m gonna ruin this couch pretty much.
I took my medication at 7 AM which means I shouldn’t have had more morphine till 11 but I took some at nine so I can’t have any more until three. It is easy to see how people accidentally overdose with opioids because you literally just forget how many you have had. The big deal of the day is that it’s 11:30 in the morning and I just pooped and showered. I can stop worrying about being constipated which along with the jaundice are things that can be serious issues. Managed to get on the scale, and my weight is 246. Not good. Wonder how much is swelling because there is a LOT of swelling from my ribs down to my knee. Used ice a few times today after seeing my waistline after shower. I also have a massive bruise developing just above my waistline which isn’t painful however, the incision is at the stinging part now. There is no better word for it than that and it is such a different sensation than the rest of the pain. It can get up to 7 on the pain scale however most of the day I am around 4
Day 3
Slept on couch, was much better. Took meds at 7 so next morphine is 11 then 3 then 7. Morning is quite painful until morphine kicks in, probably around 7/10. I still have no feeling in my leg so I’m icing my quad, but I can’t feel the ice right from my hip down to my knee. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting the numbing to last this long or be this effective but I guess with that much mass being affected there is no other way.
I went to the basement and got underwear today so that was an adventure. Other than that, recovery is pretty slow at the moment. I’m still at the point where it’s a big decision whether to try and get off the couch or not because it’s pretty painful getting up and getting back down on the couch so I have to make sure it’s worth it. That said I am getting up once an hour now to at least do something. Hamstring on left quite sore. Throat still sore from the intubation. Incision is stinging as is my lowest quad which is weird. I am getting to the point now where I can lay and sit in slightly different positions to make sure that I don’t get immobile. Leg extension can almost get to 90° now but it is producing a lot more pain after my exercises. I’m at about an eight that’s why I’ve been doing them right around the time that I take my pain meds. I am also learning that dictation through an iPhone is really only about 75% effective which in 2024 is pathetic. All in all things are going slowly still, I expect the pace to pick up a bit towards day 7.