Time for surgery.

It has been a very exciting and busy start to 2012 for me. I married the man of my dreams just under 3 weeks ago, then spent an amazing 2 weeks skiing at Whistler in Canada for our honeymoon (sort of a last hurrah before being out of action). All the excitement building up to our wedding which included a hens day, dress fittings and a kitchen tea provided enough of a distraction from my upcoming periacetabular osteotomy. With everything planned and ready to go the only thing I needed to do in preparation for surgery was to get a blood test so that they could determine my blood type and hold some units ready to be used if I lost a too much blood during the operation. I woke at 5:30am before my alarm at 6am on Thursday 5th April as the day had arrived. Following instruction I had not had anything to eat or drink since the night before. I was surprisingly calm however i could feel butterflies in my tummy during the drive to the epworth hospital.

Most people just had one parent or a partner with them while they waited for their surgery, but in true Bartle family form I had mum, dad and my husband with me. Due to a few delays in the surgeries prior to me I was not taken through until 4pm in the afternoon. By that stage I was so hungry that my nerves seemed to have dissappeared. My surgeon Jit along with my anesthetist came to chat to me prior to heading through to the theatre. The last thing I remember was sitting on the edge of my bed in a glamorous white hospital gown while the anesthetist explained the steps he was taking to put in the epidural. My medical team had decided to perform a spinal block via the epidural and a light anesthetic as this was to be a great way to control my pain post op. So what felt like 5seconds to me (despite in actual fact being over 2.5hours) I awoke in the recovery room.

Initially I was experiencing quite a lot of pain, but the nursing team were quick to get that under control with a bolus of pethadine in my epidural. My legs were both still numb from the spinal block. It is the strangest sensation when I was telling my foot to move but nothing happened. Luckily the sensation slowly returned so by the time I returned to my room (filled with my welcoming committee- family) I could wiggle my toes and ankles. The first night I has obs taken every half an hour (including blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart rate and temp) so my sleep was very interrupted. My leg felt very heavy and I was very anxious to move my left leg however my pain was very well controlled. I have lines coming off me in every direction- an IV saline drip, my pathedibe epidural and a catheter (which I am stoked about as trying to sit on a pan with a sore hip is very challenging!!)

My surgeon came to speak to me in my room once he had finished surgery for the day at 11pm informing me that everything went fantastically and that he couldn't be happier with the position of my hip socket. He informed me that he had used 4 large steel screws to fix the bone segment into place. I'm looking forward to seeing some X-ray films. On instruction from my surgeon the physio visited to start me on a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine which is going to help the hip get moving. Prior to being put on the CPM I was assisted to standing where I could partially load my left foot- with majority of my weight to go through my right foot and through my arms into the crutches. I lasted about 30seconds before I started to feel gitty and I lied back down. The physio was happy I managed to stand up especially as my blood pressure is low from blood loss. I am currently lying in my hospital bed while the CPM machine does its magic. I am feeling very optimistic as I never imagined that I could feel this good only 24hours after surgery but I guess time will tell, especially when they take down the epidural.

My main focus at the moment is relaxing and preparing for another fun filled day of physio, meeting with my surgeon and seeing family /friends who plan to visit. But don't worry I'll keep u all posted about my progress :)