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I hope it goes well!
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Should be done by now… Ted, blink online if you’re OK!
Good luck and speedy recovery.
Update is that he’s waking up now and surgery sounds to have went well. Fixed labrum tear and cleaned up some naughty bone growth.
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As my kids would say, “I am dead.”
Surgery went about 90 minutes. Mostly as expected, but as alluded to I had calcium building up where the labrum tear was. All cleaned out and everything fixed, now I just hurt and am uncomfortable as expected. Also trying to relax and keep a cat off that side.
Trying to remember how to use crutches again. Good that I haven’t used them in years, bad that’s it’s not as innate as it used to be. So far so good, just taking it slow and getting followed where I go.
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I did have this after Mrs. Hoffman came back to see me:
Her - "How are you doing?
Me - “Remember our wedding day, it was you and me in front of everyone, it felt like it was just the two of us and the minister there and we were really happy?”
Her - “Yes.”
Me - " I feel nothing close to that."
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Probably worthy of its own thread: dreams while on Vicodin. Holy. Fuck. I forgot about that.
My “I POOPED” badge can almost get rolled back until I finally do it again. I’m not blocked, but things are definitely off as expected. I figure I should finally earn it back tonight or tomorrow.
I have two positions to lay in: on my side or on my back. After a little bit, they both suck. Been up a little on crutches just to vary. Sat in the recliner, mostly tipped back. I made a little over an hour there. Ice is my best friend right now, it goes on my hip whenever I can.
Any movement on the right leg hurts. I need help getting it propped up. I can roll in and out of the bed we’ve improvised. Really glad I decided to do 2 weeks off. I fully expect PT is going to suck ass once we start that, well be moving that leg and using muscles impacted by this surgery. Doing better than I think I expected, might be because we’ve continued Vicodin on schedule and I’m not skipping it yet.
Short: still alive, Mrs. Hoffman says I’m not out of the woods with her just yet.
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Can you just float in your hot tub for two weeks like Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back?
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It would look more like Yoda falling down.
For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house
Given you children, milked the cow
After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now? 
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Bandages came off this afternoon. So did a little hair, even after being groomed before surgery. Looks like they nicked me in the grooming. I could have done it the night before, but no … instructions specifically said don’t do it. Maybe they should teach kids in med school how to do this correctly. I hear there’s … videos … that illustrate this.
Incisions look good, hip has a bruise but that’s to be expected. Ice is still my best friend. Trying to figure out the right balance of pain meds with Vicodin, I’m pushing to wean off this weekend. Some of the dreams I’ve had would make great surreal sci-fi thrillers if I could remember all of them. Still feel bruised on my left side from where I lay on it and pressure inevitably falls, almost like my chest or lung is bruised. I’m trying to spend more time up on crutches, if for no other reason than to not be lying down.
Full follow-up in a week. Trying to stay patient until then.
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1st follow-up visit today. Things are going as expected. Got pictures of what they did during surgery. It was a “significant” tear of the labrum, which the MRI didn’t give a full picture of. Could have also been more tearing after the MRI, because there was about 5 months between it and the surgery.
Calcification that they saw wasn’t apparent on either the MRI or later X-rays. I suspect they would have had to shoot at the right angle to see it. Didn’t matter, they saw it and cleaned it up. Little bit of smoothing of the bone where that tear and subsequent calcification started wearing, but considered relatively minor. Didn’t find any cartilage damage, which is really good.
Signs of problems would be burning or zapping, pain down the leg, throbbing in the hip. I don’t have any of those; what I do have is normal and expected. Continue to not put weight on that leg, try not to bend to 90 degrees. Start PT on Monday, do follow-up in 4 weeks.
Looking forward: MRI on the left hip is scheduled for late March. It probably has the same issues as the right. If anything, might be (slightly?) worse given I’ve likely had issues there for a while and mis-attributed it to lower back problems. Minimum time between surgeries is 12 weeks, but given expected recovery time for the labrum to heal we’re probably talking closer to 6 months. That would put the other surgery in the June-July timeframe. First things first, though: we get the right hip healed and re-strengthened so it can support me for the 2nd surgery.
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Sounds like good news all around. Hope things continue to go well.
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sounds good! One of my bridge buddies had a hip replaced a few months ago, and is going for the second hip on Wednesday. He’s not looking forward to it.
4 week (well, 3 weeks and 6 days to be exact) update:
Today was the first day I put any substantive weight on the right side. It’s still very much “with support”, I’m not close to putting full weight on without support. [Probably 4 weeks away from starting that.] I can do the “tread very lightly on it while using crutches” thing, and weight-shifting to the point that I can tolerate it. Ice is still my best friend, especially after PT.
Driving is still at least a few weeks away. Probably not until I’m weight-bearing unsupported for a few weeks, and even then I’ll have to figure out how to get in/out of the driver’s seat without undoing progress.
Planning ahead, my physical therapist says June is best-case scenario for a 2nd surgery but July would be more likely since that would be 6 months out, and we should be in a good spot at that point. Work will be busy in July, so we’re probably looking at early August, but that would still allow us to get through all the PT needed by year-end.
New exercises: take steps, heavily supported; side-to-side weight shifting; toe-tap on the 1st stair; very shallow squats. Lots of patience still required, no overdoing it - but I’m closer to being able to stand in the office at home and work from there. That will be a huge boost mentally, and I’ll be able to be more productive with my computer and a larger monitor and my white board to keep track of stuff.
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Walking on 2 crutches is going really well. Putting more weight on the right side, but still not full weight. Maybe half? I’m feeling bold, which probably screams DON’T DO IT!
Still generally tight around the hip, but today was the first day I can say I was relatively pain-free in it. The left hip definitely hurt more; might be that it’s feeling having to bear most/all of the weight for the last 5 weeks, but wear-and-tear in it was causing pain before so I’m sure that’s driving it now too. Still tight in the groin muscle, all the way down to the knee. That’s typical, it’ll work out over time but I need to stretch it whenever I can.
PT right now is lots of stretching, but also trying to focus on balance. You’d think put one foot in front of the other and just stand there? Yeah, that’s really easy but right now it’s not; I wobble a little. Not much strength work, other than getting used to being on both feet and putting increasing weight on the right side.
Goal this weekend is to try and get around on 1 crutch. Goal for next weekend is to be on 0 crutches, but not full bore “cleared to go walk.” I’m planning to be back at my sit-to-stand desk some tomorrow, and work on being at it more next week to the point I can work there all day long. Also planning to sleep in my bed again this weekend, since I shouldn’t be on a schedule in the morning [unless my fucking cat continues to think 5am is when everyone needs to get up].
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DDWFLWD
360 on one crutch would be impressive.
I can do it. Probably not visually impressive, less impressive than just doing a 360 twirling on one foot (and I’ll probably fall over doing that), but I do what I can for the masses.
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