The wifey was in surgery for an hour and they replaced the hip joint as noted yesterday. It was a side-entry [lateral approach] procedure.* I guess there are several ways to do this and this is the way her surgeon does it.
At any rate they had her up and in a chair less than three hours after she was moved to a room from recovery. She wasn’t walking per se, just supporting herself. The main achievement was that she never had to use a bedpan. Yes, that’s probably TMI but it is very good that she was able to get out of bed to do that, so I’m including it.
She’s been on the phone and on Facetime and Facebook and is generally having a great time for someone who can’t get out of bed without assistance. This hospital is like a hotel. They have a “room service” menu and the food is outstanding (except they won’t let her have certain things because she’s on the “diabetic” diet. No chocolate chip cookie, but no-sugar-added chocolate ice cream is fine). The nurses and techs are all fabulous, and it’s clear they love working there. The docs are docs 🙂
Plus they have multi-megabit wireless access. I was up there all day yesterday telecommuting and never missed a beat.
So the story goes that they will kick her loose on Wednesday sometime before noon. Then I bring her home and settle her in the chair we borrowed from my mother. We had a chair that would work from a technical standpoint but it was not comfortable for her to sit in and it didn’t have solid sides under the arms, so stuff like the TV remote would fall on the floor if it slid off her lap. So we rederanged [sic] the living room so that she could see the TV from this chair, and actually we like the way the room is set now, so we will probably leave it like that after she recovers.**
Recovery time is 6-8 weeks, and as I understand it there is a lot of physical therapy involved. In 4 weeks she will go back to work with a walker. In 6 the hip is substantially healed and in 8 the bone should have completely attached to the new joint. The thing we have to be concerned about at this point is dislocation, although as long as she follows four simple rules about how to move, she’ll be golden.
I will be interested to see how this all plays out, because I am next in line for major joint surgery…both of my rotator cuffs are hosed, and at least one of my knees is probably going to have to be replaced eventually. Although in my case, the knee isn’t busted up due to me being overweight — it’s busted up from all the years I spent in construction work and my weight problem is more of a consequence of that than the cause of that.*** Such fun.
EDIT TO ADD: She wrote the following on Facebook about an hour ago:
Day two. The nerve block is still working as are the other meds. The scrambled eggs with cheese are yummy. The staff is wonderful and I get to put on real clothes today instead of the gown! Thanks all for your thoughts, prayers, and love!
___________________
* Later research found the correct name for the procedure. “In the lateral approach (also known as a Hardinge approach), the hip abductors (gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) are elevated – not cut – to provide access to the joint. The hip joint is then dislocated and the acetabular socket and femur are exposed for preparation and insertion of the prosthesis components.
“The greater trochanter at the upper end of the femur may also be cut in this approach (also referred to as an osteotomy), which greatly increases the exposure of the hip joint. The greater trochanter is reattached later by wires or cables.” link
** I told her that in the 52 years my family has lived in this house, there has never NOT been a sofa on the garage-side wall of the living room. We have broken with long-standing tradition. She was unimpressed.
*** Well, that plus my current fairly sedentary lifestyle. Although last week I was on my feet and moving heavy stuff A LOT.