Greetings everyone,
Had the surgery Monday 10/7. Anterior approach, ceramic on plastic. Had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am, surgery was at 7:45am and I was up and walking by 11:00 am!!!
I didn’t sleep a wink the night before and was extremely nervous going in as this was the first surgery I had since my appendectomy at 8 years old. Despite being exhausted I was so relieved and happy to be walking.
My surgeon came in and told me everything went perfect. My pain was minimal at the time and seemed mostly just stiffness. I had spinal anesthesia with sedation and did not wake up during the procedure as I have heard can happen.
At day 3 post op it’s a bit of a challenge, but I’m told this will be the worst. I over did it a bit on day 2 by trying to go shopping with my wife after physical therapy. I will not do that again.
One of the first things I noticed is that walking helps with the pain almost as much as the medication. I’m hoping to stop the prescription pain medication in a couple days and transition to Tylenol.
I’ll keep everyone posted as I continue to progress. Thank you again to all who responded to my original post you definitely eased my mind going in. And a huge thanks to my surgeon Dr. Michael O’Malley (UPMC). He’s a specialist in the anterior approach and really cares about his patients. Furthermore, he told me to live my life with this hip. Run, ski, ride my dirt bike!!! Of course after three months and he said try not to break my leg.
Will