Short and sweet
In short, I am in surprisingly good condition. I have reduced my morhpine intake by 50%, upped my extra Tylenol by 50%. Pain seems tolerable, especially important for sleeping. Must consult with doctor/surgeon/physio as I would like to eliminate morphine totally in favour of just extra strength Tylenols or Tylenol 3’s. I am eager to try more physio stuff but am reining in the leashes until I have my first formal physio session this upcoming Thursday. I have to keep reminding myself, there is a large piece of metal replacing my hip and it likely doesn’t like me very much.
The body’s an amazing machine
Biggest conclusion is twofold: recognition that permitting the weight gain in my life is a terrible abuse of the body; second, the body is an amazingly resilient machine, to a certain age and I am at that age. You hit that time and it’s a greater struggle to overcome any physical challenges. So far, I owe my parents a lot for giving me such good, solid genes…I only regret I have not given the body the respect and consideration it deserves.
WEEK 2
We’re into WEEK 2 and things seem to be going very well…[ for the sake of brevity and succinctness, I will try to synthesize the my hip saga into briefer and the most significant changes for the benefit of those looking to learn from this whole sage…
Day 12
Changes are minimal. Morphine was best friend-worst enemy: the morphine was excellent for minimizing the pain, better than any other drug I may have been using, Tylenol BUT…the downside was that it blocked up normal bowel movements, terribly. Removing the morphine from the chem mix restored normality to the bowel movements but permitted pain to be felt again. So I have playing with a mix…reducing the morphine to 1-2 pills in a day. Seems to be acceptable allowing for the best body functioning and minimizing the pain. We’ll maintain this mix for now.
Day 13 – Staple removal
Might not be as unlucky a day as the number represents. The leg incision is very large and to secure it tightly, staples are used rather than sutures or stitching, after all, the thigh muscle is one of the largest in the body. Removing the 40 stitches takes less than ten minutes with very little pain as each staple is pinched for removal. Medical tape is used to mask the healing wound and off you go! The good news…pain is again less and doctor has okayed replacement of morphine with just extra strength Tylenol and not every four hours, but only as needed for any pain. Not bad. Toughest part of the whole ordeal was getting in and out of the car to make the hospital trek.
Click –> Day 14
