Much of the following posts about my hospital stay are musings of the experience as well as my documentation of what occurred. Most, I wrote while in the hospital.
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The surgery went well. The hospital is pretty modern. Not a young building but up to date. It is also enormous. A University Hospital. I saw very little of my surgeon. He showed up for the operation. Before surgery they take all your clothes and give you a completely transparent gown! I pulled my blanket up for the ride to the OR. As soon as I arrived they cut it off. What was the point?
Returned to my room. During the operation I had only an epidural. Could not move my legs when the tranqs ran out. The surgeon prescribed a bag of morphine for the first night. Since that there were no opiates to be seen. So my intell was correct. What they gave me was ok but my pain when I tried to exercise was through the roof. I was discussing this with one or Luther’s cousins who is a pharmacist. Opiates are properly used for recovery from surgery and for a short time afterward. As she said, “the pain actually increases the fight/flight hormones and delays healing. Also makes physical therapy a lot harder. I think they were giving prescriptions for too many pills at once and not scrutinizing refills [in the US]….” European mainland countries in general do not give pain meds. They do in the UK.
My PT started the day after surgery. It involved a machine that bent your knee over and over to the most painful angle you could stand. Then leg lifts, toe thrusts, tensing the muscles on the back of your thigh and more flexing. I kinda sat on the side of the bed and stood at a walker for a second. Unfortunately the next day was Sunday and then Monday a holiday so things slowed down. I was unable to lift my leg. It was like the signal wasn’t getting there but with a little help to start I could lift it with much pain. I think this is when some codeine would come in handy 😕 the leg was extremely swollen and I was convinced that had to be a part of the problem. I wanted to learn how to use the crutches. It would give me some freedom in the hospital. That was one of the hardest things, being unable to help myself with anything. I took great pains to keep things from falling on the floor. If they did, they were lost to me. The nursing staff are not there to help you. Sure, they would bring me a bedpan if I asked but one night, I had been instructed to drink water after a shot so I had to pee, three times in around a two hour span. She let me know she didn’t appreciate it and said it was not “normale”. I told her I had had 2 bottles of water. I was no longer trying to be nice.
The other thing was the total lack of privacy. I shared my room with another woman knee replacement patient…and her husband. He literally lived in the hospital with her. He brought a small chaise longue. With blankets and pillows and slept next to her. He was a nice man who occasionally helped me with an ice refill or cranked my bed up or down (no electric bed there!). I noticed other people walking up and down the hall with these beds. They expect family members to come care for the patients. I lived with just visits from Luther but they were invaluable.
I was not ready for the loneliness of not being able to speak to anyone, even to casually chat with the nurse or aide. I discouraged visitors so maybe I must take some blame for the loneliness. Luther visited every day and I know even HE was bored. And he hadn’t been there for 5 days
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Stay tuned for Part 2.
