Second Surgery in-hospital notes - Friday Dec 6, Day 4 - final day!

Friday 12/6 about 6am

And now it 's very early Friday ) Iv'e had another BM pretty easily since, so thankfully, it looks like that issue- the absolute worst aspect of my first surgery! - is handled!! 
Dr. Smith should be here soon, then breakfast, then norco and physical therapy. Toni should be here around 8 or 9. And around 11, she will take me home! :D

We had my norco at 5mg the whole time - a couple of nurses tried to double it, and one succeeded, but it was too much, so we kept it at 5.
Now we're going 5-6 hours in between, because pain levels are really low- hurrah!!! 

Hiue and Alicia, my favorite night nurses, just turned over the shift, and we're heading for discharge in just a few hours! 

7:30 am  12/6
My nurse in training from yesterday, Amy, is back. She is a doll. Sweet and super friendly. She 's also am EMT - it's like having my own private nurse who is also a girlfriend. We talk curly hair and sisters and such, but she soothly gets the work done - glad to have her here. She's going to make a great nurse!

The rest of Friday was pretty busy- breakfast, medications, one more physical therapy with Gerran - as he called it,  a "victory lap" - doing all my bed exercises and taking the walker to the door and back. Still stiff, but better all the time!
All my discharge prep was done, nurses said goodbyes, my cursed IV line was removed  and all we awaited was Dr Smith's presence and final papers! Toni arrived... 
11 am( the original estimated release time) came and went - I had Metamucil, peed in the bathroom maybe 3 more times (Practivce using a real bathroom and not the bedside commode) and got dressed... We waited( were hoping that Dr. smith at least got to sleep in). 

Finally, around noon-ish, he arrived.! 
All tests were great, he only thing we will need to really watch over is the newly-sculpted hip socket and its adherence to the  cup appliance. He used two screws for the first joint, and three for this one for good measure. There was a lot of deformity in these hips, so there was a lot of fixing to do. He packed/ filled the small gap between socket and cup with my bone dust as much as possible, so we're going to keep a good watch on it and fingers crossed, a positive attitude and some good mojo on it all, and proceed apace! :)

The whole week, since right after I was admitted, has been freakishly , painfully cold in Sacramento - down to freezing, and that's very very unusual for December in moderate Northern California. I've been grateful to hide from it behind closed doors. 

Well, by the time we were ready to head out, my nurse Theresa ( one of the repeat nurses I had) was telling us that it was colder out than when she'd arrived at work at dawn. Yikes! I was grateful that Toni and I had thought to bring a blanket for my legs- I brought a skirt to wear home( pants are *very* difficult to get on and off with hip immobility and pain!).  Valet parking brought my car, heater blazing, nurse Theresa rolled me down in a wheelchair, I got scooched up into the car seat and cozy in no time, minimum of pain, and home, home,  home with us! 
Pretty easy unload onto the curb, up the stairs and inside. 

It felt so good to get in- it was well- tidied by Toni, and look and felt great. 
Immediately, I got a call from one if my nurses , Joyce, who had found a bottle of my Calcium/ Magnesium which had gone missing- she was apologetic and offered to bring them by my house on her way home from work!! Sutter care- amazing. 

We unpacked me, got settled in, I visited the loo, and Toni tucked me in for a few hours. For only a couple of days after this surgery have I felt like being in bed - pressure on the back of the thigh for too long makes it sore and swell a bit. 
I got up a few hours later, Mariam came and Toni made us steak and eggplant - delicious! 
 Sleepy Mariam headed home and it was a pretty good evening. 



I won't dwell on this, but it wants mentioning, because it was part of the journey  - Toni and I are close and all of my siblings love each other well, but there a bit of a bossy know-it-all in each of us, and it comes out when times are a bit stressed. The first few nights we had a few back-and forths, (I won't go into details - they were actually small things escalated, as is often the case in such stress situations). In the next few days these became less as my weaning off Norco happened, and we worked hard on getting each other's rhythms and habits. Two days later as I update this, it is vastly better, and the chill and happy attitude I vitally need to recover without stress is happening. The home care nurse coming for the first visit, and allaying some of Toni's fears (Some of the same ones which were new to me the in the first go-round) and corroborating my thoughts and knowledge on the whole subject - because they were effected by drugs, and she could not, understandably, know to what extent, was also very calming and reassuring. 
At no time have I ever been less than deeply grateful for a sister who has the time and willingness to move away from home for a month or more to take care of her little sister. I could not be more fortunate. We barked several times over a couple of days, but it looks like we're all ironed out now. I love that. I never want to be cross with my sister for any reason!