Surgery Day

There's not much to say about the surgery experience.  Mine was arthroscopic outpatient as I think most do it now days.  I think my biggest surprise was finding that the small incisions were much lower on my leg than I expected.  For some reason I expected them to be up closer to where your front hip bone pokes out on  your pelvis.  They were actually down below my underwear line on my thigh.  

If you have never had any kind of surgery before, you might not know how you handle anesthesia but I had so I knew it makes me really sick.  I reminded the anesthesiologist of this about six times.   Of course, I still came to wrenching my empty guts out but at least it wasn't a surprise.  Personally, I think those little puke bowls they use are totally useless - give me a bag or something please! And I really don't need to be able to SEE what comes up.  A dark bag would be quite nice.

They also hadn't given me a prescription for anti-nausea medication in advance so hubby had to go get that for me before we left.

The doctors and nurses all kept reminding me to stay "ahead" of the pain and take my narcotics as prescribed.  What they didn't tell me was staying "ahead" of the nausea was probably important too.  I spent 5 days being more nauseous than I have ever been in my life!  I'm positive it was from the narcotics.

Lesson 1:  Even though it seemed a Friday surgery was a good idea, it meant that I really had nobody available to call short of a severe emergency for the next two days.  When I do the other hip, I'll opt for a Tuesday or Wednesday if possible.

Lesson 2: I'll write on my forehead next time that I need EXTRA anti-nausea medication with anesthesia and remind them I need a prescription for this along with anything else they prescribe.

Lesson 3:  I really didn't need the heavy narcotics.  I had very little pain that first 5 days.  Possibly because I couldn't do much of anything but lay flat on my back with my eyes closed or I'd throw up.  I also didn't plan very well in advance to have the house stocked with stomach-friendly foods.  I planned for hubby and the kids but not myself.  Typical mom, aye?