PAO--13 Days Post-Op

I am just now where I feel able to sit down and blog my thoughts after surgery. Surgery went well. I have a 5 inch incision across my left pelvic area. I had a bandage over my incision but it was removed before d/c. At d/c, I just had stitches and steri-strips over the incision. The steri-strips came off after a few days.

The first couple of days after surgery were quite difficult in terms of pain. The MD had planned on me having an epidural for pain control but decided last minute to given a long-term pain shot that would last for around 3 days. Here I am in holding waiting for surgery. I was given a very sexy pair of yellow socks and hat!

Surgery lasted around 4 hours. I remember feeling, in PACU, that I couldn't breathe but that quickly subsided. Once I got to my room, I was in quite a bit of pain. I was given a Morphine pump that I could push every 10 minutes. That thing was the BEST! It took about 3 rounds of Morphine to get my pain tolerable. The perk to not having the epidural was having the use of my legs. I was able to get up to use the restroom but that was seriously difficult. Being unable to put weight on my left leg for 12 weeks made learning to use the restroom a challenge. I learned to hold my left leg straight as I sat down on the toilet. The toilet in the hospital was actually very low to the ground, as my toilets are at home. It became very clear that I would need an elevated toilet seat once I got home. I would recommend this to anyone having this surgery because the pain in having to get into a low seated position right after surgery was intense. Here's mine at home:

Also necessary, a shower seat and those suction cup handles in the shower since my shower is not handicapped accessible.

They didn't waste anytime wanting to get me up and moving. Day 1 post-op, physical therapy started coming in to teach me to walk on a walker......while not putting weight on my left leg. Actually, I am toe touch weight bearing. The PT told me to pretend that there was an egg under my toes and I cannot brake the egg. I am to put just enough weight on it to balance myself. Here I am walking while still in the hospital.

I find walking with the walker difficult to maneuver and I have gotten calluses on my hands due to lifting myself up when I put my affected foot down to avoid "breaking the egg". A sweet friend just bought me a walker bag to put on the front and that helps "carry" things with me when I walk.

I left the hospital after a 2 night stay in the hospital. I was a little worried about getting home as we live 3 hours away from where I had surgery. We decided that it would be best for me to sit in the back so that I could prop by affected leg up on the other captain seat for the trip. We also decided that giving me a strong medication before the trip would be good so I could sleep the way home rather than struggle with pain or being comfortable. Here I am in the backseat while my husband drives us home:

The first week post-op was more difficult than I thought. I remained in my bed most of the time, slept after taking medication and took pain meds around the clock to manage the pain. Exactly one week after surgery, I seemed to turn a corner in my recovery. I started getting out of bed, walking around the house and my pain management seemed to be under control.

At this point, 13 days after surgery, I'm so much better. I'm able to decrease my pain meds during the day. I notice that I hurt more in the morning (4/10 pain scale) and in the evening (6/10 pain scale), especially if I have been active all day. At night, my legs and hip joints tend to hurt significantly. Usually, around 6:00 pm, I go take my pain meds, lay in the bed and ice my legs and hips. I have found that icing helps tremendously at night. As the pain meds kick in, the ice relaxes my legs and hips and allows for me to relax before bed.

More to come......