You’ll need it someday, for something you can’t foresee now. You don’t need to swallow it now.
It probably would have been via my IV.
Thanks, @bobsmom101. Today is prep day (for example, I have to wash my sheets and sleepwear so that I am sleeping clean after my anti-bacterial shower this evening; I have to go buy some oral anti-itch antihistamine because that shower is going to leave me with dry itchy skin all over). They are calling me today to tell me what time I have to check in. I’m hoping for early in the day, which increases my chances to be sent home the same day. Maybe I’ll be able to drop a line or two here when I get back.
Yes, from what they tell me, my recovery experience will be very different from what you have described, probably with pain right away. I have pills ready to go for nausea, stomach acid, constipation, a stool softener, aspirin for blood thinning, and three for pain, including oxycodone. Once I am sure the pain is past, say in a month, the remaining oxycodone pills I am planning to return to the pharmacy for disposal. I don’t like having opioids around the house.
When I’m lying in bed, it feels like I could jog around the block, no problem. But whenever I stand up I get dizzy. Trying again this afternoon.
Keep us posted how it goes!
Here is very much a side question, but I’m curious how others handle it: my husband is not planning on waiting at the hospital, he is going to drop me off, do other stuff, and wait for a phone call from the hospital about whether he needs to pick me up later that day (or whether I would be staying over). This was my assumption, that there was no reason for him to wait, that there is a minimal chance for a negative outcome, that this is a routine, if major, surgery. I would also expect to call him myself later, especially if I were staying over, and we could talk about how I was feeling and so on.
So I’m curious what other families have done in similar situations.
I waited - but the hospital was about 40 minutes away and not located in an area where I could do anything other than go to a mall, which wouldn’t have been open at drop off time. ( even the hospital coffee shop wasn’t open at 5:30 am.) I wouldn’t have waited if the hospital had been closer to home or if he had a later arrival time. But the operation took two hours or less
Then I should add the additional information that my drop-off time tomorrow is at 9 am, and that we live about 25 minutes away (but I think he is planning to do some grocery shopping before he goes home).
My son hung around until they took me to the OR. The nurses called him when I was awake and functional. You will not be very good company during amd immediately after the operation & the nurses will be doing paperwork, pain meds, bathroom stuff for a while anyway
A couple other observations for those considering this procedure:
The faintness on standing (orthostatic hypotension) was not a side effect I’d seen mentioned and I did not expect it. My guess is it is a combo of anesthetics and blood loss. While I didn’t need to have a transfusion, I probably lost a signifcant amount of blood. I’m a regular blood donor and I am noticeably weak for about a week afterward. I can get up and move around for several steps now (2 days post op), but that’s about it.
As far as pain goes, I still have zero pain unless I move. The hardest part is bending my leg. There’s no longer pain in the hip joint, but the muscles are very tight and sore. I have a powered recliner that has been a godsend, since it lowers my legs slowly to the floor when I need to stand up. If you can afford one, I highly recommend it, since sliding your affected leg over to the edge of the bed and lowering it is a difficult and painful maneuver. I am taking the prescribed Tylenol and Ibuprofen, but haven’t needed the oxycodone.
A couple other things to have on hand if you can are a raised toilet seat (I found a good cheap one on ebay) and several of those reacher-grabber things that you can put around your house. Bending over is not easy or pleasant.
I have to say again – as have many others – that I wish I’d had this done 4 years ago when the first xrays showed problems in the joint. Between COVID and my hip hurting, I cut way back on my physical activity and gained about 15 lbs. It happens so gradually – I was always doing a subconscious calculation of how much a movement was likely to hurt. Get ahead of the problem if you can!
Hey ! Thanks for posting in my Hip Replacement thread as well ! I think there’s a lot of benefit to having TWO Dopers walk (ha) this path at the same time so I hope both threads stand on their own here (ha again).
Which kind of procedure did you have? Anterior? Posterior? Star?
Hydrate up !! It’ll help flush out the stuff making you dizzy. One day at a time !!! 
Cross-link to the thread I opened up on my surgery.
Here’s my saga from Wednesday and yesterday. They got a later start than I had hoped for, and didn’t finish until (I think) around 3:30 pm, so I had to stay overnight in the hospital. Getting the spinal wasn’t bad at all (except for after-effects, discussed below). The anesthetist was quite an elderly gent, which was fine, but he seemed surprised I had made it to 77 without any previous operations. Coming out of whatever they gave me to sleep seemed to take a lot longer than coming out of what they give for a colonoscopy (my only other experience). I didn’t feel fully awake until maybe 6:45 pm.
The operation went well, I presume, although no-one came to talk to me about that (or at least, not when I was alert enough to take it in). The only part that didn’t work properly was the dressing – it was supposed to be very thin and unobtrusive and waterproof, and to come off in a week. Unfortunately, it kept leaking fluids, so eventually before I left the hospital yesterday the PA had to put on this suction device which empties any leakage into a separate container, which I have to carry or wear on a lanyard until the bandage comes off, and that period has now lengthened to 2 weeks.
This was my first night ever spent in a hospital. It was okay, except that I did not sleep well. Also, apparently the spinal knocked out my bladder for a while and I couldn’t pee, so finally around midnight they had to catheterize me – another first. The pain of it took me by surprise, so I whimpered and cried out during the maybe 20 seconds it took to get it in. Then being able to empty my bladder was an enormous relief, and that’s when I was able to go to sleep for a while, but I woke up for good about 4 am.
I am now at home, and my condition is that I can stand without any real pain, but I am not able to lift my leg hardly and all, and although I can sit with a bent leg, I can’t bend it on my own yet. To get into bed I have to lift my leg with my arms. They provided me with a walker, but so far I seem to be doing fine with a cane. I slept really well in my own bed, and I had the bright idea to put that container for the leakage from the dressing into a plastic ziplock bag and wear it in my underwear. This made sure I didn’t get tangled with the hose during the night, and allowed me to move around. I even spent a good part of the night lying on the side with the bandage without causing any pain.
Apparently I’m going to have a lot of home health care visits, none of which was discussed in advance, and even though my husband is here. I will be seeing a physical therapist, an occupational therapist (to make sure I can do everyday things for myself), and a home health nurse was decided on because of the problems with the dressing. When I am finished with all that, and after the dressing is removed, I will be visiting a clinic for continuing physical therapy.
A lot of my anecdotes have to do with the hospital stay, because it was my first time overnight in a hospital I had only very general ideas what to expect, but since this is nothing new for most people I’ll leave that out. Otherwise, any questions gladly answered.
Somewhat hair-raising, but to quote an old cliche, “it could have been a lot worse.”
I came to comment on this:
I suggest you use the walker. What you absolutely do not want to have happen, is for you to be using only the cane and for some unforeseen reason you lose your balance and fall. This would not be a good thing.
Unrelated: I have also only spent two nights in a hospital, once when I was 10 and had my tonsils out, and in 2015 I had a lumpectomy that was supposed to be an outpatient procedure and got so sick from the anesthesia that they had to keep me overnight.
Thanks I take your point and I appreciate your concern. I should have said “at home” which is relevant because so far I am on one floor where things to lean on if necessary are everywhere, and leaning on those things is already habitual because of the previous arthritis in my hip. I’m sure I will be having that discussion with the occupational therapist too.
On slightly further reflection, I have now switched back to the walker. It was on that basis that I was released from the hospital, after all, and the evenly-balanced support is definitely better than holding onto random items as I pass by. Thanks again.
My wife’s two knew and one hip replacement were done at a hospital across the Bay, and she knew she was staying over. Even an extra day thanks to the magic incantation her doctor gave her. I did not stay. She called me when she was awake enough, and was just fine sleeping and reading. Before Covid I stayed, but most of those did not involve a night at the hospital. I figured I could get the the hospital in plenty of time when needed.
I’ve only had day operations for almost 40 years, and she never stays for them, especially since the clinic is only 10 minutes away.
As for home visits, the physical therapist visited her at home for the first few times, and she found it very helpful. She did all her exercises and recovered fairly quickly.
Welcome back @Roderick_Femm!
Yuck, I hope you get rid of that encumbrance quickly. It sounds a bit like the "“external catheter” I had to use because I got too dizzy to sit on the commode to pee. But you have to deal with it at home.
No kidding. Were you in your own room? I was on a huge surgical ward, and between the beeping from all the devices and the other patients I got very little sleep. The patient on my right had undergone surgery for liver cancer (I heard all the details as the surgeon described to her how he sliced off little bits and sent them out for biopsy during her operation.) OMG, it sounded ghastly. When she wasn’t snoring loudly she was moaning in pain. The man on my left had some sort of gastric tube implanted that the nurses had to keep fussing with. He was a loud snorer too.
I had the first home health visit yesterday and it was largely a waste of time. The nurse has a form from medicare to complete and that’s her whole focus. It’s all the same stuff they went over in the hospital plus some irrelevancies (“What is your disaster preparedness plan?”). I mentioned that my hip felt OK, but my movement was restricted because I got lightheaded on standing. No interest – not on the form. The PT came today and at least she documented that my blood pressure drops significantly when I stand up.
I’m glad you decided to go back to the walker. It’s much more stable than the cane. Anyhow, I hope the worst is over for you & you’ll be like the influencers in all those YouTube videos showing off their post op golfing and jogging abilities!
Thanks for your gracious reply.
I had a dear friend, now deceased, who walked with crutches his whole life because of a birth defect. Late in his life he occasionally walked around his apartment without his crutches because he figured he was safe because he was at home and he could always grab onto something. On two different occasions a year apart he fell and tore each of his rotator cuffs in turn and had to have surgery on them. After the first time, I wanted to smack him. And after the second time, I really wanted to smack him. But that wouldn’t have been nice…
You will be every home health nurse’s favorite patient!
Yes, I had a nice private room, and noise was mostly not a problem. It’s just that I couldn’t really move at all, and my muscles get really tired if I can’t move at night when I’m sleeping, and that keeps me awake. And anyway it hurt too much to really move. I don’t know how they ever thought I would have been able to go home the same day as the operation, but I guess there are people who do.
Doctor, will I be able to play the violin after this operation? No, you won’t see me golfing or jogging. At best, someone can follow me with a camera while I walk a mile without stopping and sitting down.
I hope I get a better one than @bobsmom101 got. I’m counting on the home nurse to remove the bandage when the time comes, I don’t want to do it (and I know my husband won’t want to).
General medical/hospital question: I was just going over my hospital discharge notes in the patient portal, and under Consults and Assessment, in the section Patient Assessment, was this:
Patient is a low-complex,
note the comma, this phrase was followed by a summary of my medical history and other stuff. I just wondered what this phrase means.