A walk in the park

The alarm went off at 2:30 in the morning.  We were in the car just before 4 a.m. making the short 30-minute drive with almost no other traffic on the road.  Our destination was the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital in Phenix City, Alabama.  Phenix City and some of the areas surrounding it are on Eastern time, so we lost an hour on our short journey.

Shortly after 5:30 a.m. (EDT) I was checked in and a small army of early morning nurses, technicians, anesthesiologists, and other medical professionals swarmed over me in a well organized process.  Less than an hour later, I was ready for the big show, the first surgery scheduled for the day.

Direct Anterior Hip Arthroplasty (DAA) is the official name of my surgery.  In my own simple terms, it is a hip replacement using the anterior approach.  This was not my first rodeo, as I had my left hip done in May of last year.  Thanks to an early knee rebuild by Dr. Hughston himself in 1968, and later shoulder surgery, I am methodically fixing my major joints thanks to arthritis and, of course, age.

The spinal block cut all the feeling below my waist, and some other magical juice was put in my IV to make me so drowsy that I would not remember anything.  Interestingly enough, I did wake up while they were hammering the femoral stem into my femur bone.  It is a metal component that replaces the damaged head of your thigh bone.

I instantly knew what they were doing, felt nothing but the pressure of the mallet striking the stem, and found myself counting the number of strikes.  It would not be my choice to necessarily be awake during any part of the surgery, but it was not painful and was something different to experience.  

I stayed awake leaving the operating room and never slept in the recovery room.  An hour later I was in a private room where the nurses were once again checking vital signs every few minutes.  

I quickly downed all the clear liquids they brought to me, and feeling no nausea, I welcomed a plate of real food.  Hospital food is really good when you are starving.  Physical therapists had me walk the entire hall just a couple of hours later.  

I declined the opioid pain killer and took some Extra Strength Tylenol.  Four days later, Tylenol is still the only pain relief that I have taken and now only every eight hours.  

It is amazing that you can have an entire hip replaced and be back home by three o’clock in the afternoon.  I took a shower within 24 hours and am getting stronger with each passing day.

Hip replacement is not fun, but the benefits I have received have been wonderful.  My advice to anyone with arthritic joints that start to affect your life, do not wait too long.

The surgery is not a walk in the park, but after it is all over, the walks in the park will be so much better.

o0o

Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]