Mornings start early in a hospital.
For a person who doesn’t do mornings well, mornings start very early in a hospital!
High Dependency Units operate all the time at a much more intense rate than your average hospital room, but when there is a drip in your arm which is keeping you in just the correct state of wakefulness and low pain, a lot of it slips right on by. Blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and many other things are just monitored passively, with a tightness in your arm from the blood pressure cuff and the change of light sensation as staff move quietly around you, being the only changes you notice for awhile after major surgery.
But with hip surgery there is no rest for the wicked, and with me as bad as most, there was a strong possibility I was soon on the physiotherapist’s torture list!
The dulcet tones of the physio was heard not far away and the hint from the medical team to partake of a little painkilling assistance before he dragged me screaming from my bed to perform a half marathon, were remembered and heeded.
Surprisingly enough, once some of the machinery I was attached to, the oxygen, and I, were temporarily parted and drainage paraphernalia organized, it was not all that traumatic to stand, with the assistance of the physio and a walking frame. I feel that faith in the new prosthesis was a major issue. I just kept thinking that the new hip joint was about a million percent on the remains of the old one! I had done my homework prior to surgery and knew the moves of the monkey swing and the hippy hippy hop, and felt so pleased to be achieving that basic move – standing! That was it for now, so back onto bed, connections back in and then, I took in another breath.
Yes, I will win this one! With such an encouraging, happy support team, it would be hard not to be infected by their spirit.
Around lunchtime I was moved from the HDU back into my room. The rest of the day moved on with strict regularity; rest, pain reduction, exercise, sustenance, exercise etc.
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