Vickys #2 Hip Journal

Vicky's Hip Journey #2

Well, I have always known that eventually my right hip would also need to be resurfaced, I just did not know when.  At the time I had my left one done, Dr. Bose guessed maybe a couple more years.  Well, over 4 years later, I was still in pretty good shape.  Right hip did start acting up on occassion and I had noticed my ROM decreasing.  In February I had some x-rays taken and showed them to several docs, that all said I still had time.  When I attended the conference in Belgium in June, Koen De Smet offered to give me an exam and take some new x-rays and evaluate me.  I saw a big difference just from February to June in the amount of cartilage space which really suprised me. 

I must say, that the pain in my right hip is completely different than it was in my left hip.  I never experienced groin pain at all in my left hip, either before or after.  But with my right hip it is all in the groin area.  Although now, I feel sciatica on my right side as well as right knee pain and even my right ankle hurts.  In August, the pain had increased enough that I contacted Dr. Bose and said that I was thinking of scheduling surgery with him for December.  He told me at that time that he would like to see more arthritic changes in my hip first as well as more joint space narrowing before moving forward.  Well, my gut told me to go ahead and book the surgery for December, I picked the 6th, and promised him that I would take new x-rays at the end of October and email them to him and if at that time he still felt that it was too soon, I would postpone.

As we all know, our minds tend to play tricks on us and there were days that I did not feel that much pain and thought, why did I book my surgery for so soon.  Then there were other days, that the pain would get bad.  I started needing to take more pain meds any time I would do anything.  Like stand and cook all day, I would just ache afterwards.  I could feel the hip going downhill pretty fast the way my left one had, my back started aching more, my knees, everything was starting to get pain if I did any activities at all.  But, then again, I would have a good day and doubt myself again.  So the end of October I went in and got new x-rays, completely expecting Dr. Bose to tell me that it was still too soon and to postpone.  Even though I already booked and paid for my airfare and hotels.  I emailed my x-rays to Dr. Bose again, fully expecting him to tell me that I should postpone my surgery.  This is what I emailed to him (since I have gotten pretty good at reading x-rays now) and his reply below.

From: Vicky Marlow
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 1:28 AM
To: vijay bose
Subject: Vicky Marlow's recent x-rays<

Attached are my recent x-rays taken today.  Let me know if you think I should postpone surgery.  Is that a cyst forming in my femoral head?

Thanks,
Vicky Marlow
Volunteer Patient Advocate - Hip Resurfacing
http://www.hipresurfacingsite.com/

From: Vijay Bose Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 4:20 AM
To: Vicky Marlow
Subject: Re: Vicky Marlow's recent x-rays

Hi vicky,

Thanks.

I have carefully compared the current x-rays to the previous ones.

There is no doubt that you have progression in the arthritis. The subchondral sclerosis is more dense and more extensive. The joint space is narrower and more irregular. The cyst is certainly bigger.

I think we can proceed with hip resurfacing in dec as scheduled.

How is the pain now? 

with best regards

vijay bose

chennai

Well, I think I was in a state of shock.  Even though I had already booked my flights and hotel, the only thing pending was getting my Visa, I felt completely unprepared.

Below is my day to day journal of my trip to India for my 2nd hip.  I emailed a journal to myself, it was the easiest way for me to keep track, so when I got home I was able to sort by email addresses and group together the ones during the dates I was in India and copy and paste them here in my story.

November 30, 2010
Re: Vicky's Hip Journey #2 My 2nd Hip - Journal

Well I am off this morning to India. What a night!!! My housekeeper was supposed to come and clean my place and change my sheets so that I would have clean sheets, etc. for my return. She had to postpone and will have to come while I am gone to clean, so that means I will not be able to wash the sheets already on the bed. So I thought I would be really smart and try to take off my big comforter and wash that myself last night. Little did I know that I grabbed it with two remote controls stuck inside of it. My overhead light/fan and my remote for my adjustable bed. By the time I noticed them missing, they were in my washer soaked with water.

You got it, they now no longer work. I trred what I could and did not get to sleep unil after midnight as a result, just to have my alarm go off at 2am.  Plus my bed is in a raised position right now because I was watching TV from it when I decided to wash the comforter. So, I had to try to sleep very uncomfortably at the foot of my bed and now my back is killing me.

So now, the dilemma of how to get my adjustable bed remote working again before I get back from my hip surgery. I printed out the number of the guy that installed the new motors and remotes when I moved here in June and my housecleaner person also does errands, etc. for a fee. So she is giving me a ride to the airport this morning and I will ask her if she can contact that guy, then I will call him and try to negotiate a price for him to come out and at least get the spare remote to work so when I return I will not have to deal with it!

It was not a fun evening and needless to say, a bit stressful, but funny at the same time (we have to keep our sense of humor at times like these). Oh well, getting ready now, my son came over last night and hauled my two huge suitcases downstairs. I did have a few coffee mugs I had ordered before and one medium t-shirt, but my shipment that I ordered and planned to give out to the staff of promo items for hip resurfacing are due to arrive today or tomorrow, too late for me to take with me.

I will post updates along the way about my trip, my TSA experiences, etc.

I can not believe I am going through this again! Tomorrow will be my 5 year anniversary for my left hip and I will be just landing in India so I will post then, as well, although in India it will be December 2 and my surgery was December 1 over there.

I am so happy Alan Ray is my co-moderator on here, he is very wise and kind and he will take care of helping out. Others on here familiar with my site, when I am not around, feel free to post links to the certain sections for any newbies that post on here. Also there is a search function on every page of my site in the upper right.

http://www.hipresurfacingsite.com/

This will be my last post until after I am able to get internet connection again along the way.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Vicky
LBHR Dr. Bose Dec 01 05
RBHR this week Dec 06 10

December 1, 2010

Well I just checked into my hotel, it is now I think around 3:00am here. Wow, talk about a LONG day. About 30+ hours total from the time I left to the time I arrived. It took forever to get through customs. Somehow the passengers tonight were not paying any attention to the signs and stood in the line where they take wheelchairs through. So first I had to wait forever for the wheelchair and by the time I got through customs, I was about the last person through because all the other lines went quicker with all the locals in line in front of me.

The Raintree Anna Salai is very nice. I will need to verify with them tomorrow on a few things. One thing that I forgot about India is anytime you ask about something, the response seems to always be a yes mam, and a nod of their head, when they do not really mean yes at all. I specifically booked an "accessible" bathroom and hotels.com even emailed me verifying that this is what I would get.  But, when I checked in, they did tell me that they were upgrading me to the next nicer room, maybe because the hotel is so new, not sure. But I asked at the front desk if the bathroom was handicap accessible and he nodded and said Yes Mam. But maybe because they upgraded me to a nicer room, that could be the reason why the bathroom is definitely NOT handicap accessible? The toilet is low and it is a step over TUB with shower, and there is a little lip on the floor between the bathroom and the hall, so it is easy to trip on, because I did the first time I walked out! LOL

This is perfectly fine for now PRIOR to my surgery but I was possibly thinking of switching from FC to this for after my surgery if indeed they had higher toilet seats, etc. But, I will keep my reservation at FC for after my surgery since I know they have the nice walk in showers and I do LOVE the beach.

This is a very up to date modern and clean hotel. I am taking lots of pictures already including one of the Hospital driver holding the sign at the airport that said Apollo Hospital Vicky Marlow on it. I did not take it as I was being pushed up in my wheelchair as my hands and lap were full of carry on items.

Bad news is I realized that I had somehow not packed my laptop charger with me in my laptop case!!  Good news is that I did get an email back from Dr. Bose while I was on the plane which I could not check until just now that there IS a Mac store in Chennai!

HURRAY!!! So I can check my email tonight, shut down my computer and get a driver to take me to that store to pick up a power plug as well as the cigarette lighter adaptor for the plane ride home since I did not pull out the entire plug and left mine on the plane in Chicago.

Sorry for those of you that thought I meant a U.S. vs. India adaptor. I did not mean I forgot a power adaptor, I meant I left my power PLUG For my Macbook Air at home. I have about 4 India Adaptors as well as two power converters with me, so as far as that, I am set. I had bought extra and have lent them to other surface hippies in the past. So I will have plenty to be able to plug in my camera, laptop (once I get my power supply) electric toothbrush, hot curlers,
etc. :-)

The Business class seating on American was not ideal, although the seat does recline fully to a flat position, your feet are still lower and they go underneath the seat area in front of you, so you can not place pillows under to have your feet raised. So this might be a problem on the trip back. Although  the trip back is a different route and they told me that it will be a bigger plane on my return so maybe I won't have that problem... I hope.

The Jet Airways plane, OMG, talk about feeling like a Sardine for 9+hours!! I had a window seat so I could try to sleep but I could not straighten out either leg and they felt so cramped up on the plane. Once I go through my email I am going to take a shower then try to get some sleep so my times are not all messed up.

Anyway, I made it here to India. More later...

Oh and thank you so much for all the well wishes! It warms my heart!

December 2
Mohan came through with calling me first thing this morning, well at 9:30 am so I did not get much sleep considering I went to sleep at 4:30 am.  He had the driver pick me up at noon and we went to THREE different stores and not one of them had a MacBook Air power adapter!  I was thinking of also getting another airline adapter while I was at it, that store sales person called his distribution center and told me it would cost me close to $250 US!  Excuse me?  For a $49.95 adapter?  It was fun driving around, I took some photos.  OK, besides the many motorcyles with multiple people riding on each one, the electric rickshaws, the cars, the buses, the dogs and the cows, today you are not going to believe what I saw!  Take a wild guess.  I saw a guy riding a horse in the middle of the street!!  A super crowded street!  I got my camera out too late or I would have snapped a picture of it.  but I did get a photo of the interesting traffic lights that have count down clocks on them.  So you know exactly when the light will change from red to green and vice versa. The cars and bikes literally start driving before it hits 0 that's for sure.  I think more like around 4 or 3, they start stepping on the gas!

So I got back and went to the lobby desk that said manager on it.  Introduced myself and inquired about the handicap accessability options at this hotel I am staying at. He was kind enough to take me around and show me several of their rooms.  Some DO have walk in showers, but most of those rooms are the Deluxe or Premium rooms so the pricing is higher.  This hotel is so new that some of the rooms were not yet finished.  they do have two handicapped rooms, the showers have no tubs to step over, but they also have NO doors.  They said that the floor is slanted, so the water runs back in.  But, I don't know, I think I would rather have a door to keep the water in so I wouldn't risk having a wet tile floor that I could go sliding across.  These rooms do not have raised toilet seats but they do have bars on the side to use to lift yourself.  They are designed for REALLY handicapped people, those wheelchair bound that can not walk at all.

I was able to go to the restaurant and buy a carton of skim milk.  That was nice, since last time I was here, they only had whole milk.  I am typing this now as I wait for Dr. Bose and his wife to pick me up in the lobby at 8pm.  They are both taking me out to dinner tonight which will be great.

So, the search for the power adapter continues.  I have emailed a couple of people in the U.S. to see if they can either go buy one at an Apple store or maybe one of my kids can stop by my house and fed ex me mine from home.  I sure hope so.  I am doing what I did my first trip right now, using the hotels business center and emailing my journal to myself.

Thursday, December 2, 10:30 pm
Just got back from having a wonderful dinner with Dr. Bose and his wife.  I received an email from him a couple of days ago to invite me to dinner. How cool is that!  We had a really nice time talking hips.  I feel so confident going into surgery with him.  He really is a master at what he does.  I know he will have Sunday off and I will be his only surgery on Monday, very unusual, but my luck!  Just found out that a fellow patient, Casey is going to send me a power adapter for my Mac so that it will arrive on Monday, the date of my surgery.  Perfect!  Now I can get a good night's sleep with nothing to worry about.  And I AM SUPER exhausted now. I know I will sleep well.

What I have learned from this trip

Rule Number One, DON'T FORGET YOUR POWER ADAPTERS!  :-)

I check into the hospital tomorrow.  Just thinking about the fact that I had dinner with my surgeon and his wife last night.  It was so nice.  How many people get to have dinner with their surgeons just a few days before their surgery?   Pretty cool.  :-)  The hotel I am staying at (The Raintree Anna Salai) is really nice, just opened about six months ago so it is brand new.  The room is actually freezing cold, I am so glad I brought a sweatshirt for the plane because I have been wearing that at night and as soon as I get into my comfortable clothes. I finally figured out last night how to adjust the temperature control.  It is all really up to date modern, there is a little controller box next to my bed on the nightstand that controls every single light in the entire room as well as the temperature as well as a button for Do not Disturb for my front door and a button for clean room and a button for laundry.  I have learned that the laundry at the hospital is so inexpensive that I will wait until I check in tomorrow to have them wash the clothes I wore up until tomorrow.  I find that everything gets pretty dirty here, so I will wash everything I have worn.  Good thing I brought a large plastic trash bag specifically to use as a dirty laundry bag.

Today is Friday morning at noon here and it should be Thursday night at 11:30 pm in CA. Just got up at 11 a.m. and just starting to check my emails. Have a ton to go through. So glad I was able to find a fellow Surface Hippy to get a MacBook Air Power Adapter for me and Fed Ex it to me at the Hospital here in India.  It will arrive on Monday, the day of my surgery, perfect timing for me to be able to skype my daughter and speak to my grandbabies as soon as I am feeling coherent to do so.  Those grandbabies, sure light up my life! Thank you Casey for doing this for me, you are an angel!  More later, tons of emails to catch up on.  I am using the hotel computer and emailing my journal to myself.  Great way to make sure it never gets lost.  I just keep replying to the same email I sent to myself with more updates.

December 4, 2010 3:00 p.m.

I checked into the hospital and wow, a lot of improvements have been made.  For one, the lobby looks different now, much less hectic and appears to have a lot more space than before.  At least this time it is not jammed with patients all sitting close to each other, there was actually room to move around.

I went up the elevator to the Platinum ward on the 4th floor. The food service guy came in and asked if I wanted lunch, so he brought me fried rice with fish something.  The fish was deep fried, I took one bite and although it tasted good, I am going to try to drop some of the weight I have gained in the past six months, so I asked if I could just get a bowl of cereal with skim milk.  Very cool that they now have skim milk!
They recently upgraded all the mattresses from the small 4 inch thick mattresses that would sag to nice thick and comfortable 6 inch mattresses. I did bring two fitted sheets with me which I will have them place one on the bed the day of my surgery and then be able to change it while I am here for 5 days post op.  In India, the hospital only uses flat sheets on top of plastic wrapped mattresses, so the sheets keep sliding off of the bed and then you are skin to plastic.  That is for sanitary purposes, since in a hospital you have no idea what sort of body fluids were left behind other patients following surgery.  These mattresses can be completely wiped down and sanitized prior to any new patients sleeping on them.  But the flat sheets are a problem and they said they wash them so much that the sheets in India with elastic (fitted sheets) the elastic wears out and they turn into flat sheets anyway.  The sound level is SO much better than when I was here last, they have put in all sound proof windows including in the bathroom.

They are also going to bring in a DVD player for me which will be SO cool to not have to watch the TV shows I brought with me on a laptop but actually on the Plasma screen TV with a DVD player and remote control!  How cool is that!  :-)

Just had my blood drawn, and met Dr. Raj, who is one of Dr. Bose assistants, he is the guy that holds your leg and closes you up. Really nice guy.  Got a picture with Mohan, it was so nice to be able to see him again.  I gave him a big hug and said it was from all the prior India Surface hippies. I mentioned some names and he seemed to remember all of you!  Dr. Bose also came in and tested my ROM and asked a few questions.  I asked him what he thought about my cyst and whether or not there was any chance I would end up waking up with a THR.  His response, NO absolutely not, not with me.  Gotta LOVE that response!

They will be coming shortly to get me and take me downstairs for x-rays and to meet the cardiologist to get an EKG.  Tomorrow I will have the entire day to relax.  My surgery Monday morning will be around 7:30am, which will be 6 p.m. Sunday night in CA.  The Nutritionist just came in and asked me what I wanted for dinner.  I told her that I would prefer to stick to healthy and low cal meals if possible.  So they are going to arrange to bring me chicken tonight with some stir fried veggies.  First she said boiled vegetables and that just did not sound appetizing, so I asked if they could cook it a different way and she said absolutely.  Just like I remembered, they will pretty much make you whatever you ask for, pretty amazing!  More later...

December 5, 2010  11:00 a.m.

I met with the entire team last night, Dr. Biz , Dr. Raji and Dr. Bapushi the anesthesiologist. I feel a little like I did not get to talk to the anesthesiologist enough, but I am going to stop worrying and just let things go and happen as they will.  Last night I was so tired that after they left, I fell asleep at about 8:30pm.  then I woke up at 2 am and was wide awake, so I got online and basically checked emails and posted for several hours.  I ended up telling them to cancel my dinner last night and just had some pita chips and laughing cow cheese that I brought with me.  I definitely plan on eating dinner tonight otherwise I know I will be starving tomorrow.   I am pretty tired now and my hip is absolutely killing me today.  Definitely feels like a pinched sciatica, which if anyone has had that knows how horrible that feels.

So I slept in the bed in the hospital for the first time, I thought I would wait to have them put my fitted sheet on until my surgery tomorrow.  I can see why so many people complain about it now!  That thing every time I raised the bed to be on the computer, the sheet slipped off and next thing you know, I am laying on plastic.  NOT cool. literally since you tend to sweat when your skin touches plastic.  I guess they just do not make fitted sheets here because the hotel also had flat sheets on their beds but they were big enough that they did not come off.

When the room cleaner came today, I had him put my fitted sheet on and it is staying on perfect.  I do wish I would have had room to bring a bed topper though because the mattress is so hard that right now I am laying on a pillow because my tail bone hurts from all the sitting on the plane.  I am going to watch some of the DVD's I brought on the DVD player they installed in my room, then probably take a nap.  I think I will end up just asking for two slices of wheat bread today for lunch and make myself a PB & J sandwich which I brought with me.

Right now, my back is killing me, my right knee hurts, my right ankle hurts and my right groin hurts.  Probably not enough moving around.  I gave a big bag of laundry to the staff to do my laundry for me.  they always do such a nice job and it is very inexpensive here.  I hope they bring it back tonight so I can put it away before surgery.

they just brought in special soap for me to use when I shower tomorrow morning as well as mouthwash.  Must be some special kind that kills the germs in your mouth.  Like I said, they take precautions here that they never do in US hospitals.  Like no flowers are allowed and no polish on your finger or toe nails and your nails need to be cut really short since I guess a lot of bacteria can hide underneath nails.  Getting really sleepy now, more later.


Well here I am in the hospital.  It is almost 5 am here in India on Monday, December 6 which is actually Sunday  December 5 at 3:30 in the afternoon.  I just brushed my teeth then rinsed it with this special mouthwash they gave me last night.  I fell asleep last night at about 9:30, Dr. Bapuji came in again to reassure me that everything would be fine with my level of pain when I woke up, I was half asleep but greatly appreciated him taking the time to come in once more the night before my surgery.  I woke up this morning at 4 a.m. and checked emails and posts.  They will be coming in soon with my hospital gown which I will put on after I take a shower with their special anti-bacterial soap and shampoo and dry my hair then place it up into a pony tail so they can fit the cap on me.  I am ready. Not as nervous as I was the first time I was here.  I remember sitting in my hospital room over five years ago, a room that was not the one I would be in when I came out of surgery and was so worried that I had not had time to put my things where I wanted them.  This time, I have everything unpacked and placed where I want them and will be easy to get to after surgery.  I am ready.  I fully trust Dr. Bose and his team.  The next time I write, I will be on the other side again and this time joining the ranks of the bilaterals.

Vicky

Dec 7, 2010 midnight

It's been a real rough day and a half since surgery.  It was pouring outside and traffic was really bad, they even closed the schools here because the rain was so bad.  That made Dr. Bose late for my surgery.  I was scheduled for 7:30 am but was wheeled down instead at around 8:30am.  I have no idea how anyone can wake from this surgery pain free.  I had surgery yesterday and like I said, it's has been a real rough couple of days.  I woke up from surgery somewhat comfortable since the anesthesiologist gave me a strong dose of meds during the procedure but reduced the amount in my pump when I woke, which I did not know.  When the other stuff wore off, I was in a lot of pain.  I tried to be strong again and just waited way too long to ask them to increase my dose.  I should have known better.  You ALWAYS want to stay ahead of the pain.  By the time they called the doc to get it increased I was in agony.  I never got comfortable or caught up to the pain the entire first 24 + hours.  Unfortunately the pain pumps here do NOT have a button you can push to increase it yourself.

When Pondy the PT came in at 10am, I was SO weak and still in horrific pain.  I had slept maybe an hour the night before due to the amount of pain I was in.  I did the few leg exercises in bed then he sat me up and I took my first few steps with a walker just 24 hours after surgery.  Now I really wish I would have worked harder on upper body strength prior to my surgery.  Although I think the pain made me a lot weaker than I am.  Dr. Biz came in and spoke to me, then later in the evening Dr. Bose came in.  He told me that he was very surprised that I was completely bone on bone when he opened me up.  He said it was not at all indicative of my x-rays.  But I knew the pain I was getting was for a reason.

Mohan the International Patient coordinator brought my power adaptor in that Casey, a fellow patient and Surface hippy mailed to me and placed it on my Mac for me to charge it.  Now I finally have my computer back.  I have over 300 emails to check, Yikes!  I have been watching my DVD's on their DVD player in my hospital room.  Not much sleep at all since surgery so I finally fell asleep tonight really early, like around 7:30pm.  I just woke and it is around 2am now, so I thought I would check in and tell you how things went.  Still in some pain and it is really tough sleeping on your back on a really hard mattress.  The first day after being in the recovery room for a couple of hours on an even harder mattress, my back was killing me.  So I asked them to line my bed with pillows to lay on top of.  I think that was a mistake because when they slid me over, the pillows moved and I lay in bed all day and night the first night crooked and slanted towards my operated hip putting pressure on it the entire night.  Shoba Baskar (who used to do what Mohan does but was promoted a year after my first surgery and Mohan took over) and Sheela Ketan came by to say hi to me but it was the one hour I was asleep the first night so I did not see them.  Sheela is the GM of Apollo Hospital, the head person here.  So nice to see two females in charge.  :-)

They say the first 48 hours are the worst and I am still within the 48 hours.  I know it will only get better from here.  The second time the PT came in at 3 pm, I walked forward and around the room using the walker.  I feel much better now than I have since my surgery. I finally got around 5 hours of sleep and the pain has somewhat subsided.  More later, although my computer keeps opening the Raintree Hotels log in page since they are right across the street and it appears I cannot get online.  So this post will probably not show up until tomorrow when I can get Mohan to come in and fix my connection.

December 7, 2010

Started feeling so much better today, amazing really compared to the first time around.  My stomach started to hurt a bit and I realized I had not eaten much at all since the night before surgery.  So I had some pita chips that I had brought with me last night since it was too early in the morning to really ask for food.  The pain finally started to subside.  Passed the dreaded first 48 hours.  I only had some toast and eggs for breakfast, I told them over easy but they cooked them over hard, so I only had a couple of bites of the eggs and ate a piece of toast and had some juice.  I had no appetite for lunch, then had a PB & J sandwich since I brought my own Peanut butter and jelly.  They have jelly here, but I thought I would bring my own for in the hotel if I did not feel like going down to the restaurant to eat, then I could just order some bread via room service.  I had two PT sessions again today, walked a little further on the walker and even later in the evening I had the nurse come in and help me get up and sit for a while then used the walker to walk over to the chair. When I stood back up and made sure I was straight and stable and was able to let go of the walker, so I was full weight bearing on the operated hip.  I think we naturally baby the hip after surgery sometimes more than we need to.

December 8 6:30 a.m

Can you believe I was actually going to try to not take any pain meds today, except the mild stuff they give me once the patch is removed. I do not want a set back. I brought some pain meds with me just for this reason, so a fellow Surface Hippy reminded me to stay ahead of the pain and I will now.  Amazing how we can know these things and yet still try to be strong about it and tough it out.  I think I will keep taking pain meds (the ones I brought with me) once I talk to Dr. Bose about it when the patch is off, then discuss with him what I will take.  Just so I do not slow down my recovery any at all due to pain.  It won't hurt to take them for a week or so, especially with the amount of pain I was in the first 24 hours.

So far it appears I am doing much better than I did the first time around.  It feels so good to not feel any pain!

But this morning I felt an unusual feeling like I had to urinate really bad.  But I still have a catheter in me (at my request).  I just drink a ton of water and wanted to continue drinking a lot of water to flush my system, but then I would be getting up to pee every hour and I did not feel strong enough to do that every hour yesterday so I asked that they keep it in me an extra day.  I called the nurse and asked her to check it and she did and first said it is working, I said no, I do not think it is working because I really feel like I need to go. So she checked it again and it was twisted. As soon as she untwisted it, it just came out and wow, what a relief! Goes to show you how we have to be our own advocates and if we feel something is not right then it probably isn't.  I think I filled up the bag when she untwisted it.  They will be removing the catheter this morning and I believe I will be strong enough to get up and go, but I will probably not drink as much water once they do remove it.

Once that is removed it will be nice not to have anything plugged into me any longer.  They removed my IV and drain yesterday and it was great to no longer be hooked up to so many tubes.

I am really feeling great today, other than my bed sore, that is hurting a bit right now since I am sitting straight up and it is right on my tailbone area.

December 9, 2010 9:45 am

Well this morning I feel absolutely fantastic.  Literally no pain at all except for some mild discomfort on occasion when I am doing my PT exercises or when walking.

I will get my post op x-rays taken this morning.  It is currently 9:45 am here in India.  Shoba Bhaskar just came by to say hi to me.  For those of you old timers that went to India before 2006 you will remember her, she used to work closely with Mohan and was his boss. Now Mohan apparently mainly works with only Dr. Bose patients.  It was so great to see her again.  She is now second in charge of this hospital and told me to please let her know if any other improvements need to be made.  Very cool.

They have literally done a great job about upgrading and taking my recommendations seriously from the last time I came here in 2006 (for another procedure, not my hip) and stayed in the Platinum ward for the first time.  I suggested that they sound proof the windows and they did a great job of that.  In India the way they drive, they are honking their horns every few seconds, it is just part of the culture here and the way things are.  It sounds like different car alarms that are the honking horns type, going off at the same time.  There are just so many cars and bikes and motorcyles and dogs and cows and people and this time I even saw someone riding a horse in the streets, so they honk in order to not run over a dog, or a person or someone on a bike.  The drivers rarely seem to pay attention to the lines painted in the roads and it is common to be driving head on into oncoming traffic until the last minute.  The first two times I was here, it scared the heck out of me but now I am used to it.

Here is a photo of one time I was sitting in the front seat and I took this picture of a car right in front of us FACING us.

http://www.hipresurfacingsite.com/component/option,com_rsgallery2/Itemid,67/id,10/page,inline/

So when I was here in 2006, It sounded like I was on the streets it was so loud.  The Platinum Ward is on the 4th floor and now I can barely hear the faint sound of horns honking compared to the first time where it seemed to echo in the room it was so loud.  I had to wear ear plugs back then.  I also recommended DVD players which they now have, but you have to ask for that or the wireless laptop they also provide you if you did not bring your own.  They also added a mirror next to the closet and little kitchen area.  Since the electrical outlets are only one in each area, I told them for the women that use curling irons, etc. that they should also have a mirror outside of the bathroom.  They have blow dryers now too for your hair, I fried mine when I came in 2005.

When I was here for my hip in 2005 the Platinum Ward was not built yet, Dr. Bose had a huge part in helping them to design it. Believe it or not, those of us that went before, stayed in hospital rooms that were not at all handicapped accessible, as a matter of fact, we had three steps we had to climb every time we had to use the bathroom.  Try doing that with a walker!  And the floors were incredibly slippery.  So much has changed for the better.  I know the main complaints from patients that came here were the mattresses being too thin, the sheets always sliding off and the pain management.  But they have adjusted and changed all of those now as much as they are able to.

I think for anyone planning on coming here in the future, you should seriously consider bringing some form of a twin size mattress topper, maybe one of those egg crate looking ones that you can smash down in your luggage as well as two X-Long twin sheets.  That way they can wash one while you use the other.  I know that being a hospital, I doubt they can have anything other than the plastic covered mattresses and they have recently improved them from the 4 inch thickness to 6 inches.  The sheets took up room in my luggage and I was seriously considering buying a mattress topper to bring with me, then leaving it here, but ran out of room in my two large suitcases I brought with me.  I think they would have to throw it out though after I left though for sanitary reasons unless it were a washable one. Now I SO wish I would have somehow made it fit!  Although my pain level is so manageable today that I easily turned over just now on my non operated side with a pillow between my legs, so that Dr. Raji, one of Dr. Bose assistants, could change my bed sore gauze and keep it covered.  They will take out my catheter shortly and once that is out, I will have no problems turning to my side during the times I watch DVD's as well as while I sleep.  When I turned it was so easy to do and felt fantastic for my back.

They have also improved the pain management, I was being my typical self and trying to tough it out when I knew better (can we say stubborn!) and really should have told them to increase my dose as soon as I started to feel the pain after surgery, NOT after it was full blown and I couldn't take it anymore.

Great news, I found out that my pain med patch is good for 72 hours so I have nothing to worry about for the rest of my stay in the hospital.  I can start taking my own pain meds when I get to the resort.


December 9 Day 3 Post Op, 2 pm

Wow, I can not believe how great I feel right now.  After my first recovery 5 years ago going so slow, I thought are these people for real when they would post how well they were doing.  Now, as I lay in bed it really feels like I did not even have surgery.  ZERO pain!  I cannot believe it!   I am doing SO much better this time than the first time around.  I just went down and had my post op x-rays taken.  I remember 5 years ago, they had to wheel me down in a bed and move me over using sheets underneath me because I was just so weak.  When I did my PT today I walked all the way down and back the long hallway.  I felt I could do more but did not want to push myself.  I love doing the foot slides in bed, it feels so good to stretch out the leg a bit and today I have enough strength in my leg to be able to lift it almost by itself onto the bed.  I am going to take it slow though and not push myself too hard and cause any setbacks. This is fantastic.  I feel so good. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, Raisin Bran which I brought from home with some hospital skim milk. Then for lunch today I finally had one of their hot meals, it was not deep fried.  It was what they called chicken stroganoff, but it looked more like a really thick cabbage soup with chicken in it, it was pretty good and I thought some protein along with carbs would be good for energy so they also brought spaghetti on the side.  That was so tasty.  Now all I need is to get some sleep.  Which I think I will try to do on my side after my PT session at 3 today.  The first time I had surgery 5 years ago, Dr. Bose had lengthened my operated leg by 1/2 inch, and after my surgery it felt like that leg was at least 2 inches longer than the other leg.  He told me my recovery would be a bit slower than normal and he was right.  This time, I feel like my legs are completely even, no feel of any leg length discrepancy at all, at least not yet.  I am ecstatic and so happy with my progress so far!

December 10 start of Day 4 Post Op 8:30 a.m.

I feel FANTASTIC!  I slept a good 9 hours last night, first for four hours, then got up to use the restroom, came back and slept on my side for another four hours, then got up again to use the restroom (drinking tons of water!) and slept on my back again for about an hour.  The sleeping pill they gave me last night finally gave me a full nights sleep which I SO desperately needed! Now the only thing that is missing is a SHOWER!!  I have not been able to take one since the morning of surgery, so right now it is 8:30 am here, and the doc is supposed to come in around 9:30am to change my dressing and place a waterproof one on my incision then I get to take a shower.

I was using my walker to go to the restroom and walked around the room on my own, not supposed to do that yet.  Plus I am on crutches now, but I am so independent that I do not want to call them to come in for every little thing.  Although right now, I know better than to do anything on my own without the use of the walker inside my room.  I think they hid my crutches from me.  LOL  I do not see them anywhere.  I was a bit speed racing down the hall yesterday with them.  Using the crutches opposite side of the foot.  Pondy told me he didn't really want me to start walking that way until today, day 4 post op.  But I said, let me try, and I walked down the entire hall until we got to the room then he told me to stop and go back to the other way, I was doing too much.  My ROM (range of motion for the newbies) Is really great so far.  I am able to sit up in bed and almost reach my foot, I can go as far as my ankle where I placed a little towel to lift my heel off of the bed.  When I told the PT that, he told me, no, don't do that yet, that is too much.  Only reach your knees right now.  .....okay,...I will slow down!  I still have reached forward a couple of times to adjust the towel or cover my toes with a sheet.

I love that Dr. Bose has no 90 degree restriction, there is no way I could do what I have been doing if there was one.  The only restriction he has is to not cross the midline for six weeks.  You never want to duplicate the movement they used to dislocate your hip, ever.  I can see that I am feeling too good now where I will have to force myself to slow down.  What a great way to feel!

December 10 Post op Day 4  5p.m

It is my last night at the hospital, tomorrow I check into the hotel and I remember the last time how very tiring that was.  After packing stuff up, showering and getting ready, then driving over an hour to get there, checking in at the front desk using crutches, then going up to my hotel room.  By the time I instructed the staff on where I wanted my luggage and everything, somewhat unpack and change into more comfortable clothes, I just fell on the bed exhausted.  But there was always something I forgot to place on my bed that I needed, my eye glasses, or my water bottle or the remote, and I found myself having to get up on my crutches and search for those items and bring them to me.  Each time, I was so tired I could not think straight.  That was the time I thought how having someone here with me would have come in so handy.  Thank goodness for that grabber little mechanical thingy that picks things up for you from the floor.  I use it to pull my sheets up, help me put on the compression stockings, grab a tissue, grab the remote control, everything.

This time I am much stronger, apparently the P90 X workout program paid off even though it went from 7 days a week a few months ago and dropped down to 2 to 3 times a week by the time I left, the PT as well as one of the docs said that I was a lot more muscular this time.  Which basically meant I ended up with an 8 inch incision on my right side, so almost double the size of the left hip.  But that also probably had to do with the fact that I had Dr. Bose have someone video tape my surgery and they needed a big enough incision in order to see what was going on.  You can watch my live video surgery here 

Which basically meant I ended up with an 8 inch incision on my right side, so almost double the size of the left hip. Apparently the more muscular one is, or the fatter as well, the larger the incision ends up.  I did ask them if it was due to fat and they all said oh no, no, no, you have extremely good muscle tone.

I was so weak with the left hip that all I did prior to that was upper body strengthening, no lower body at all, not even a stationary bike because at the very end, I had waited so long that it was even too painful to warm up with that.  But this recovery is WAY faster so far than the first and the PT told me that my muscle tone was so very good and that was the reason.  I slept 9 hours last night which I really needed, then even dosed off today for about an hour in the middle of the afternoon.  The internet connection here is a bit touchy at times and it appears that this email will not go out until my wireless is connected again.  It is currently 5pm here.  I finally ate a hot lunch both yesterday and today.  I stuck with just toast in the morning up until yesterday, it was all I could eat.

I realize it is not all smooth sailing from here on out.  Instead it will be like a roller coaster ride, good days and bad days, some days I will hit a wall.  For now, I will wait for my shower and then just enjoy being pain free and on the other side!  :-)

I am getting around on the crutches pretty easily, but they are still tiring to use for long distances.  It will be challenging at the resort all alone there.  There are no patients at all here this time around that had their hips resurfaced.

It will be nice to get out of here and to the resort.  Yes, having a little buzzer that I can press and have someone come right away is nice, but the lack of common sense one or two of these nurses have is UNREAL!  You literally have to point every single thing out to them and they still do not get it.  Very frustrating.

I am going to vent a bit here, but why is it that there are always some of the nurses or "sisters" as they call them here SO irritating or for that matter any hospital I have ever been in?

One or two here are either not very smart, or have absolutely ZERO common sense which unfortunately I just have no patience for. Don't get me wrong, the majority are fantastic and so helpful, but there are always the one or two....  This last time I got up to use the restroom one nurse bent down and tried to put my shoes on the wrong feet!  Excuse me?  She is one that irritates me the most, again some that are here are fantastic.  But the one that is here right now, on my last night here is wearing a mask because she says she has a cold, then she has the nerve to come into my room and take her mask down when she talks to me.  Is she for real?  The last thing I need is to catch a cold while I am healing!  And if I end up with a cold on a 23+ hour flight home, that is going to be horrible as if the flight home isn't long and nightmare enough.  I just spoke to Mohan and although I felt bad, it was too important for me to not mention.  I basically asked him to no longer allow her in my room and to please assign someone else to my room for tonight, I am just not going to risk it.  Mohan is fantastic at getting things done, he just already handled it, because my buzzer is on the blink and keeps going off so a nurse just came in.  I looked down and noticed since they had rewired it to make it longer for me, the wiring had fallen out of the holder part and the cable was hanging by a wire so it was short circuiting.  So I told her to bring an electrician and he showed up within five minutes to fix it.  I never got that kind of service in any U.S. hospital!  And I have stayed in a hospital overnight on many occasions, my appendix burst when I was 7, I had two c-sections, a tummy tuck and during two of my daughters births with her second and third, I spent the night in the hospital with her because my baby too had to have c-sections each time, and someone had to stay home with the baby or two kids each time, so her husband stayed home with the kids, while I stayed with my daughter and the new baby.  Besides possibly getting sick from one of the nurses, the other things are very minor in comparison to how great this hospital really is.

Sheela Ketan came by today, the GM, the woman in charge of the entire hospital.  She walked in and gave me a hug hello.  We talked for quite a while.  I had met with her before when I had some issues on my last stay that I needed worked out and while I was at it, I made some recommendations for changes that she literally took to heart.  One thing I did not mention earlier is that I had also told her to get softer toilet paper, which they have now and larger rolls of it as well!  I mentioned to her that the mattresses are extremely hard and uncomfortable and the flat sheets irritating since they always slide off and to notice that I brought fitted sheets with me.  She explained to me that they wash them every day and the elastic just does not work after so many washings so they gave up on that. She did say as a solution that she would be more than happy to buy some along with a pillow topper for the beds and have them available for patients that wanted to buy them here instead of packing them and hauling them all the way over.  She told me to feel free to email her anytime and make suggestions to her and she would definitely do something about it if she was able.  I thought that was great.  A woman in charge always gets things done!  :-)  If any patients have any suggestions that are over there or on your way to India and Dr. Bose, please email me if you have any suggestions on changes you would like to see happen, that are reasonable of course.

Tomorrow, the resort will be nice and I am told that Patrick who was there the last two times I was in India is still there.  The last time I stayed in a much lower priced beach resort called the Ideal Beach and it did not have any walk in showers, only step over tubs which were very slippery.  The restaurant was not air conditioned and the rooms were not the nicest, but the pricing was extremely reasonable at the time.  With the slippery bathroom floors and rough terrain around the grounds, but especially the step over tub situation and being alone, I could not risk that this time with hip surgery.  The last time I came in 2006, about a year after I had my hip done was for another surgery which did not require any walking aids, so the hotel was fine for that trip.  There was another patient named Bill that was here on business contemplating going to Dr. Bose for his hip, ironically his Dad had surgery the same time as I did the year before and I had met him the day I checked in which was the day that he checked out.  So I met Bill at the Ideal, we took a cab over to the Fisherman's Cove to show him the differences between the rooms and Patrick who is upper Manager there, gave us a tour of the rooms.  I thought right there and then, that I definitely was going back to stay at the FC when I had this hip done.  Much nicer rooms, much nicer grounds, easier to maneuver on crutches, even much softer TP and having Patrick there who speaks perfect English helps a lot too and he has both my doc and the Intl. Patient Coordinator, Mohan on speed dial on his cell phone.  Comes in handy at times.


Sorry if I scared some of you newbies, but I just wanted to be completely an open book here so that those of you still facing surgery will realize that every single recovery is different and what is that saying "Expect the Best, Prepare for the Worst".

This IS a major surgery and the majority of us come out with happy endings. Just read all the hippy stories on my website, broken down by athletic category.


End of Day 4 Post Op

I typed this at 5pm here, but internet connection was iffy and I could not send it.

It is my last night at the hospital, tomorrow I check into the hotel and I remember the last time how very tiring that was. After packing stuff up, showering and getting ready, then driving over an hour to get there, checking in at the front desk using crutches, then going up to my hotel room. By the time I instructed the staff on where I wanted my luggage and everything, somewhat unpacked and changed into more comfortable clothes, I just fell on the bed exhausted. But there was always something I had seemed to forget to place on my bed that I needed, my eye glasses, or my water bottle or the remote, or box of tissues and I found myself having to get up each time on my crutches and search for those items and bring them to my bed one at a time since you can not carry a lot with both hands occupied with crutches. Every time, I was so tired I could not think straight. That was the time I thought how having someone here with me would have come in so handy. Thank goodness for that grabber little mechanical thingy that picks things up for you from the floor. I used it to pull my sheets up, help me put on the compression stockings, grab a tissue, grab the remote control, everything.

This time I am much stronger, apparently the P90X workout program paid off even though it went from 7 days a week a few months ago and dropped down to 2 to 3 times a week by the time I left to I think only doing it once the last week. My hip just hurt too much and when you are in pain, it tires you and you lose your motivation.

So this part is related to the prior thread about muscle strength in the hip: The PT as well as one of the docs here said that I was a lot more muscular this time. Which basically meant I ended up with an 8 inch incision on my right side, so almost double the size of the left hip (my left is only 4 1/2"). Apparently the more muscular one is, (or the higher BMI as well) the larger the incision ends up. I did ask them if it was due to fat and they all said oh no, no, no, you have extremely good muscle tone right now. Just wanted to make sure they were not being nice about it and saying one thing when they meant the other. :-)

I was so weak with the left hip, the first time, that all I did prior to that was upper body strengthening, no lower body at all because I just couldn't, I mean that time I could no longer even ride a stationary bike it hurt so bad. After all, I waited until I could no longer walk without a cane for my first hip. But this recovery is WAY faster so far than the first one was and the PT told me that my muscle tone was so very good and that was the reason. So I guess there are pay offs to both, smaller incision with no muscle, or quicker recovery with.....you get to decide...that is, IF your hip allows you. For me, my pain dictated how much muscle I had before each surgery. Those of you that have seen or used it will know how serious of a workout the P90X can be!

I slept 9 hours last night which I really needed, then I even dosed off today for about an hour in the middle of the afternoon. It is now 5pm here, but the internet connection sometimes is a bit iffy, so I am not sure when this will go out. I finally ate a hot lunch both yesterday and today. I stuck with just toast or cereal in the morning up until yesterday, it was all I could eat.

I am getting around on the crutches pretty easily, but they are still tiring to use for long distances. But since yesterday I am able to stand without any aids at all on both legs. Pretty amazing considering it wasn't until I was at the resort for several days the last time and even then, I could only do it with most of my weight on my unoperated side, five years ago. This time I can stand up and just let go and full weight bear at only 3 days post op. It will be challenging at the resort all alone there. There are no patients at all here this time around that had their hips resurfaced.

It will be nice to get out of here and to the resort though. Yes, having a little buzzer that I can press and have someone come right away is nice, but the lack of common sense one or two of these nurses has is UNREAL! You literally have to point every single thing out to them and they still do not get it. Very frustrating. Some of them have a language barrier, some are just with zero common sense.

Why is it that there are always some of the nurses or "sisters" as they call them here. SO irritating in any hospital I have ever been in?

One or two here are either not very smart, or have absolutely ZERO common sense which unfortunately I just have no patience for. Don't get me wrong, the majority here are fantastic and so helpful, but there are always the one or two.... This last time I got up to use the restroom one nurse bent down and tried to put my shoes on the wrong feet! Excuse me? She is one that irritates me the most, again most that are here are fantastic. But the one that is here right now, on my last night here is wearing a mask because she says she has a cold, then she has the nerve to come into my room and take her mask down when she talks to me. Is she for real? The last thing I need is to catch a cold while I am healing! And if I end up with a cold on a 23+ hour flight home, that is going to be horrible as if the flight home isn't long and nightmare enough. It was almost like they told her to wear a mask so she did, then when she walked into the patients rooms, she would pull it down, excuse me, but that is so the PATIENT's don't catch your cold, not the rest of the staff!

I just spoke to Mohan and although I felt bad, it was too important for me to not mention. I basically asked him to no longer allow her in my room and to please assign someone else to my room for tonight, I am just not going to risk it. Mohan is fantastic at getting things done, he just already handled it, because my buzzer is on the blink and keeps going off so a nurse just came in. I looked down and noticed since they had rewired it to make it longer for me, the wiring had fallen out of the holder part and the cable was hanging by a wire so it was short circuiting. So I told her to bring an electrician and he showed up within five minutes to fix it. I never got that kind of service in any U.S. hospital! And I have stayed in a hospital overnight on many occasions, my appendix burst when I was 7, I had two c-sections, a tummy tuck and during two of my daughters births with her second and third, I spent the night in the hospital with her because my baby also had to have c-sections each time, and someone had to stay home with the first and then the two kids each time, which their Dad did and took care of things at home, while I stayed overnight with my daughter for several nights. Besides possibly getting sick from one of the nurses, the other things are very minor in comparison to how great this hospital really is.

Sheela Ketan came by today, the GM, the woman in charge of the entire hospital. She walked in and gave me a big hug hello. We talked for quite a while. I had met with her before when I had some issues on my last stay that I needed worked out and while I was at it, I made some recommendations for changes that she literally took to heart.

One thing I did not mention earlier is that I had also told her to get softer toilet paper, which they have now and larger rolls of it as well! So those of you that mentioned you had no problem with the TP here lately, you should have seen or FELT it 4 and 5 years ago! :-)

I mentioned to her that the mattresses are extremely hard and uncomfortable and the flat sheets irritating since they always slide off and to notice that I brought fitted sheets with me. She explained to me that they wash them every day and the elastic just does not work after so many washings so they gave up on that. I think our elastic in the U.S. is much stronger. She did say as a solution that she would be more than happy to buy some along with a pillow topper for the beds and have them available for patients that wanted to buy them here instead of packing them and hauling them all the way over. She told me to feel free to email her anytime and make suggestions to her and she would definitely do something about it if she was able. I thought that was great. A woman in charge always gets things done! :-)

Tomorrow, the resort will be nice and I am told that Patrick who was there the last two times I was in India is still there. The last time I stayed in a much lower priced beach resort called the Ideal Beach and it did not have any walk in showers, only step over tubs which were very slippery. The restaurant was not air conditioned and the rooms were not the nicest IMO, although I know many really like the place, but the pricing was extremely reasonable at the time. With the slippery bathroom floors and rough terrain around the grounds, but especially the step over tub situation and being alone, I could not risk that this time with hip surgery.

The last time I came in 2006, about a year after I had my hip done was for another surgery which did not require any walking aids, so the hotel was great for that trip. There was another patient named Bill that was here on business contemplating going to Dr. Bose for his hip, ironically his Dad had surgery the same time as I did the year before and I had met his Dad the day I checked into the hospital for my left hip, which was the day that he checked out. So in 2006, I met his son Bill at the Ideal, we took a cab over to the Fisherman's Cove to show him the differences between the rooms and Patrick who is the Manager there, gave us a tour of the rooms. I thought right there and then, that I definitely was going back to stay at the FC when I had this hip done. Much nicer rooms, much nicer grounds, easier to maneuver on crutches, air conditioned restaurant, even much softer TP and having Patrick there who speaks perfect English helps a lot too and he has both my doc and the Intl. Patient Coordinator, Mohan on speed dial on his cell phone.

Comes in handy at times...more later..

Day 5 Post op 9:30 a.m.

I continue to feel great today. No pain, ROM is getting better, I can easily move back and forth from my back to my side to watch TV or sleep which has helped to take the pressure off of my back so much.  You need strength in the operated leg in order to turn over to your side with the operated leg on top slightly bent and pillow placed between your knees.  I am able to lift my leg on it's own in and out of bed now without the assistance of my hand or anything.  I even walked around the bathroom a little to gather my things and start to pack up all my little lotions, etc.  Plus brush my teeth, all without the use of any aid, no crutch no walker.  I then walked out with the walker to my suitcases and started to pack those up and my left foot got a little sore, because I found myself favoring it to take the weight off of my right operated side.  But there is NO way I could have done that, not even at the end of my trip here last time.

I need to clarify with Dr. Bose about what I can and can't do.  I know he normally says to listen to your body, but my body is telling me that I can start using the crutches now with opposite crutch opposite leg, walking motion now instead of the slow, both crutches forward, then operated leg forward then other leg forward then both crutches forward, then operated leg forward, etc.

I slept about 5 or 6 hours last night because I was up so late on emails and replying to them.  I am a bit tired today and will try to take a little nap this morning before I shower and finish packing.  I had a BM (bowel movement) last night, HURRAY!!!

I was not feeling constipated at all, but I realized how bad I needed it.. after the fact.  I felt a lot better and this morning I woke up starving.  I just had an omellette and a slice of toast with a glass of milk.  Now, time for a little nap, although I don't know if I will get one in or not, checking out today.  I really hope my wireless works at the hotel, I will be lost without this computer in my room.

Day 5 Post Op Out of the Hospital into the Hotel 7:30 pm

Wow, what a hectic day, just like I remembered it would be.  It is tough packing things up by yourself, tons of walking around.  Pondy, the PT, told me to skip my exercises today because of all the stuff I would be doing to check out of the hospital and into the Resort.  I still did do my morning PT on my own and I am just as exhausted as I mentioned I was the first time I was here.  But, this time, I have to say this place really IS unbelievable.  I remember how accommodating the staff were here at Fisherman's Cove, and remember back then that I would no doubt come back here to stay if I ever needed my other hip done.  I remembered bits and pieces of it but not just how accommodating and lovely this place is!  Talk about ABOVE AND BEYOND!

I really do not remember it being THIS accommodating!  I had 4 or 5 people in my room helping me to get all set up.  They found a DVD player for me, set that up, so I do not have to watch DVD's on my laptop, I can now use the remote control and watch it on the nice big TV in my room.  They cleared out my mini fridge for me, set up my wireless for my laptop, even brought a longer electrical cord in so I could use my laptop laying in bed with my feet up.  Then I asked them about having  a seat to sit in inside the shower, they literally found a wooden stool the right height and they are going to sand it down and paint it for me tonight, then cover it with a soft cushion, if you can believe that! They brought me a ton of bottles of Aquafina since I told them how much water I drink, the TP here is about as soft as the U.S. TP, just in much smaller rolls.

Then my phone rang and it was Patrick, it was so great to hear his voice.  Patrick was here 5 years ago and he is the Concierge Director here.  We laughed and he said, I will be right up, can't wait to see you.  I told him to please let himself in because I just did not want to get out of bed again.  So he came in and we talked, laughed and caught up on things for about an hour. I had emailed him back in August and never got a reply from him, come to find out he kept replying to me only to get his emails bounced back.  Must be some filter with Comcast, been having a lot of that trouble lately.  By the way, if anyone EVER emails me and I do not respond, it is because I did NOT receive your email.  I reply to every single email I GET.

He made sure they brought me up a carafe of skim milk to place in my mini fridge and brought me an empty bowl for my cereal.  So now I am set.  I just drank an Atkins shake that I brought with me, since I am having a bit of heartburn tonight and I wanted to take the pain meds that Dr. Bose gave me.  Patrick was telling me about all the new upgrades they are doing here.  When I am not so tired, he is going to give me a tour of the new area and new rooms.  They are designing one room for what he called, the physically "challenged".  Full handicap accessibility, only thing is there will only be one of them. 

All the rooms are full here right now as usual.  But when an ocean view room becomes available he promised me he would switch me and that all the unpacking his staff did for me, (I literally just pointed and said I want this over here, and that over there), they will just move everything exactly where it was for me into the new room.  No packing and unpacking necessary.  How cool is that! 

I am really SO happy to be back at this place.  I had stayed at the Ideal the last time I was here a year after my first hip surgery and like I said, it was fine for that trip, but there is just nothing like staying at the Fisherman's Cove.  They even sent a gal up that speaks perfect English, her name is Leema and she told me that she is available to me any time to help me put on my TED stockings or anything else I need, like when I take a shower, she can assist me with taking off the TED hose, etc.  Anything that I would need a female to do, she is available.  Like I said, ABOVE and BEYOND!

Well the worst part of the trip is over (other than the flight home).  I am aching a bit today due to all of the excessive walking, but I am definitely stronger than I was the first time I came. Who am I kidding, I am really hurting right now as I lay here finally settled in.  I came to the FC on Day 7 post op the first time, and today on Day 5.  I could not even stand with free hands the first time and now I just crutched into the bathroom on one crutch, sore as hell but did it anyway.

It is so great having the familiarity and knowing people from having been here before.  I took a break and replied to a couple of emails and changed my clothes and put a few other things into place.  I am really hurting and since I just had the Atkins and a shake, I was about to take the pain pills that Dr. Bose gave me, but decided I am going to bypass those and just go for what I brought.
I am afraid with all that was going on, my mind was not on my body, but what needed to get done and now that I am resting, the pain had gotten ahead of me.

I know that I REALLY overdid it today.  It is now 9:30pm here, I am going to watch a little TV (my DVD's) and rest, then go to sleep hopefully.  I stayed up way too late last night replying to emails and just can not do that tonight, I really need my rest.  Tomorrow is a new day....

Day 6 Post Op

I woke today still pretty groggy and felt like dozing off a bit all morning.  I got up and finished placing things where I wanted them in my room.  I am beginning to think that if an ocean view room comes up, I probably no longer want to switch since I am so settled in here now.  When I was done moving things around, I still felt a bit sore from overdoing things yesterday.  I got dressed and then did my first set of PT exercises in bed and started to become really hungry.  I went downstairs at noon to eat but the restaurant was closed, opens at 12:30 on Sundays for this fabulous Champagne Sunday brunch.  There were a lot of guests hanging around outside.  The weather is perfect, not too humid, not too hot this time of year.  Then a huge busload of people came in, looked like they were here for a convention of some sort.  I sat in one of the comfortable couches in the lobby and it made me miss Ronaye and Mary that were here with me the last time having their hips done. 

I noticed two areas that were starting to get a bit irritated this morning, both my forearms where the crutches ended, I think the hard plastic handles were rubbing too much against my arms and they were starting to get worst, and my left bottom of my foot.  Not a good sign, as it can turn into blisters or sores that are not easily healed in humid weather. I thought I better do something about this now before they get worst, otherwise I will really hate it if they got to that point.  I tried to think of a solution. Then I did!  I had brought with me new luggage grips that are neoprene and close with velcro for the handles of my crutches if I needed them. I bought them from Safeskieslocks.com

They had sent me the wrong color, since I have them in the fluorescent green for my luggage handles to be able to spot my luggage easier, and I thought I would match those.  They sent me black and I called them, they apologized and said they would send out the right color ASAP.  I asked them what they wanted me to do with the black ones and they said to just keep them.   What a perfect solution!  I adjusted the arm band on my crutches and placed one each of the black onto my crutches and Voila!  Problem solved.  Then I pulled my TED stocking down over my toe and tied a knot and other problem solved! I am so glad I caught it before both became a problem.  :-) 

I am SO pleased with my progression and how easy it is for me to walk, using the crutches only for balance and gait training.  I was getting around with no problem at all and could easily walk with one crutch now.  I am now only using one crutch to walk around in the hotel room with much ease.  Sometimes I hobble around in my room with no crutch at all.  I love this quick recovery!  Now when I help future patients I can easily tell them first hand experience of what a very slow recovery feels like and a very quick one.  I am so glad it turned out this way, since I had Mary and Ronaye here with me the first time around and this time, I have no one.

So I hung out in the lobby for a bit, walked some more, then went up to the restaurant and asked if I could come in and look around only (they were not open yet).  They let me in and I crutched around looking at the amazing food being served.  It all smelled and looked so good.  I was really hungry and thought to myself, this would not be a good way to start off the week.  If I ate the Sunday brunch, I would definitely eat too much and feel stuffed afterwards and then guilty for all the calories, so I skipped it and came up to my room for a bowl of Raisin bran cereal.  I got back on my computer and started to doze off.  I called the lobby and asked that they bring me an extra trash can by the desk since I had them move the one that was there next to my bed for convenience sake, so I do not end up with little pieces of trash everywhere, I asked for more bottles of water, and had them close my curtains for me and turn off the lights.  They brought my shower stool in and it is the perfect height.  I took a little nap.  I woke feeling great and started typing this.  It is now 4:45 pm, so I will do my second set of PT exercises now and then watch some DVD's.
 
Day 7 Post Op, Monday

Well today is Day 7 Post op for my right hip.  I have been feeling really tired all day, didn't sleep through the night and just feel like I need a nap.  I showered and called Leema to have her come up and help me to put on my TED stockings.  I really appreciated her help because it is almost impossible to do on your own after this surgery.

I just took a nice long walk along the pathways towards the beach where I could feel the nice cool ocean breeze blowing on me.  That was after I stopped at the restaurant and ordered the Masala Shrimp....to die for!  That along with a mango shake.  I was in heaven.  During my walk, I could literally feel myself raising my crutches, I could walk without any aids at all today at 7 days post op if I really wanted to, but I don't want to push myself.  I am already feeling a bit sore from doing a bit much.  Enough walking for today!  I am so much further than I was the first time around, I just can't even compare the two.  I could not have asked for a better outcome!  Well, maybe a little less pain the first 24 hours, but I am using my pain meds now which I know work really well for me.

I can feel the soreness from all the walking earlier, I am going to take it easy the rest of the day.

Tuesday, Dec 12, Day 8 Post op


Woke up a bit tired today. Got washed up and dressed and ready for the driver who picked me up at 1 to take me to Immigration,then back to Apollo Hospital for my final check up with Dr. Bose. Mohan figured since I had to go all the way back into town to Immigration, I might as well have my final check up done and over with.

First they brought me back to the Platinum ward, since I had to use the restroom, they put me in an empty room and told me that Dr. Bose would be there shortly. Mohan came back in and told me there was an Australian patient there next door that was having surgery the next day, so he checked with them and they knew who I was so Mohan brought me into their room and introduced us. I met Doug and his wife. We chatted for a while, I gave them both one of my cards and then Mohan came to let me know Dr. Bose was ready for me.

Dr. Bose said that my incision had closed up and healed completely. He was very pleased. He put another water proof dressing on it but told me that if it fell off, not to replace it, because I wouldn't need it. I asked him if he wanted to see how well I was doing and he said sure. I got up with one crutch and walked with ease back and forth. He said Wow, Excellent, excellent with that bashful grin of his. Amazing how such a talented World class surgeon has absolutely ZERO ego, just awesome!

I do feel like I need the one crutch so that I do not overdo it. After all, I am not in any race, and as far as I am concerned, my recovery comes first. So I will LISTEN to my body and right now, my body is telling me I can walk with ONE crutch, not zero. I will still take two with me when I go down to the restaurant for dinner and when I go on long walks. I am barely tapping the crutch to the ground, but when I do try to take the crutch away, my hip feels super sore afterwards. I do not think that is a good idea at this point. With the one crutch, Dr. Bose told me that I am walking completely normal with no limp at all. I swear it is like I did not even have surgery!

I am doing so incredibly well, the last thing I want to do is push myself and have a setback. I know too many people that have done that and then regretted it later.

I got back to the resort and more good news. Patrick had an ocean view room for me. I said to him to please let me look at it first since I was already so settled in. I went with him took one look and said, yes please switch me. this room is one level above and has a view of the pool area and the ocean. He had someone come and move all my things exactly as they were from my other room. Laying here while I am typing this, I can not at all tell that I just switched rooms. Everything is exactly as it was over there. My hip is aching a bit right now, so I will probably take some pain meds when I head down to dinner. I am starving right now and think I will go for some of their Indian Cuisine tonight. Four more nights here, so it will be worth it to have that gorgeous view. Now, to dinner, it is almost 8pm here.

I just came back from dinner.  Leema came out and introduced me to the chef.  He explained the recipe for the Masala Shrimp .  I ordered it again with a side of egg fried rice and some Naan bread which I love!  I also got a Mango Lassi which is made with yogurt.  Since I haven't eaten much since I have been here, I figured why not?  I was in heaven.  That shrimp is SO good and was even better with some rice and Naan.  I am really full now and also completely exhausted.

Vicky
LBHR Dr. Bose Dec 01 05
RBHR Dec 06 10

Well today is the beginning of day 10 post op for me.  Definitely the final stretch.  I fly home only day after tomorrow.  I hope Mohan is able to get my airline power adaptor before I leave.

Anyone planning on flying overseas for surgery, Rule NUMBER ONE, do NOT forget your power adaptor for your laptop, cell phone, camera, etc.

It was a very expensive oversight, that is for sure!  Thank goodness Casey, my angel saved the day for me and went out in one day, bought it and mailed it to me overnight.  I could return it when I get home since I have the receipt now, but I thought I might just keep an extra one in my travel laptop bag so this will never happen again.  So the cost was well over $200 by the time you add in shipping as well as the almost $50 customs/import fees they charged me!  But, to me, it was well worth it to have my own computer working. 

A MacBook Air is the only way to go if you can afford it.  I bought this while I was still working and wanted the lightest weight large screen laptop there was.  This fits the bill.  I can grab it with my grabber when it is too far for me to reach on my bed and easily lay it on my lap.  The thing is so slim it fits into an envelope and carrying it around with one hand is no problem.

Since I know there are quite a few of you headed for India soon, I thought I would continue with my daily updates, since I did not post one yesterday, I will recap the day.

So yesterday evening on Day 9 Post op, Patrick gave me a tour of their brand new facility. the Fisherman's Cove now has a whole new wing, a beautiful long stretch of about 300 luxury rooms, very large, huge bathrooms that have closets that open from both the bathroom side as well as the bedroom side.  A see through glass wall where the big tub is into the bedroom and separate walk in shower, all room controls bedside, a full gym facility, so now they have a small gym in the main building and they have the large one in this new building.  We took one of their little golf carts to get out to it, since it was a distance and I had just finished doing my PT walks.  They are also building a brand new main lobby that will connect the two parts of the hotels.  I still like where I am staying in, connected to the lobby which has the restaurant.  I just use the elevator to go down, and the restaurant is right there. 

Patrick dropped me off at the restaurant after the tour, he will be off tomorrow, as will Leema, who again so kindly came to my room after I showered and helped me put on my TED stockings yesterday.   This has gone so much smoother and easier than I had ever anticipated.  For the future hippies coming here, I have asked them to set that shower stool aside for you.  So just talk to Patrick if you are interested.  I find that I just have it pushed into the farthest corner where it can not slide and I stand and shower, towel off, then sit on it to dry my legs and non operated foot and try to dry as well as I can my operated one.  I can reach as far as my ankle but then it starts to hurt so I back off.

Having a hip done here in India, I have to say to everyone, anyone that plans on coming here for surgery, seriously has to consider staying at this resort after your surgery, I know it is costly, but if you plan ahead and go through ebates, like I did (when I get home, I will end up getting a 7% rebate check for my stay here) and book it through Hotels.com, you can find some great deals.  Just know you have to pay at the time of booking.  I will post what my costs all ended up to be for the extras, as far as hotel and airfare, etc. when all is said and done. 

So back to the restaurant, and I again ordered the Masala Shrimp with some Naan bread.  The Chef John came out and spoke to me.  Patrick has arranged to have him give me a cooking demonstration tomorrow which will be so cool!

So today I will watch some DVD's which I have not had the chance to do in a couple of days, then do my PT and sometime early evening, I will be able to go down to the kitchen and watch the entire prep and cooking of the Masala Shrimp.  I will also buy the spices here to make it at home, I told them I wanted a lot of it because I plan on making it for my kids when I get home and will make it a lot.  The spices here are supposed to be some of the best in the world.  It is almost 7 am here.  I have not tried the breakfast buffet this time here, since I had it last time and this time I booked the room to not include it.  After all, I can get eggs and pancakes at home.  I have my cereal that I brought as well as my Atkins shakes. 

Walking yesterday I noticed again, how very little weight I put on my arms, it was all my legs.  When I got home five years ago on the first trip here, my operated leg had atrophied a great deal, I do not think that will happen this time around because I am walking full weight bearing on both legs.  I still have pain by evening and twinges throughout the day, so I am staying ahead of the pain and taking my hydrocodone every four hours.  I have not touched the percocet since those make me feel sick.

Thursday, December 16, Day 10 Post Op

What a wonderful day.  My hip is progressing well, still a little sore at times, but I am able to full weight bear and do my exercises with no problems at all. 

My phone rang and it was Room Service calling me to tell me that the Chef in the kitchen was ready to demonstrate how to make the Masala Grilled Shrimp.  I got up and went down to the Restaurant immediately.  They brought in a stool for me in front of the counter area where the chef makes the eggs for the breakfast buffets.  I sat down and he made the recipe shrimp and then gave it to me to eat.  Then he cooked a Curry Fish that was out of this world.  I had no idea that curry was a plant.  He brought out a bowl of it for me to smell, then took one leaf and broke it and had me smell it again.  I do not think we have curry plants in the U.S.  He also added Coconut oil to the sauce, just a splash to add more flavor.  One of the room service gals wrote down the recipes for me, her name was Uma.  Then they brought out full bags of the spices they use for the Masala Shrimp, three full bags of Chili Powder, one bag each of Coriander and Turmeric and Cumin.  I absolutely LOVE to cook, so this was really a thrill for me.  I can not wait to try making this shrimp at home now.


December 21, 2010

Well today I finally feel alive again and well rested.  So here is a complete update on my trip home.  It will be very detailed and long for the benefit of those that have their surgeries booked with Dr. Bose upcoming. 

I arrived at the Chennai airport at around 4:30 p.m. for what I thought was a 7:40pm flight out that night.  First I sat in the car while the hospital driver went in to get someone to come out with a wheelchair and get my luggage, that took it seemed almost half an hour.  By the time they got me a wheelchair that actually worked and pushed me up to the counter, the ticket agent took my info and next thing you know, they are letting others in line behind me come up and check in.  I was wondering what the problem was as I waited patiently sitting in the extremely hard wheelchair seat.  (I was unable to buy a pillow from the FC and now had wished I would have stopped to buy one to be able to sit on!). 

Finally after what seemed like another half an hour had passed, the ticket agent came up to me and said that the original ticketing person (American Airlines) had made a mistake and that the flight number listed on my itinerary actually already left at 5pm, and of course by that time it was after 6pm.  He said he was working on things for me to see if he could get me on a later flight and that there was one leaving close to midnight.  I explained that this would make me miss my connecting flight the rest of the way home and that I could not have that.  I NEEDED to get on an earlier flight out.  He came back after a while and again said someone made a mistake and we can only get you on a flight out at around midnight and they had no control over AA.  I sat and told him I just had surgery and that I was going to cry, I NEEDED To get home.  He left and when he came back, I am not sure what he did, but I was then ticketed for an 8 pm flight which would get me into Delhi exactly one hour prior to my connecting flight departure time to Chicago.

Before they wheeled me to the gate, I told the attendant that was with me, that I needed to use the bathroom.  She had the other attendant watch my luggage and wheeled me to what was marked Physically Challenged bathroom.  I looked into the opened door and there must have been about 1/4 inch of water on the entire floor in that bathroom and as they wheeled me closer, the stench was disgusting.  So basically you know it was NOT only water that was on the floor.  Now I wore UGG boots on the way over to India because many times on the long haul flights the airplane gets really super cold and my feet freeze.  So I had JUST switched from my sandals which were on my carry on, to my UGG boots, THANK GOD!  I told them that there was absolutely NO way I was walking into that bathroom with my crutches, they would slip out from under me with the water on the floor.  So they took me next door to their normal bathrooms, almost every stall was just a hole in the ground and they took me to a corner one that was actually a toilet, but it also had a floor that was completely wet, but at least it was not a puddle of water.  The bathroom attendant who was barefoot and her Sari was partially dragging on the floor, had this completely soaked wash cloth that she would ring out and use to wipe the bathroom counters with, the toilet seat with and then dropped onto the floor and used her feet to go back and forth to try to dry up the floor with.  (I know, can we get any more disgusting than this?)  I asked if they had any other bathrooms in the airport and they assured me that they did not.  I had no choice and was SO thankful I was wearing snow boots.  I got up from my wheelchair very slowly, as she went to get me a roll of toilet paper.  I walked VERY carefully to the stall, she handed me a new roll of toilet paper, I locked the door and basically stood, (because there was NO WAY in HELL I was going to sit on that toilet seat, NO WAY) partially squatting and went as fast as I could, wiped myself and got the heck out of there.  I brought a TON of wetwipes with me, little pocket sized sanitary wipes (do make sure you bring plenty of those with you).  And I had placed about half a dozen in my fanny pack or waist purse, which I highly recommend to those going to India to get.  I wore this purse around my waist the entire time in India and traveling back as well, kept my passport, boarding pass and money all inside it for easy access.  Mine also has a little pocket to place a small bottle of water in the front of it, which came in handy for taking pain pills to have water with me everywhere I went.  So I used a wet wipe instead of washing my hands in their sink.

After that horrifying ordeal, they wheeled me to the gate.  I sat there, stood up and walked around my wheelchair on my crutches several times as my tailbone and butt could not take sitting in that hard chair any longer.  I placed my jacket and sweatshirt on the seat and that helped only a little.  I could not wait to board the plane.  Finally they started to board the plane and instead of trying to walk up the stairs to the airplane, they carried my wheelchair up on the stairs in the back of the plane and that was a huge mistake, because the entire way up, one side was lifted higher than the other which slanted me to place all the pressure on my operated hip to the right.  It really hurt!  When I finally got to the top of the stairs I got off my crutches and walked to my seat which was two rows from the very back of the plane.  These seats on this flight had absolutely no room at all on Jet Airways, and when the seat in front reclined, you could not even get out of your seat, that is how very cramped they were.  The flight attendants were very accommodating and allowed me to move up to the last row of Business Class just before the plane landed.  The entire Business class section only had two passengers in it.  It would have been so nice to move up earlier but I was so grateful to them to even allow me to move up.  I had explained to them that I only had one hour to catch my connecting flight and they all told me that was cutting it really close.  I had to go through transfer from the domestic terminal over to the international terminal, go through immigration and security checks. 

When we landed, I was one of the first off and luckily they had called ahead and my wheelchair was already waiting for me.  They took me to the transfer bus and I literally had to hand them my two crutches, grab onto the two side bars and hoist myself up onto the bus, because the step was SO high up that there was no way I could place my crutches, get them stable to use to push up to the step.  When I went through Security, they had TWO checkpoints I had to go through.  They had to pull off my boots which really hurt on my operated leg, then had to put them back on TWICE.  The security at Delhi, literally went through every single item in my carry on bags.  They even had some bags go through the x-ray machine twice.  By this time I again had to use the bathroom and the attendant pushing my wheelchair stopped at a bathroom for me and again I used a wet wipe since I did not want to miss my flight out.  I was literally the LAST person to board the plane while the little blinking light said LAST CALL at my gate.  As the attendant pushed me down the long ramps towards the plane and as we approached the door, there was still a line of people that were stopped waiting to get on the plane.  The attendant said to the passengers to move out of the way, and he wheeled me past them and onto the plane.  I crutched my way to my Business class seat and finally sat down exhausted.  I popped a pain pill (Vicoden) and I guess because I am short and was in Business class, for whatever reason, it seemed every time a flight attendant or passenger had to move aside to let someone pass, they chose MY seat to shove their luggage or themselves into in front of me and would hit my operated leg each time!  I would yell out in pain, and put my hand out and push them and say, PLEASE, I just had surgery, can you watch my leg!  This must have happened at least 5 times. 

Believe me, by the time the plane took off, my hip was screaming in pain with all that had gone on that entire day.  I popped another Vicoden before the plane took off as well as a muscle relaxer that I also had a few of with me.  So with the almost 4 hours at the Chennai airport, the 2 1/2 hour flight from Chennai to Delhi, then the one hour of transferring terminals, going through immmigration and two security check points and lift off, it had already been 8 hours and I was JUST beginning a 17 1/2hour flight non-stop to Chicago.  At least I sat across from a really nice American named Jason who was in the middle row and he offered to help me any way he could the entire trip home.  The flight attendants came by and I informed them that I had just had major surgery 12 days prior.  They were all extremely nice and accommodating.  They allowed me to walk around in circles in their galley which was plenty wide enough to use my crutches throughout the flight home.  I also found that the business class seats, although they recline fully, they recline back and underneath the seat in front of you, which leaves your feet lower than your heart and not elevated at all.  So the little trick I learned which helped me tremendously, was to recline the seat just far enough that I could place my feet on the back of the chair in front of me to raise them higher than my heart.  My legs did not throb as much when I was able to do that.

I landed in Chicago, had three hours before my flight out from Chicago to Dallas.  Because I flew International Business class that gave me Admirals Club privileges, so I went into the lounge there, found a booth and placed my leg up and checked email.  Then I boarded my flight from Chicago to Dallas, had two hours layover there and had them just take me to the gate.  When they started pre-boarding, even though I was the first at the gate, I was the last to pre-board and by then, my patience was no where to be found.  I yelled out to them and they said they did not have an attendant to wheel me on.  So I saw all these families with little kids boarding as well as 4 other wheelchairs all get on and then all the first class passenger lined up.  I said, excuse me, I am a pre-board AND First class, can you please get me ON the plane?!  They finally got me on before the rest of the First class passengers and the flight attendant on that 4 hour flight was an absolute BIT#H!  At least they were nice the rest of the long flights.  I slept on and off on that 4 hour flight because I was so exhausted.  I landed FINALLY in Sacramento, was wheeled first to the bathroom, SO nice to have REAL Handicap accessible CLEAN bathrooms in U.S. airports! Then to baggage claim where since I flew First class from Chicago through to Sacramento, my luggage was the first off.  It was an absolute downpour of rain outside, and my daughter was there within 5 minutes of being wheeled outside where there was just a little roof guarding me from the rain.  I put on my jacket which is also a raincoat and again was thankful to be wearing my UGG boots! 

So needless to say, it was quite an ordeal and by the time I got home, I was SO exhausted, my computer back up power supply was making a high pitch sound as somehow the power had turned off.  My son had tried to unplug it but could not stop the sound, but my daughter was able to push a button on it and get it to stop screeching.  I forced myself to take a shower, I literally poured bleach on the bottom of my crutches and used several of the Sanitary wipes to wipe off the bottom of my boots.  I brushed my teeth, showered and put on my PJ's and just lay in my bed which reclines, so I got comfortable and stayed up until about 10pm and fell asleep for about 6 or 7 hours.  I was up most of yesterday, unpacking, broke a glass in my kitchen which I had to bend down and try to clean up, then later my daughter came over and made sure she got any left over broken glass that I had missed.  I still have a couple of things left in one suitcase, but did my laundry yesterday, went through all my mail, paid bills online, gave my son my DI checks to deposit for me, hand washed a few items and slept well last night, woke up this morning at 11 am. 

Sorry this was so long, but for those going to India, it will help them to avoid some of the things I went through.  Make sure you have someone verify your return flight a couple of days before you leave.

It is great to be home!!  Overall besides the first 24 to 48 hours of pain following the surgery and the trip home, the entire journey was WAY above and beyond all of my expectations.  My recovery is quicker and at two weeks post op, I can hobble around unaided if I want to, but still use one crutch around the house, sometimes two to go up and down the stairs.

Vicky
LBHR Dr. Bose Dec 01 05
RBHR Dr. Bose Dec 06 10

Update Day 16 Post Op December 23, 2010 posted on Message board.

Yes, every person's recovery is unique, which makes them all normal. I am so glad now that my two recoveries have been so drastically different that I am a living breathing testament to the truth behind that.

Even the same individual using the same surgeon can have two completely different recoveries which is what I had.

There is absolutely NO way I could even begin to imagine losing one crutch the first month post op, then two months and it finally took me 2 1/2 months before I was able to comfortably walk with just one crutch, forget about using a cane, are you kidding me, I would think. Now at 2 1/2 weeks post op, I can walk with just a cane for short distances and probably longer if I wanted to, but I tend to feel a bit tired on the way back and might start limping a bit, so prefer to stick with one crutch so I learn to walk with a proper gait at this crucial time.

I also had a lot of trouble with stairs the first time around and just SO much weakness in my operated left leg. I remember looking into a full length mirror and seeing how much my operated leg had atrophied because I just could not place even close to 100% weight on it. I used a LOT Of upper body strength the first time around. This time, I barely am tapping down on my one crutch and full weight bearing on my newly operated hip, it truly amazes me because there is just no way I could have done anything like this with my first surgery.

I too had a lot of muscles (and more fat) this time around and I believe my new incision is at least 8 inches, although I have not measured it myself yet, it is probably double the size of my first which is only 4 1/2 inches. I also told Dr. Bose that I wanted him to use as large an incision as he felt would accomplish the best possible outcome for me.

The best advice for everyone is to LISTEN to your body, it will tell you exactly how slow or fast your recovery will be. Do not try to rush anything, I am going to take my time, rest and nap when I feel like it, but one thing I will do religiously is my PT exercises twice a day, do NOT miss those, it is imperative that you keep up with those no matter how tired you are. I would also stay away from straight leg lifts early on.

And I suggest to anyone as soon as you are post op to print this article out and keep it handy.

How-Fast-Will-I-Recover

Also here are exercises for the first six weeks of recovery created by my excellent PT back in Fremont, CA, Greg Booth, I had them cleared by several top surgeons before publishing this to my site.

Level One Exercises firt Six weeks
Please make note that he says at the end to avoid straight leg lifts for the first 6 weeks. My PT back in India told me to start doing those at 2 weeks post op and I told him no, I would not be doing them. I know of too many patients that ended up with ongoing groin pain from irritating their psoas, so I would and am avoiding this exercise the first six weeks. Here is an excerpt.

"I intentionally did not include the Straight Leg Raise exercise in this list.  I feel this exercise is counterproductive in the Level One phase of rehabilitating a resurfaced hip. The Psoas, which is a primary hip flexor, is already in a hypertonic state. By performing a straight leg raise, you are activating the already tight Psoas and causing it to be even more dysfunctional.
 

The Bridging, Heel slide, Modified Thomas Stretch, and Psoas stretch exercises all emphasize increasing the length of the Psoas. This is critical in improving the function of the Psoas and decreasing hip impingement pain. 

Gregory J. Booth P.T., OCS, CFMT "

Keep in mind some critical timelines for this surgery, the first is TWO WEEKS, be very careful the first two weeks to only do the minor exercises given to you and walk, walk and then walk some more, but do not do much else in way of strengthening and definitely do not force any ROM by over stretching anything.  The next is SIX WEEKS, then THREE MONTHS and then the fabulous SIX MONTHS when a lot of surgeons will lift most or all restrictions. Some say to wait a full year before returning to any high impact though.

Dr. Bose instructions are to listen to your body and do what feels comfortable, except to not cross the midline the first 6 weeks or bend and rotate the hip inward, You do NOT want to duplicate the motion they used to dislocate your hip, NOT a good idea. I will print this out myself, the Phase 1 exercises that Greg created for my site and start adding some of those to my routine now that I am past the 2 week mark in my recovery.

Vicky
LBHR Dr. Bose Dec 01 05
RBHR Dr. Bose Dec 06 10

December 25, 2010

Christmas day and 2 1/2 weeks post op, I hit a huge milestone today!  What a Christmas present.  I came back home from my daughters house and after a long nap, I woke up and went downstairs to get something to eat.  I grabbed one crutch and when I was almost to the bottom of my stiars, I noticed that I was walking down the stairs normally, every other leg down instead of just the operated leg down one step at a time!.  WOW!!  So when I came back up and Itried it climping us as well and was able to climb my stairs every other leg too, still using one crutch to support the operated leg, but had enough strength to be able to do stairs both down and up with both legs!  What a great milestone!

December 28, 2010

Amazing, today I am able to walk around with no walking aids at all.  I still carry one crutch with me when I go up and down my stairs, but today while I was down in the kitchen making some won ton soup, I did not need to use my crutch at all. Plus taking my shower, no crutch or cane needed. I would probably attempt driving except it is raining again today and I do not want to risk spinning out due to another driver, (since most people forget how to drive in the rain) and it is my right hip, I just am not willing to take the risk.  Maybe when the rain lets up, I might make a grocery store run close to my house soon.  I am absolutely loving this recovery!  My ROM is incredible as well, I can easily put on my own TED stocking and socks already, but I have always been very flexible.  Just wanted to share my progress and another milestone in my recovery,  Having a great day today!  It is also really a good idea to cook a lot of food prior to your surgery and if you have a foodsaver machine like I do, freeze individual portions, if not, place them into a Ziploc freezer baggie, enough for one portion so you can easily reheat it after your surgery, especially if you live alone like I do.

Don't forget, everyone's recovery will be different and do not compare your recovery with mine or anyone else.  Keep in mind, the first time around it took me months to climb stairs the normal way and 2 1/2 months before being able to get down to one crutch.  So same patient, same surgeon, day and night recoveries for each hip.  I did not wait as long as I did with my left hip to have surgery, so I was much stronger going into surgery this time around, but who knows why some recoveries are easy and quick and others are hard and difficult.  All that matters it the long run and the results we all end up with years down the road.  Pick a skilled surgeon, listen to your body and your recovery will be your recovery, NORMAL for YOU.

December 29, 2010

Here is an email I got back from Dr. Bose when I emailed him about my progress and the fact that I can climb stairs one leg over the other now, I wanted to make sure I was not doing anything too soon that could possibly prevent the bone from ingrowing, etc.

"Hi vicky,
Thanks for the update.
Glad to note that you are making good progress.  Yes, you can do what comes naturally.  However it is important not to overdo things and not to 'push through pain" for the first 3-4 months.  I sincerely do believe that this is a lifetime investment and one must be careful during the first few months.  Our protocol now is x-ray @ 6 months and then every two yrs from then on.

with best regards
vijay bose
chennai"

I absolutely agree that this is a LIFETIME investment and the first 3 to 4 months are the most crucial, so I am going to take care not to rush anything.   I am a bit sore today from all the stair climbing I did yesterday, so today  I am trying to limit myself on the number of times I go up and down.

Update March 17, 2011

Vicky at just over 3 months post op, incredible ROM already, been able to do this for a few weeks already now, just never got around to taking a picture.