It’s three week anniversary of my hip replacement at the one week anniversary of getting hit by a car. Most people do things the other way, get hit by a car then have surgery, leave it to me to do it the other way. Actually I’m quite grateful I did it the other way and that the accident really has had few consequences so far.
The accident was a shock and my back was definitely wrenched. There doesn’t seem to be much damage as far my spine goes, that is, it seems to muscle pain more than anything else. I was told by my PT trainer last Wednesday that it would probably take a couple of days for the pain to really set in and he was absolutely right. Friday was grim. I ached all over and definitely had limited movement. It’s been improving since then as far as I can tell.
I saw my regular doctor today as a follow up to the emergency room visit and he’s looked at the x-rays and read the reports and seems pretty confident that things will clear up.
My hip is coming along as well. Most of the swelling is gone and I have very little pain. Actually if I’m not actually stretching something there I have no pain to speak of at all. But of course, if I over use it I get some swelling and can definitely tell I’ve gone overboard. Again this is not pain ‘inside’ my leg as it were. It’s just muscle pain and pain around the incision.
I am very happy with the replacement. Very happy.
I’m less happy with the incision at this point however. I’m still getting some drainage when I have to move around running errands or doing PT. If I’m simply resting at home with the wound exposed it dries up and there’s no problem. But, of course, it’s not possible to simply lay around all day everyday (nor would, if push comes to shove, even want to do that).
Thus is was that I asked my regular doctor to take a look at it while I was visiting him following up on the accident. He was happy to do so and showed some concern about the drainage and a bit of redness around the draining area. As post-surgery infection is a huge concern he took a swab and sent it the lab and immediately called my surgeon’s assistant and asked that I be worked in. Given how busy they are and how long one generally has to wait for an appointment I was shocked to be ushered in about twenty minutes later.
The surgeon’s assistant looked at the incision and said he didn’t really think anything was wrong but, and there was a ‘but,’ he was wanted to put me on antibiotics as a precaution and asked if I could come back in a week (unless it looks worse in which case I should come right back).
So, while no one is definite about an infection, they are now preemptively treating me for it.
Now let me be clear, there’s nothing I would identify as a definite infection. The discharge isn’t what one would normally see with an infection and I don’t have any redness around the draining area if I’ve been resting. Still I’m quite sure that better safe than sorry is appropriate in this case. An infection that gets to the bone could be terrible.
Scared? Don’t be. I’m in good hands and, as I said, it’s most likely fine.
In fact this might all be just the effects of overuse over the weekend. On Saturday my moped died and I had to push it over a mile to the shop and then walk over a mile home. I probably walked three miles in total, half of it pushing a scooter. I didn’t have any pain till about a block from home and that was swelling, not internal pain. I iced myself up for a couple of hours after that and was back to normal, but I’m sure it put some stress on the healing incision it could have done without.
Still, think about it, the fact that I could even do that less than three weeks after surgery is simply amazing. Wow. My moped is repaired now and I won’t be doing any major walking like that for a while – though I am supposed to walk.
All in all, things are great three weeks out from surgery and good one week after the accident. I’ve talked with the insurance people and my bills from the accident will be paid, at least up to a certain limit which I doubt I’ve reached.
It’s time for bed, I’m still shorter on energy than I was before surgery, though that’s getting better too. Have a good one!