8cm on femurs - Dr. Mahboubian

Quote from: prakash419 on January 01, 2018, 07:03:58 AMgreat, all the best. I have 2 questions - may I PM you?

Sure!

Quote from: fallen774 on January 01, 2018, 09:24:13 PMSure!

thanks bro, sent.

Hey all,

The day has finally arrived. I did my surgery 4 days ago, so here's a summary of how my days have been (I'll split it in several posts):

DAY 1
I slept very little on the night before the surgery. Woke up at 3AM and couldn't sleep again out of overthinking. Was this the right decision, or did I get here due to my impulsiveness? I didn't know. I was mostly apathetic and couldn't feel fear nor joy. I wasn't anxious neither. All I could think of is that I had too show up at the hospital by 5:30AM and I was going to be bored for the next 2 hours.

Took a shower, dressed up, left my room and saw that my parents were getting ready as well. Called Uber and by 5:20AM I was at the hospital, looking for the right place to check in. Found it, gave them my name and waited for about 15 mins. First step was just giving basic information and signing a bunch of paperwork related to my rights, my insurance and some other bureaucratic stuff.

I was directed to the short stay nursing area. Went there and checked in again, they put a hospital wristband with my name on me, and led me to a private room. I was repeatedly asked the same questions about drugs I was current using, DoB, last name, etc (you really can't mess this up). I was then asked to change my clothes into a hospital apron and was given a last chance to pee.

The anesthesiologist shortly came into my room and asked some of the same questions again, then briefly told me what he was going to do and said that he would see me in the operating room. Then Dr. M arrived, asked if I was excited and met my parents (they're temporarily visiting from another country to support me through the process).  Then, a very friendly guy came into the room to shave my upper legs, wished me good luck and I was finally taken to the operating room. My parents were left in a waiting area somewhere in the way.

The operating room was quite big and there were quite a few people in there. I didn't count but I would say that definitely more than 6. They were all very friendly and started asking questions about where I come from, what do I do, etc. It was around 7:45AM when the doc came into the operating room. A lady was holding some paperwork and read it out loud my name and the reason that at I was there – "bilateral femur osteoplasty with femoral derotation". Everyone nodded. That's the furthest I can remember. I don't remember going to sleep, or even closing my eyes. The next thing I know is consciously opening my eyes and having some folks moving my legs in many different positions. As far as I recall, it was around 1PM. They were taking my X-Rays. I remember babbling about pain on my legs and telling them that it was hurting me. Not a 10 but maybe a 6. I was very confused. The nurse came and put some pain killers on my IV. I was then told that I was under PCA and was given a black device with a button. Whenever I pushed it, 1mg of morphine would flow to my bloodstream, but I could only do it once every 10 mins. After they finished taking my X-Rays, I was taken to my room. They called my parents to say that the surgery was over and I was conscious in my room. I was conscious but a little bit confused. It took a while to notice I had a catheter on me and to remember exactly what I was doing there. It didn't last long, though. The nurses came in and introduced themselves, took some vitals, asked if I was doing OK. I was constantly under morphine so the hard pain didn't really hit me. Throw a rock on me now but when I heard that I could only use it every 10 minutes, somehow my brain interpreted it as "DO use it every 10 minutes". Consequences would come up later.

It wasn't long till Dr. M came check on me. He told me that everything went fine and that he used the thickest nails. He asked if I noticed how my feet were better aligned now, which was something I totally forgot to do. I urged to take out the sheets and take a look at my own legs. Despite being full of large gauze pads all over my thighs and glutes, I was amazed to see how my knees better aligned with my feet now. I felt so happy. I'm not so good at expressing emotions tho, so I'm sure I had a "meh" face – but I made sure to tell him I was very satisfied with the results. Then, he displayed my X-Rays on a screen by my side and called my dad (who is a radiologist) to see it. He explained again what he did, reassured that everything went well and asked me to rest. Before he left, he said he was going to pay me visit the next morning.

The rest of the day was full of hospital staff coming into the room to check on me. I was given water and some soap, which I ate entirely in no time since I had been fasting for the past 14 hours. Later in the afternoon, PT came into the room to check on me. He asked if I could feel my feet, which I could. Then he asked me to move my feet and my fingers, which I also did.  Then, some exercises to lift my legs, move it sideways, bend my knees... and then I noticed I couldn't bend it past 90°. Maybe due to the muscle incisions and trauma of the surgery itself. I heard it was expected. My range of motion was quite limited but I was happy to be able to do it all. He then showed me a walker and asked me to stand up on a scale, holding the walker. I took a few minutes but I did it. Not much pain, mostly muscle discomfort – my legs felt VERY tight. He asked if I could walk. I was going to do that, when I felt a sudden dizziness, like I was gonna vomit. I told him about that and he said it was ok to continue the next day. I felt bad for not doing the entire session but knew that this was the right thing to do. They gave me some vomit bags, I laid down again but nothing ended happening, it was just a temporary sickness.

TV didn't have many options, and honestly I was too high and confused from all the medication – and the morphine, since I was pressing the button every 10 minutes. I enjoy privacy and personal space a lot, mainly during stressing times, but despite me asking my parents several times for them to sleep at our Airbnb and come to the hospital early in the morning, they ended up deciding to stay. I think it was good after all, since I'd struggle a lot that night. Continues on day 2.

Great start Fallen! That's funny about the morphine drip, good thing there's a limiter; God forbid you hear something like "press it 10 times per minute."

And like you first shared, your hip rotation was indeed a blessing in disguise. Glad to hear that you're getting that fixed too, with the insurance savings to boot.

Very happy your journey is of to a good start Fallen. Hope we get to meet up with the other guys soon and share stories.  I wish you the very best.

Keep us posted.   

Hey buddy, I didn't notice your diary until just now. Glad your surgery went well. That's really lucky that you were able to correct your rotation AND that it enabled you to get insurance coverage for the hospital fee! Anyway, I hope we all get to meet up next week!

Sorry for the long time to update. Lots of things happened last week.

DAY 2
I forgot to mention that around 10PM on day 1, a nurse came to take my catheter out. I asked her to do it slowly, since others reported in this forum that sometimes it is pretty painful. She kind of ignored and pulled it out in about 3 seconds. No pain, just a weird sensation.
I couldn't sleep, even with so much morphine on my system. As a matter of fact, because of the excess in morphine I started having an allergic reaction. At 1AM my whole body was extremely itchy. Due to my limits in motion, I couldn't reach some spots such as my feet or my lower legs, nor the spots under the dressings, which made the night horrible.
I asked the nurse to put some Benadryl on my IV, but it didn't seem to help. During the night my pain increased and the nurse increased the morphine dosage from 1mg to 1.5mg, and then from 1.5mg to 2mg. That was every 10 minutes.
As my body was getting overwhelmed with so much morphine, my itchiness only increased. That's when my mom suggested that maybe the morphine was causing a reaction on my body. I called in the nurse and asked if this was possible, to which she confirmed. I started using it less and less and eventually the itchiness subsided.
Dr M paid me a visit early in the morning to check how was everything. He answered some questions I had and told me that the first few days would be tough.
The rest of the day went quite well. I had breakfast and lunch on the hospital, was able to pee – actually, I was peeing every hour or so – and eat with no major issues.
The nurses came in every hour to check my vitals.  Eventually I got a visit from the PT to try and get me moving. I was able to walk up til the corridor and back, with the walker. I was able to stand for more than 10 minutes before I urged to go back to bed. The PT told me I did great for only my second day after this major surgery.
I was then told I was being released today. I actually got excited since I don't like hospitals that much. I received a visit from the case manager and she told me she was able to get me a commode and a walker through my insurance. Yay!
I left the hospital by 4PM. The hospital arranged a transportation van for me, which means I didn't have to leave the wheelchair. But my wheelchair hadn't arrived from Amazon at that time, so I used one from the hospital. They led me into the van and I went up in a mini-elevator. Ride home was quite smooth. When I got there, the driver rolled me into my apartment and then into my bed, so he could return the chair.
I got a notification from Amazon saying that they tried delivering the wheelchair but failed. I had my parents running to the closest USPS at 5PM to try and get it. Lucky for me, the wheelchair was there and they were able to retrieve it.
By 10PM everybody was pretty much tired. I went to bed after taking a Norco, but woke up a few times during the night. Thought was going to be a nightmare sleeping with the belly up but Norco is quite a saver.

DAYS 3-4
The weekend was quite good. I was recovering fantastically well and using the walker quite often. Maybe that was my mistake. I had lots of energy and was trying to do a bunch of things by myself. Not much pain, maybe the anesthesia hadn't wore off. I was able to stay in the wheelchair and use the PC for hours without feeling any discomfort. Sleeping was the worst part, so I always relied on Norco to help.
I wasn't able to do any bowel movement so far, so by Sunday it had been 5 days without a bowel. That got me worried, but I received a visit from home care nurse on that same day. She changed my dressings and recommended me to take a suppository, just for the first week. Norco slows down your intestines and to much of it can shut down your digestive system. I took a suppository on Sunday night and was able to have my first BM pos-op.
My range of motion on both legs was about 90° bending. My right leg was a little bit more swollen than the left one but not much significantly, so I was calm. Took a Norco and went to bed.
Btw, so far I was on about 6 pills of Norco a day.

How my legs looked right after operation:

HI friend
i come from Taiwan
hope you have happy ending
by the way
USA health insurance would cover you ??