the surgical story

Drew was my little buddy the couple of days I was at his house. He was fascinated with the crutches and ice pump.

surgery = no contacts, no makeup, no jewelry

My other post about having surgery was mostly to prevent people from freaking out because they didn't know. I still got a little of that but nothing too bad. Here's the rest of the long story....

After the Ogden marathon back in May, my hip was bugging me. Since I had the Utah Valley marathon 3 weeks later I went to physical therapy a few times. It seemed to be getting a lot better so I ran Utah Valley (mistake #1). Looking back, my 45 minutes off my normal finishing time should have been a big clue that I was injured, but no. I ran Wasatch Back (mistake #2) the next weekend. By the end of that, my hip was killing me, and I couldn't walk. I spent the rest of the summer going to physical therapy 3x/week. I was gradually getting a little better. At least that's what I thought.

By the end of the summer, I hit a big plateau in therapy and still couldn't walk with a normal gait. I finally went to see a sports medicine doctor. After a x-rays and a MRI, they found a tear in the cartilage of my hip. I tried 6 weeks of swimming only and a steroid shot, and still I wasn't better. Before even seeing the doctor for the final time I decided to have surgery. I was pretty sick of not being able to do what I wanted to do, and surgery seemed like the only solution.

I made a couple of appointments with different surgeons and found out I would have to wait until March to have surgery. I was so done with the waiting game by that point. I started calling around and found another surgeon that did arthroscopic surgery. I had a consultation with him and felt really comfortable with him and his experience. He was booked for the year but opened another surgery day for December 2. Within a couple of hours of leaving his office, I scheduled surgery for a week and a half later.  It's really crazy how things work out. I was really upset and stressed about not getting into the other surgeon for so long, but it turned out to be a huge blessing. I'm so happy I went with Dr. West. He dedicated 1/3 of this year to studying this exact procedure to be the most effective and efficient. His dedication made me feel very comfortable with him.

Michelle took me to the hospital. They took me straight back to pre-op, and I was ready to go pretty quickly. I was about to walk down (ya walk down) to the OR when some equipment broke. I ended up waiting/staring at the wall for the next hour before they were ready. I walked down to the OR, got on the bed, and that's all I remember. The next thing I knew I woke up in the PACU. I was SO nervous about going home (to Michelle's house). I was pretty stressed about getting around with crutches. I had the nicest nurse. She suggested I spend the night and even came to my room to talk to me for a bit. Michelle came to check on me and visit for a while. A few hours later, the night nurse came in, and I knew her. I was so happy to know my nurse. It really helped relieve some of the anxiety. By the time I got out of bed and moved around a little, I realized the crutches would be ok.

I spent the night in the hospital. Dy picked me up the next day and took me to Michelle's for the next several days. I was hooked up to an ice pump for the next week, but other than that I did really well. I have been able to move around really well, and I haven't been in pain at all. Being on crutches hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought although it has been very interesting (more on that later). I am healing really well and expect to be completely back to normal soon. It's weird to say lucky when talking about surgery, but I really do feel like one lucky girl.