Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pins and Needles!


So ... here they are! This is the x-ray from my post-op follow up yesterday with my surgeon, Dr. Feldman, at NYU. As you can see, six "pins" (4 large, 2 small), actually screws, are used to hold together my newly-aligned pelvis and hips. Those pins will stay where they are for at about six months and then there is another small same-day procedure where they are removed (takes about 15 minutes, under general). Later I told the kids that when they are removed I will clean them up and tie a bow around three so that they each keep one a s a souvenir. They loved that idea.

Of course I had to get the doctor's office to give me a disk with the image, because when you are walking around with the support of something that looks like it fell off your tool table, you want to check it several times to be sure it will really hold you up...

Dr. Feldman was very impressed with the progress so far. He is an avid modern art collector, his big office is just covered with the stuff, and when he "revealed" the x-ray to us on his computer, he did it with such pride and flair, you'd think he'd just brought it back from some auction at Sotheby's. He was grinning from ear to ear, saying "do you see that? Perfect! It's perfect!" more than a couple of times. Very proud of himself. I assured him the screws looked really great. What the heck would I know?

Dr. Feldman was also quite taken with how I could hop myself onto the examining table and bend my knees up and generally move around with very little pain. My prize for all this progress is that I now have "release papers" allowing me to leave my house (with a driver) to go most places -- movies, friends' houses, out to dinner -- or any place that offer's a "loaner wheelchair" (my first thought: Target here I COME!)  -- as long as I have help and don't need to go more than a few steps at a time. Hooray! I do have to wait another 4 weeks before I can drive and possibly another six before I can start physical therapy -- but I can get in the pool in a month!

The best, though, the very most awesome wonderful thing he said that I was just aching for is -- I can take a SHOWER!  That's right, folks, with lovely, warm spraying water on my dirty 2-week-neglected hair and other un-showered bits.

And you can bet that is exactly what I did the second we got in the door from NYC. And then slept for 12 hours! A great day.
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My Support Crew

My Support Crew
Jim, Nick, Madie & Liana

The Countdown Begins...

First blog, first major hip surgery, first chance to lay on the couch for weeks on end (well, in about 25 years, anyway...). Here we go!

Jim and I have spent the better part of the past week "laying down the runway" as we prepare for takeoff on Wednesday at the Hospital for Joint Disease at NYU in NYC where we will be greeted at dawn (it's always dawn for these things, is that so you too tired to change your mind?) by our rock star surgeon, Dr. David Feldman.

While Liana, Madie and Nick head off for school ( and hopefully just a little oblivion) I will get fully acquainted with the blue-ribbon anesthesia team who will set me up with an epidural and hopefully knock me out so well that I won't notice the piles of surgery tools (Home Depot sale, anyone?).

Three or four hours later I will wake up with a completely re-aligned hip socket (if you really want to know more, I have included links here in another box about osteotomy) and hopefully pain-oblivious through the wonders of epidural support. The last 3 times I ever had an epidural, they handed me a baby within about an hour. That would be a little unnerving here, but would make for a great story, right?

By the time I really figure out where I am, hopefully it will be in the new pediatric unit at HJD which is all-single rooms. Ahhhh... to be a kid again! This piece of good news is side perk of being cut up by the guy that runs the whole place. He mostly works on kids, and since I basically have the full-grown version of a kid birth defect, he is now cleared to use his power tools on me.

Then the makeup and styling team arrives.... or maybe just Jim, my wonderful Head Nurse who has seen me through 3 babies pretty darn well (he does a great post-op puppet show, just ask him!). He and I will get cozy and hopefully enjoy at least a day of epidural bliss (um, that would be just me).

Then there will be a few days of training and workshops -- How to be a One-Legged Mom for a whole bunch of weeks. Hopefully this will include lessons in How to Obey the Laws of Bedrest, because that is the class I could seriously fail in. Pretty sure these workshop days will include a bunch of narcotics, so this would be a good time to ask me for money.

So that's what's on my calendar this week.

Check back for more updates, and if there aren't any after surgery day (can you believe these hospitals without wi-fi! the nerve!), you can text Jim on his cell, because I am guessing he will be watching a lot of Oprah for a few days.

If you've read this far then please know that I can laugh a lot more than cry about this next big step because of friends and family like you -- who walk with me each step of the way, and who know that this is not a fatal illness, far from it, and that having love, laughter and support will mean that we can do jumping jacks together at Christmas. Because I have never done that, have you?

Hip Helpers: