Preparing for Surgery

I think it's probably good that I 'rushed' into surgery. For one, it gave me very little time to freak out about it. I also had a lot to do before the surgery and not much time to do it in, so that allowed me to focus and not look back. Unfortunately, my hip actually felt pretty good the week leading up to surgery, which did lead me to question my decision on a daily basis.

The biggest thing for me was childcare. I took my son out of daycare for the summer because I wasn't teaching during the summer, and saw no reason to keep him in. We made the difficult decision to put him back in because I really didn't see a way I was going to be able to be able to care for him adequately by myself. My husband helps a lot, of course, but he works. My parents also live in town and help a lot, but they also work. My eight-year-old can be helpful at times, but not so much at others, plus she doesn't know how to change diapers. I felt putting my son back into daycare was the best way to be sure he would be taken care of during my recovery. The university also has a summer camp for school-aged children that my daughter absolutely loves (it's pretty fabulous), and since my son was going to be going back to daycare, she begged me to enroll her in the summer camp. We settled on three days a week for her. This was not only a difficult decision emotionally, but also financially. However, I figured that if I am going to this, I wanted to do it right. In the long run, I'd rather fork out a few thousand dollars for childcare and have my kids happy and well taken care of than try to be superwoman and do it all myself and risk the outcome of my surgery in the process. I feel lucky to be in a situation where hiring help was an option.

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An additional pre-surgery project was making the house more doable for someone with hip surgery. All of the bedrooms in our house are upstairs, and not just upstairs, but up a crazy set of stairs. I decided that I would sleep downstairs in the family room until... well, until whenever. Until I'm okay going up and down our stairs. We have a futon that guests sleep on, and I decided I'd sleep there so I didn't have the added stress of the stairs. To make the room suitable for at least a few weeks, we had to rearrange a bunch of furniture. I also brought at least a week's worth of essential items (e.g., clothes, toiletries, etc.) downstairs so I wouldn't have to worry about going upstairs until I felt like it.

I think one of the best ways to prepare for surgery is to consider the limitations you'll have after surgery. For hip arthroscopy, the major considerations are the crutches and the limited hip flexion (which means you can't squat down or bend over). I walked around the house and considered all of the things that required squatting and bending over. I tried to move all the really important items that required squatting or bending over to access to a place where, well, they did not require squatting or bending over to access. I also sucked up my pride and invested in a grabber thingy, which I previously would have thought was only for old folks. (In fact, my mother-in-law has one, and I make fun of her for it, which just goes to show that karma is a bitch.) However, the woman in the medical supply store was happy to point out to me that kids love them, too, and the photo on the packaging showed people of all ages enjoying the benefits of the grabber, including the folks who pick up trash on the side of the highway (i.e., convicted felons).

This brings me to another point. Unlike a lot of other surgeries, I think most people consider hip surgery to be something that only old folks have to have. I've had numerous people comment on how I am 'way too young' to be having hip problems, and I'll confess that I feel the same way. When it was my knee that was giving me trouble, it sucked, but no one seemed to think I was 'way too young' to be having knee problems. If you are young or youngish (I like to think of myself as at least youngish) and having hip problems, there is a certain amount of pride that you have to just suck up if you want to make your life easier. Things like grabber thingies (do these even have a real name?), raised toilet seats, and shower chairs may seem like something you only knew about from your grandparents' home, but can really make your recovery a lot easier. This is not to say that it is any easier having hip problems when you are older, just that if you go into a medical supply store and buy a raised toilet seat in your 30s, you'll get a lot more looks than you would if you were 70. You just have to get over it. I'll admit that I resisted the raised toilet seat, even though my husband wanted to buy one for me. I refused, but there are times when I regret it.

As for the crutches, the last time I was on crutches I was in 9th grade. I hopped into the doctor's office with a severely sprained ankle and left with a cast and crutches. I don't know what became of those crutches, but I'm guessing we just gave them back to the doctor when I was done with them. That was in 1989. Apparently a lot of places are now BYOC (Bring Your Own Crutches), which I am glad I was alerted to prior to surgery. I got a lot of pre-surgery phone calls, mostly requiring me to pre-pay for the surgery (in case I changed my mind?), and somehow in one of these calls, it came up that I needed crutches. I mean, obviously I knew I was going to be on crutches, but it hadn't occurred to me this wasn't part of the surgery package. LOL. The woman did mention they had crutches at the surgery center, but then added, 'But you're better off getting them on your own,' which probably means they probably charge you $1,000 for them. She also said the best thing would be to borrow them from a friend (because I have so many friends who keep crutches in their basements) so I could practice using them ahead of time and figure out how I'm going to navigate through my house. Although I didn't necessarily feel like I needed practice or that I wanted to spend any extra time on crutches than was absolutely essential, this was actually good advice, especially if you have never been on crutches before, or have not spent a lot of time around people on crutches.

FYI, here is a web site about surviving on crutches that I found useful:
The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Life on Crutches (Happily)

By the way, I highly recommend thrift stores for buying crutches. Sometimes the crutches will require a little TLC, but they often sell them at a fraction of what they cost new, and will usually suffice, depending on how long you're going to need them. I think it's also good to know that in a lot of cases, you're responsible for your own crutches. If it's not made clear to you in advance, you should ask.

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Other pre-surgery things were just little projects here and there that I knew I would not be able to do after the surgery, such as cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, the hall closet, taking things into the basement, etc. Since I'm a terrible procrastinator, I wouldn't have actually done a lot of these projects if I hadn't had this impending deadline. So in a way some of this has been good.

Another thing I did for myself was buy a nice lounge chair to recover in, which has turned out to be totally unnecessary. Fortunately, my dad admired the chair, so guess what he is getting for his birthday. Finally, I threw a pre-surgery/4th of July party, which was on a Friday. My surgery was scheduled for the following Monday, so fortunately I had two days to detox. :)