1 Down, 1 To Go

Surgery number 1 is officially in the books.

Wednesday, June 19, I officially underwent left hip arthroscopy.  It went about as well as I expected.  Here's a little run-down of how the day went.

The night before I was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight (technically it's 8 hours before the procedure, which would have been 2:30 am, but midnight was easier).  I also had to shower using specific soap given to me by the hospital, and was not allowed to apply any deodorant, lotion, etc.

I woke up on Wednesday feeling good...not really nervous at all, but more excited, knowing that I was taking a step in the direction of a pain-free life.  I had to shower with the "special soap" again, and got dressed in some comfortable clothes, as I knew I would need to be as comfy as possible after the surgery.

I got checked in 2 hours before the procedure was scheduled to start, and was immediately taken back to get prepped.  My wife and mom were able to come back to the pre-op room and chill with me after I had changed into the gown and got my IV hooked up.  We were there for a couple of hours, while nurses, anesthesiologists and docs came through, explaining how this whole thing was going to go down.  I was still pretty relaxed, and honestly, happy to not be at work!

After some time passed, they wheeled me to the OR, hooked me up to some monitors, and in went the "happy juice."  That's the last thing I remember, before waking up in the recovery room.  I'm not going to lie, I was in some decent pain at this point.  All I wanted to do was sleep, but the pain was super intense, as well as the nausea.  After the nurses gave me some more drugs, I started to feel better, and was transferred to the post-op recovery area where my wife and mom could see me again.

We hung out there for a while, I had some toast with PB&J (makes everything better), and got some more information and instructions from the doc and nurses, and was eventually allowed to leave.

The rest of the night consisted of me popping Percocet and fading in and out of sleep, which I'm sure was sooo fun for my family.

All in all, I thought the day of surgery went really well.  Everyone at the hospital was awesome, they drugged me up whenever it was necessary, and explained things very clearly to both me and my wife and mom.

Bring on the next one!

-D