Revision Day

Today I will be having revision surgery on my right hip at Ruby. Basically a redo. I am required to be at the hospital about 2 hours before surgery. Since I am writing this on Sunday, I don't know my exact times but I'm led to believe I have to be at Ruby by 11:00am. The surgery is scheduled to take between 2-3 hours.

My surgeon actually called me Sunday for two reasons: he wanted me to hear from him that he is leaving Ruby in September and wanted to answer any surgery questions I might have. Dr. Hamlin is the area's leading specialist in revision surgery and so as long as he will do the actual surgery, I am comfortable with not having him available for followups. I can actually travel to Pittsburgh if I feel the need to continue with Dr. Hamlin. I am grateful that he called because his assurances made me feel a bit better about the surgery prognosis.

I have been living with leg pain for four years. My previous experience with hip and knee replacement is at best mixed. Neither my previous hip nor knee replacements have relieved the chronic pain in my right leg. One of promises to myself is to do everything my physician requires for post op recovery. I am very active and tend to push myself. My first hip surgery I pushed to be out of the hospital in 52 hours, was in the bucket of the ladder truck three days later photographing the new football field and was the hardest working patient at physical therapy.

I will follow my physicians instructions to the letter and not push it. I will however try to defend my title of hardest working PT patient. I would covet your thoughts and prayers while I recover and plan to keep up the blog through my recovery. Renee probably needs prayer as well as I'm told I am not a marshmallow patient!!