Pre-Op appointments
This past Friday, I had my Orthopedic Pre-op appointment. I saw my surgeon’s physician assistant, and she explained what’s involved with the surgeries, the extensive rehabilitation protocol, and much more. In addition to the hip labral and cartilage repairs, my surgeon will possibly be doing a femoral neck osteoplasty and acetabular rim trimming (this depends on what she finds inside my hip joint). During surgery, the doctors will do a femoral nerve block for pain management purposes which will hopefully last 1-2 days.
After surgery, I have to take an anti-inflammatory medication for 60 days to prevent something called heterotopic ossification (i.e., new bone growth). I’ll also need to take aspirin for 30 days post-op to keep blood clots from forming.
Post-op recovery is going to be rough… :/ I’m usually only awake 6-7 hours of the day, but since I have to use a home Continuous Passive Motion machine for 6 hours each day to prevent scar tissue formation in the joint, I’m going to need to wake up earlier than my normal which, in turn, always makes my mitochondrial symptoms worse.
I have to begin physical therapy within 3 days of surgery….it has to be twice a week for 3 months and then once a week for 3 more months. I’ll be seeing my neuro physical therapist (he’s been working with me for 2 1/2 years now!) and also an orthopedic physical therapist. Because I have mitochondrial disease, I was told it will probably take longer than the usual 6 months to recover..
This afternoon, I had my Pre-op appointment with the peri-operative medicine dr. for the upcoming hip surgery and muscle biopsy (scheduled for next Friday the 12th!). The doctor was very thorough—she went over all my medical conditions/symptoms to make sure I’ll have everything needed medically for the day. She’s going to email several of my specialists to figure out how much IV magnesium I’ll need that afternoon for the hypomagnesemia, how much IV nutrition I should receive overnight, etc.
I have lots of upcoming appointments before the 12th—ENT, Urology, Pain Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Nephrology. So it’s been busy!
Last week, I threw up again which was so horrible. I had to get an abdominal x-ray to rule out obstruction and repeat blood cultures drawn. Thankfully, the x-ray was normal, and so far, the blood cultures haven’t grown anything. I’m sure they’ll be negative, but that means we still don’t know what’s causing these vomiting episodes. I have another GI appointment the week following surgery..
I may not blog for a while, depending on what it’s like post-op! Thank you for praying for me!
