During the first night, I slept OK for the most part. Every 2-3 hours, a nurse comes in to check my vital signs and place a body pillow under one side of my lower back to shift the weight pressure to prevent decubital ulcer (bedsores). 9 hours after the surgery at 7am. They woke me up for the daily vital signs check. My blood pressure was still low and I was running a little fever, but I didn’t feel any pain. I was just drowsy. A nurse tried to raise my bed a little for breakfast, but rotating my hip by 5 degree was already intense. I just dosed off for the entire day. In the evening, I started waking up. Scared of another sleepless night, I took a sleeping pill and fell asleep.
The second day. I woke up with burning pain in my heels. Heels are one of the high risk areas for decubital ulcer. I had my heels covered with some transparent films to ease friction, which worked fine. My right leg(the operated side) now clearly had dull pain. I passed breakfast and asked for additional anesthesia. Then in the afternoon, orthopedic doctors came in and pulled out the epidural anesthesia tube from my back. They told me that too much anesthesia would bring my blood pressure down again. I had to roll over on my left side to open my back for them, which was agonizing. But being able to roll over allowed the sweet nurses to clean up my body and put me in a new robe. It was when the nurses found that a little blister on my buttock I had had during the surgery had gotten worse. But it didn’t hurt. Little did I know, I was still on anesthesia and didn’t feel it but the little blister was quietly eating my butt inside…
In the late afternoon on the second day, the numbing effect from anesthesia faded away. By sunset, I felt acute pain in my right leg. It was as if my right leg was trying to twist itself in all the wrong directions. It was such a severe pain that I had never experienced in my long history of aching body. I put on my iPod, trying to focus on beautiful music and audio meditation programs. Nothing worked. I finally pressed the nurse call button. They gave me a pain killer infusion. It helped and I dozed off, but the severe pain came back a few times during the night. It was like there was a demon inside my right leg running from the hip to ankle twisting my bones in wrong directions. It was a long painful night.
The third day. I woke up with burning pain, this time on my buttock. The little blister is now a stage III decubitus ulcer which left the eternal scar on my butt. I had read lots of articles on the hip osteotomy before the surgery, but none of them prepared me for bedsore. But it seemed like it was rather serious. Doctors came in, complicated medical terms were exchanged among them, and I was rolled over on my left side. They debrided the wound. Basically, they ruthlessly (for medical necessity of course) scratched off the surface of the bloody blister to help it heal faster. Ouch!!!
On the third day, I started eating a little bit. It wasn’t because I had any appetite but it was to take strong painkillers. In the afternoon, the anesthesist came in to see how I was doing. He had heard from the ward nurse that I had suffered from severe pain after the orthopedics pulled out the epidural anesthesia sooner than planned. He stayed a bit longer and made me laugh with funny stories. Nice guy, I thought.
Then a PT came in for an assessment. For hip osteotomy patients, the hardest part of the surgery is the long rehabilitation phase. The PT was a nice lady and gave me a wonderful massage. It was heavenly. I am a firm believer of miraculous power of human hands. She had wonderful hands, but she told me she was just filling in for another PT who was taking a day off. Too bad, I thought. It’s so hard to find a good masseuse like her.
At night, a sweet friend Yasuyo came to see me with her sister. She was visiting from NY to see her family in Tokyo. She brought me beautiful flowers from her parents’ garden, lavender fabric toilet for my pillow, some paperbacks, and lots of jelly drinks. I literally lived on those jelly drinks for the next couple of weeks. Yasuyo and her sister were so nurturing, it helped my pain greatly.
Pain came back by bedtime. The twisting pain in the right leg was eased by painkillers, but I woke up every half an hour or so by the burning sensation on my buttock. I realized then that the bedsore was quite serious. It was as if my butt was on fire, and none of the painkillers I tried worked. The hardest part was that I couldn’t roll over for my pelvis was still fragile. I had to sleep on the burning wound for a long time. Ouch!!!
The fourth day opened. I was really exhausted from pain and sleeplessness. On top of everything, I had my period. I had had too much painkillers already without eating much food, I had dull pain in my stomach. Sweet nurses took great care of me. They brought me ice packs for my feverish head, hot packs for my tummy. Those conventional ice/hot packs worked so well, I still use them at nights.
Before the surgery, I had planned to read lots of books during the bed-bound week. But I had no energy to lift up anything. All I could do was to listen to music. My iPod had eclectic selection of jazz, classic, pops, salsa, hip-hops, R&B’s, reggae. But I mostly had operas and healing music on during the bed-bound week. With the heavenly music, I felt like I was being sheltered in heaven. My bed was by the window from which I could see the open sky. My bed quarter was curtained in by soft white curtains. All day, I was looking out the window watching the clouds go by with my blurred vision (I couldn’t reach out for my glasses). Though I had lots of pain, it was also such a special time of my life. I had absolutely nothing to do but to focus on my body and feelings, and sweet nurses and kind doctors gave me full attention. In such intense pain, I was actually feeling grateful for all the good things that I had. I cried for beautiful blue sky, I cried for beautiful music, I cried for sweet smiles nurses would leave me with.
In the afternoon, two young nurses washed my hair. I am normally a very clean person and had prepared for a bottle of dry shampoo and towels, but I had no energy to tend my hair. It was such a heavenly experience to have my hair washed in my bed quarter by two sweet nurses. Smelling wonderful after four days of stinky hair, I was tripping on my Puccini when a young man peeped in my bed quarter while I was tripping with beautiful Puccini songs. He was my PT. Though I liked the lady PT who came in the previous day, he seemed nice. Young, friendly, but polite and confident. He taught me a couple of exercises I could do while being bed-bound. Push my tummy down into the mattress, rotate my ankles, etc.
In the evening, though, the burning sensation of my bedsore had become unbearable. The ward nurses procured an anti-decubital ulcer mattress, which was saved for bed-bound elderly patients. I kept the mattress for the rest of my stay. I heard other patients complain about the hard uncomfortable hospital mattress, I guess I was the lucky one.
The next two days were weekend, and had no medical or rehabilitation programs were scheduled. It went on very quiet. The sever pain in the right leg gradually faded, but the burning bedsore pain was rough. I had the strongest painkiller available after every meal. I actually didn’t eat much but a couple of spoonful of rice porridge and a bite or two of boiled vegetables. My appetite didn’t come back for a long time, I ended up losing 15 pounds in the three months.
On the fifth day in the afternoon, I felt a bit better. I reached out for a book for the first time. It was my long time favorite, “Anne of the Green Gables.” I read a couple of pages on Anne’s bed-bound days after she broke her ankle. That’s how I kept reading the Anne books. Anne has so many stories that I could identify with at each stage of my life. I didn’t have enough strength to hold up the light-weight paperback for longer than a couple of minutes, so that was all I read during the bed-bound week.
I spent most of the quiet weekend daydreaming and watching the clouds go by. It’s amazing how I could entertain myself just by laying down. I didn’t have a second of feeling bored. On Sunday, my best friend Mikako visited me by my bedside. It was a nice change in the mood, for she never treated me as a helpless patient. She came to see me almost every weekend. She acted as if she was visiting me at my apartment, paying little attention to my miserable state. It was nice to be nurtured by sweet friends and nurses, but it was also nice to feel normal, too. I am so blessed with friends.
One thing Mikako’s visit made it clear was that I lost so much energy during the bed-bound week. I had to stop every 5 minutes or so to catch my breath to chat, and after half an hour, my energy was all gone. It was fun, but I didn’t have any energy left. It seemed like I had a lot of rehabilitation to catch up, I thought.
Quietly, the bed-bound week was close to its end. When Monday rolls in, I’d be moving freely in a wheel chair. With painkillers and sleeping pill, I dozed off dreaming of venturing out to the real world.
