“Jim” the Bionic Hippy.
My story begins over three years ago back in New Zealand with me being treated for a torn ligament, which didn’t make any progress in healing. , My high impact gym workouts had to be put on hold as movement in my hip area was becoming restricted.
Plans to move to Australia was now a reality and the big day happened under quite a lot of pain, settling into my new home in Mooloolaba took an age but finally all the years of collecting souvenirs, my personal furniture and cabinets with my 150 photo albums were all in place and then it was time to find a good doctor and discuss my problem with my hip. After an x-ray the results showed that a total hip replacement was needed. While staying in Bundaberg with my sister Nancy & brother-in-law John a doctor there made an appointment at the local hospital, I saw a specialist who recommended I go on the public waiting list. Twelve months later and my hip getting worse and Nancy & John moving south to Mooloolaba I discussed another type of payment called intermediate which means you pay approximately $3,000, a much more affordable price than the $18,000 for a private operation.
An appointment was made with a specialist dr. Clarke at the local Nambour hospital, more x-rays which showed my hip was now bone on bone and very painful. After agreeing on the price the doctor assured me I would have the operation within a month, unbelievable. There was not much time to think about it before the call from the hospital telling me I was booked in for the operation on 10th September. I went through many visits to the Hospital, firstly were the pre-operation tests on 4th September; my blood pressure had gone very high, any wonder when the thought of the operation terrified me. My anaesthetist seemed to be satisfied to continue and all efforts were being made to get the blood pressure down. My next appointment was on the 8th September for an educational program on hip replacements, this was with a physiotherapist and occupational Therapist, plus I received many books on the procedure I was about to go through which gave me a better understanding.
At 6.30 am on the 10th September I was booked into Nambour General Hospital, forms were all filled out, papers to sign on agreement on operation procedures, my left leg was shaved, sterilised and wrapped with protection covers, then just a short wait as I was to be the first operation of the day with Dr. Clarke. Next I was wheeled into meet with the anaesthetist in a room off the operation theatre. All was explained to me and I was fitted with a drip in my hand, which was to carry the general anaesthetic it was also explained to me that I may hear the operation going on, this of course didn’t impress me at all, I was then given a twilight injection which worked great on me as I was soon in gaga land, never heard a thing from 8 am till I was talking with a nurse back in the ward about 11 am, the operation took 2 ½ hours. Amazing I felt no pain, there was a morphine drip and oxygen, a drainage tube in the wound. There was also a button to press if you got some pain and a stronger shot of Morphine was applied, luckily I didn’t have to use this much.
Next day my physiotherapist got me on my feet with the help of crutches, amazing there was “No Pain”. Soon after I thought something was wrong, my stomach started to swell, I couldn’t pass urine, my bowels refused to work, the doctors examined me more thoroughly and realised my bowel had collapsed which they told me happens to 1 out of 100 operations and I was it. Soon I was hooked up with a Salon drip, then had the discomfort of having a Catheter inserted to drain off urine, next was the horrible experience of putting a tube down my nose into my stomach to drain any accumulation of fluid, it took three goes to get it in as must have had a broken nose once and this made it a lot harder to apply.
This setback put a stop to my walking for 3 days and I felt as though the curtain was coming down on my final act. The waiting game for my bowel to start functioning again was making me very impatient, just waiting for Beethoven’s 1st movement seemed to be a long way off. The seventh day showed some promise with me starting to pass mountains of wind. ( I’ll explain here!) Passing wind in society is frowned on; passing wind in hospital is a time of rejoicing.
Moving on to my next saga, after my morning shower my stomach drain fell out and horrors the doctor wanted it put back in. The nurses made five attempts to put it back which caused me lots of pain and stress. Having a broken nose years ago the tube had a limited canal to follow, the tube kept curling around in my mouth, the nurses were even stressed out knowing that the job had to be done, they finally got a very experienced older nurse to help me, I called her my guardian angel, she lay me on the bed and calmed me down, she had put the tube in the freezer to make it more rigid, she then explained what she was going to do and when the time was right she started inserting the tube in my nose, slowly looking for the right opening, along with small sips of water and swallows her expertise paid off… eureka! The tube was once more in my stomach, my little angel cried along with me and she stayed with me till I was fully recovered from the ordeal. This time I insisted the tube be double taped to my nose to make sure there wasn’t going to be a repeat disaster.
Day seven showed more promise, my bowel appeared to be waking up again from it’s little rest, lots of wind, which was a celebration. I was put on soft food like apple juice and jelly, my first meal was soon extracted by a nurse using a suction pump and I lost all my yummy jelly. My next meal was macaroni cheese, it was hard not to gulp it down, and my evening meal of cottage pie proved that there was definite movement at last. On day eight the doctors decided it was safe to remove all the tubes, I did insist that they leave my nose one in, just block it off, till they were absolutely sure, they agreed with me after all the trouble.
My physiotherapist Heather put me into her military training scheme, trying to get back my strength, lots of walking and going up and down stairs, quite exhausting but rewarding. The mere fact that I was feeling like being back on track was a bonus.
My water works were very stubborn and I drank gallons of water till my belly gurgled, plus many threats from the nurses that the catheter would go back in bought the results I needed, also my doctors were sure all was functioning normal and out came the stomach tube. At last I was free of all attachments and starting to look normal again. Another crisis developed, my legs started to swell up, again I was assured this was quite normal after operations of this type, whew!
Now the final examinations by the specialist Dr. Clarke on day ten decided I was ready to be discharged, now I was leaping ahead to a more positive future. A nurse bought me a mirror so I could view my operation, amazing, the cut was not quite 100 mm in length and I had the eleven staples removed. I wondered how they could fit all that hardware in such a small opening, it was in there all right, I saw the x-rays.
Now it is convalescing time, luckily I have my sister Nancy & brother-in-law John living just five minutes from my place so I become their star border, still on crutches, taking short walks and enjoying the lovely setting of their Buderim Meadows home. Now all I need is lots of patience to heal internally, hopefully it will soon be like a biblical scene, “ throw down your crutches and follow the chicks on the beach”.
In the two weeks since I came out of hospital, every day there has been avast improvement in my strength and mobility, I can’t sit at the computer yet to write this story but that will come, I cannot bend more than 90 deg so I may as well take note of this wonderful means of relieving that horrible hip pain..
The first few days were really were really getting used to the crutches and doing my exercises, after a while I was walking with ease and soon decided to change my crutches for walking sticks and doing short walks along the street, soon I was doing 5-6 walks a day, then I decided one stick was enough, just for balance and can’t wait to quite that as I have a limp I need to get rid of. Another achievement was to shower without sitting on my frame, which was far easier. It is amazing how unfit one gets, I soon found many muscles that became sore, as I hadn’t used them for a while but time and exercise will rectify that.
Next move, my thoughts are to go home to my place, so three days ago I was back in my own little home and now I can fill in my days doing odd jobs and getting more independent day by day, my only problem here is my shower is over the bath so I will go back to sis’s place every third day for a shower and just sponge off in between,
I had heaps of cards and calls from my friends and rellies which I was most grateful for their support and now I just want to get back to a nice life style and keep remembering how great it is to be alive.
I have an appointment with my specialist Dr.Clarke on the 17th October and hopefully I will get some idea when I can drive my car.
Today the 7th October I visited my own doctor who reckons my health is the best it’s been for a long time, my blood pressure is reasonable, he did warn me to be very patient and let my internal healing complete it’s job and that the beach will still be there for a long time yet so just follow the rules and all will be okay.
What a fantastic future is ahead of me and I am determined to make every day a big bonus to enjoy.
Over and Out.
Jimbo
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