Continued from August 3rd Posting<\/p>\n
Here it goes \u2013 Be Prepared<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Scheduled Time to appear at the UBC Hospital: July 31, 2012 (12:30 pm). The night before (July 30) \u2013 NO food after midnight \u2013 just water or clear liquids (e.g. apple juice) before check-in time (12:30 pm next day). Since this is the big day for the big event, my wife and I leave early so as not to be late \u2013 good move, as the UBC Hospital is undergoing major construction and a different back entrance has to be found and driven to. We arrive on time and are checked off by the receptionist \u2013 “Please take a seat and wait until called”<\/em>.\u00a0 My wife wisely used the wait time to bring in the required items a patient must bring to have on hand after surgery: (items were obtained after participating in an OASIS<\/a> orientation session \u2013 most insightful and helpful \u2013 the ‘Must Have Equipment List<\/a>‘ is provided)<\/p>\n Believe me, all of these will be needed \u2013 some immediately after surgery. Ruth and I kiss ‘Good-Bye’ \u2013 parking the car for Drop-Off is very temporary and I will be the one facing every step hereafter. After a half-hour wait, I am called in to be ‘booked in’ for the surgery \u2013 first of many reviews of the basic details – identity, what’s the procedure, confirm the type of room I will be in post-surgery, etc. The pleasant young lady then takes me to the Surgery Waiting Room (initially, it was intended to have the surgery at 3:00 pm with the Surgery Prep prior to that). Of course, my personal details are double-checked again and I am told to wait until called \u2013 “in about 15 minutes of so”<\/em> \u2013 well \u2013 NOT so. This wait stretched on and on and on … No one really came to make it clear that my surgery would be delayed considerably. I did get up from waiting and asked \u2013 “the surgeries are running behind schedule”<\/em>.\u00a0 That’s fine \u2013 I can understand that \u2013 things change along the way, especially with surgeries. Finally, at about 4:00 pm, I am ushered in to the Surgery Prep area. An experienced and jovial nurse directs me to a curtained area with a special prep chair with many adjustments for initial medical pre-surgery steps. Time to strip down and employ a set of special anti-bacterial wipes to clean different body parts (a similar pack was given to me and I used it at home in the morning). After the wipe-down, I put on the typical hospital gown and seated myself into the ‘pre-surgery throne’. The nurse came and reviewed a long list of personal medical details prior to getting started. She also inserted the intravenous tube in the left wrist \u2013 this will stay until the person is discharged. Of course, blood tests are taken frequently \u2013 pre-op, and daily while in hospital. Other individuals were also being prepared for various surgeries \u2013 each in a separate small prep-area with the special chair. The intravenous flow was started and I would later wheel my tree with the bag into the operating room. I was visited by another very experienced nurse, one of the assisting nurses from the OR, to go over my personal medical details again \u2013 wow \u2013 what a lot of checking and re-checking details. While waiting, Dr. Michael Moult, the\u00a0anesthesiologist, came to review some medical details about me and to brief me on the anesthesia process that would be used on me \u2013 spinal anaesthesia<\/a>. Although I knew beforehand that would be the method, anytime ‘spinal’ is mentioned, my brain reacts just a bit \u2013 “it just sounds a bit dangerous to me” \u2013 but Dr. Moult reassures me \u2013 it’s very much a routine to him. Dr. Duncan comes by briefly and with his wonderful and reassuring tone, he confirms that Ruth is my emergency contact and that he has the correct phone number. Another brief visit by one of the Resident doctors who would be assisting Dr. Duncan that day. He reviews vital medical details again and marks my left hip with a pen \u2013 we want to be sure to replace the correct hip \u2013 BTW \u2013 my right leg (the good leg) is identified with a very long green sock that I had to put on earlier. He mentions that this is the last Hip Replacement they are performing that day \u2013 I believe Dr. Duncan was responsible for ten that day \u2013 going between two ORs and assisted by Residents. So … about 4:30 pm or so, I’m asked to walk into the OR … WOW! It is impressive and a bit overwhelming \u2013 this whole team is assembled, waiting for me \u2013\u00a0 of course all specially outfitted with their OR suits \u2013 it is quite a scene. A warm welcome it is but brief and the team jumps into action immediately. On the operating table, I bend forward to receive the spinal injection and the administered sedation and … … and … … Walter \u2013 Wake Up!<\/em> And \u2013\u00a0 just like that, an hour and a half later, I am awake and I am wheeled into the Recovery Theatre with recovery specialist nurses monitoring my vitals, checking with me several times whether I am gaining sensation back in my pelvic area by touching ice-bags against my skin and slowly moving downward to test recovery of sensation. They keep me until proven stable and having regained sensation down my leg. It’s time to be wheeled into my ward. I am being settled into my ward bed in a semi-private room with great attention being given to many details to make everything as comfortable as possible. It’s about 8 pm \u2013 I’m just settled into bed and my loving Ruth appears to raise my spirits. What a Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hip Replacement Surgery \u2013 Surgery Day (July 31, 2012) Continued from August 3rd Posting Here it goes \u2013 Be Prepared. Scheduled Time to appear at the UBC Hospital: July 31, 2012 (12:30 pm). The night before (July 30) \u2013 NO food after midnight \u2013 just water or clear liquids (e.g. apple juice) before check-in time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-reflections","tag-hip-replacement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwb.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n