This morning I came dangerously close to a full blown meltdown. I decided that I needed to surf the web to see if I could find the exact post operative physical therapy protocols. Why you ask?. . . . Why do I do anything I do??? So, I find this dr in new york who trained under Philippon and has all of his pre and post surgery pt protocols posted online. Excellent I think and immediately click through. What I find initially is that he does indeed follow Philippon's post op instructions -- CPM machine, crutches, etc. so I feel confident that I will have something similar in physical therapy to what he prescribes. There are several pages of boring PT stuff which i quickly lose interest in . . . especially when I find that he has posted videos of the actual surgery. For those of you who are sqeamish . . stop reading right here!
I immediately click right to the video of how they establish portals for the arthroscopic instruments into the hip socket. What was I thinking????? So, the first thing I notice is that something doesn't look quite right in the upper thigh area then I realize that's because the hip is dislocated and is causing a grotesque bulge in an area where there shouldn't be a bulge. Yikes, a little freaky I think. Ok, got through that. Then, of course, the next step is actually making incisions to get through the skin. Fine with that too . . a little blood but the incisions are small and the scalpel is really sharp so no big trauma there. What came next caused me to scream out loud, stand up out of my seat and immediately exit out of the web site. In order to get the camera into the hip socket . . . well, let's just say there is MUCH force applied. It literally made me feel like i was going to throw up. I so understand now why the pain is so great immediately after surgery. Wow. . . . I know I would have been better off not having actually seen that. It's now seared into my brain and I can't close my eyes without seeing it. Yikes!!!
All of this being said, I am forever thankful that there are people like Dr. Philippon who things like this obviously don't bother. And, I am infinitely thankful that I have found him and that he is willing to do this to me. So, two weeks from today, I will be one day post surgery in a blissful Vicodin haze.
This is my last full weekend at home so there will many, many things to do as I prepare to move to Vail for 7 weeks. For those SRM's and CSM's reading this blog -- THANK YOU for all you will do to help my clients while I am out. You have my eternal gratitude. For all of my friends -- no calling and making fun of me in my Vicodin haze.
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