And, words you have all been waiting for - Neil's, not mine! The internet connection at the hospital was behaving much better today - maybe the storm did a number to the web. In any event, in Neil's own words:
It is I
Well, it appears that Yahoo is working again, at least tolerably. I guess you never got the Email I tried to send you the other night. I'm not surprised. It took me over 2 minutes just to get 'Hi, DQ' on the screen, and it took almost an hour to type just a few lines, and, even then, it apparently didn't transmit. At least now I can type and the letters appear almost immediately on the screen. The keyboard sucks big time, though.
Anyway, the reason I am writing this. You have my permission to post it.
As DQ posted, I went shopping on Sunday morning and made it all the way to my apartment and was pulling the cart up the walk to the back door. I hit a patch of ice (I was walking sideways step-by-step) and I suddenly had no leg to stand on. I went down hard on my left hip and the cart fell on my legs, but managed to roll onto my butt and move the cart off my legs.
As I was doing that, a young man in a black pickup truck pulled over, got out of the truck, and scrambled over the snow bank. "You look like you went down pretty hard." I quickly agreed. He moved the cart out of the way, got my left arm over his shoulder and his left arm around my waist, and started to lift. The pain was excruciating and I couldn't put any pressure at all on my left leg. I knew something was very wrong.
He got me seated on a snow bank and went to get a buddy of his just a few doors up the street, but his buddy wasn't home. He called another friend and said he needed help. He was on his way. It was only then that I remembered my roommate inside. My roomie came out in his socks and, between the two of them, got me to my feet just as the man's friend arrived. The three of them got me onto my computer chair and rolled me inside. I never did find out their names, and I'm mad at myself for that.
Anyway, once inside, I could 'feel' bones crunching in my left hip and I knew it was broken. My roommate called for an ambulance.
Long story short, I sat in Emergency from about 10:30 until about 2 when X-rays were taken. A doctor eventually came in and told me I needed surgery. He told me it could be repaired, but, where the break was situated, a total hip replacement was the better option. Surgery was set for 3:30 PM Monday afternoon.
They got me to my room around 4:30 Sunday afternoon. I was on morphine, so there was very little pain. I slept surprisingly well that night. Surgery went as scheduled, but I was amazed at how quickly I fell asleep. I was expecting minutes when it wasn't even seconds. I woke up at 7:06 in Recovery. By 7:30, I was back in my room. I slept even better Monday night.
Early Tuesday, Physio came in with a walker (Zimmer frame), wanting me to get to my feet and, if that went well, to take a step or two. I took those steps and kept going and stopped at the doorway about 8 metres away (about 25 feet). I think I surprised them as much as I surprised myself
Unfortunately, the last of the freezing went out and I had a rough sleep that night. I was pink, too. My whole left side. Something like iodine but looked more like Pepto Bismol. They wouldn't let me wash it off until my shower on Wednesday.
Physio came back on Wednesday morning and walked me to the nurse's station way down the hall. They wheeled me back in a chair. Today, I walked that walk again before being wheeled to the gym where I practiced climbing up and down 4 steps a few times using a cane.
I don't expect to be going home tomorrow. Perhaps Saturday or Sunday. My surgeon has been in several times to check the progress and even witnessed one of my ambulatory moments. He's extremely pleased with the progress, as are the nurses. They all comment on how much pain I can tolerate. I've lived with it enough years to know how to deal with it.
The next time you hear from me will probably be from my own home and my own computer which doesn't wag its cyber finger at me when I try to visit JUB. Thank you all for your thoughts, and I'll talk to you soon.
Neil
PS - The catheter came out this morning. Pretend you can see me doing a happy dance.
This is DQ now – when I talked to Neil this evening, he also mentioned that he has a good role model for quick recovery from hip replacement surgery – his surgeon! His surgeon had his hip replaced two weeks ago and is up, making rounds, and performing surgeries.
