Revision Recovery

[bp1111]

I posted this to a previous thread yesterday but thought I would start a Revision Recovery thread that is post-revision surgery.

From 8/26
The revision was done yesterday. All went well from my perspective and Dr. Clavell also communicated that surgery went well. I haven’t talked with the doctor or seen surgical notes so all I know is he thought it went well. My surgery wasn’t until mid day. The surgical center said Clavell had five that day.

All went well before surgery with checkin and prep, but I didn’t like the Memorial Village Surgical center as much as HCA. The waiting room was way more chaotic and the bathroom out there was dirty. All fine once I went into the prep/recovery area. Really just little things, but just not as impressive as HCA. Once in prep… EKG done, IV setup, doc came by, anesthesia, etc., then they rolled me back to the OR. I woke up, peed in a bottle and they wheeled me out.

No problems so far. Only bad pain so far was peeing the first few times, because of the catheter used during surgery. Some soreness and swelling around the belly from reservoir removal and trying to get it placed better, but not bad. I am taking the gabapentin and ketorolac, but really the only reason I’m taking the ketorolac is because it’s good at reducing/preventing swelling from what I’ve read, which I had a big problem with last time. Also taking the two antibiotics for 7 days. I have been a bit out of it because of the anesthesia and find it hard to focus but that seems to be improving to as I have been able to write this post in a reasonable amount of time.

[bp1111]

Dr. Clavell called me yesterday evening to let me know things went well. He was able to get the reservoir in a better spot, no excess tubing, pump back in the same spot. He also said the tubing to the left cylinder broke at the pump, which was not what I would have guessed, though that is a common point of failure. Not sure how that area was subjected to excessive wear that caused early failure.

So far all has been good. Very little pain just trying not to strain getting up or anything that could make the reservoir move. A lot of time in bed resting and icing. I’m peeing well already, which is better than the first when it seemed to take a long time to get a good stream going.

I had to remove the JP drain today which was an experience. The drain came out of my body just below the belt line. The doc had told me the end is down in my scrotum so at least I knew I had about a foot of tubing to pull out going in. An odd sensation, but it came out easy. I cut the stitch holding it in place like the doc said and it pulled right out.

Bandages off and things look good. No bruising yet and swelling seems reasonable. Looks much better than the first time around.