Arm Surgery #2

On Tuesday I had surgery on my arm and hip. The procedure went well and I have no signs of nerve damage. I can move my fingers, and wrist freely. This time I was given a patch before my surgery to help with the nausea and it worked! I was a little bit allergic to the patch(my chest and arms got hot and red. It looked like I was sunburnt), but the pros far outweighed the cons. I only threw-up twice which is a lot less than last time. The surgery went as planned except for the surgery's duration. I was told it would take 1-2 hours, but it ended up taking almost 4 hours! When I woke up from the surgery and noticed that my surgery took a lot longer than expected I was really afraid to hear bad news(remember the mri on my arm didn't prove there was no cancer in my arm; it was clear with the little visibility of the scan, but it didn't show the whole picture). That was the type of news I was fearing, and was largely the reason why I threw-up in the hospital. Then they explained the reason my surgery took so long. It was because they had a difficult time scraping my hip for the bone cells. The nurses told me that if they knew that my surgery was going to take that long then I would have been cathed. Luckily for me I wasn't, but it was extremely difficult to pee. It took me so many tries and it wasn't until my last chance that i finally had success. Getting cathed was next because I was retaining too much fluid. It was funny in the end because the nurses were celebrating for me.

My arm scar was mostly reopened, and the scar on my hip is longer than the last time. There are 28 stitches in my arm and 10 in my left hip. My arm isn't as sore as the last time, but the hip is worse. I've been on the Dilaudid the last couple of days and it has made the pain mostly bearable. I had morphine in the hospital, but I switched to Dilaudid because it works better.

This time I have a little more restrictions from the surgery. I'm not allowed to use my arm for anything. I can't even use it for simple things like eating or typing. This post is all typed purely left handed. No stretching or anything. My arm is to stay in this sling and that is all.

I only stayed one night at the hospital and was discharged late Wednesday. Yesterday I was fighting to stay awake too much, and I felt like garbage. I slept through the majority of today, and I feel much better. I still get nauseous from time to time now that I'm off of the patch. I just take Ativan or zofran to combat that. My hip hurts a lot, but my arm isn't nearly as bad. Granted my arm hasn't been tested yet. It only bothers me if I sit straight up due to the gravity on it. I'll be wearing a sling for the next two weeks, and I'll be using my cane until it gets easier to move about. My arm and hip are both pretty swollen.

Hopefully this makes sense. I'm tired and can't think perfectly straight right now.

All in all the procedure was a success. Thanks for the prayers and support. Now hopefully my humerus will start to union. That is next.

Some pictures:

Joey

Mom

Drainage from my hip

Betadine was all over my arm. I think they did that for sarcoma awareness!

Those stockings are comfy

The hemovac drains( I had one for my hip and one for my arm like last time)

The Incision