"Day 1" is the first day post-surgery. After morphine did nothing for me, I started on the Oxycontin (very early) Friday morning. They started me off on one pill, so at first it wasn't so bad. The dizziness and the nausea wouldn't hit until I sat up, and I didn't have to sit up until my first physical therapy session.
Generally with hip replacement, they usually have you get up the afternoon of the day of the surgery. Since I recovered so late, I didn't have to get up until the next day. 9am on Friday morning I stood up for the first time.
And it hurt. I can't pretend it didn't. They had me use a walker and take about five steps to the window, then five steps back to bed. But the pain was all in my muscles. The joint its self didn't hurt at all! It really just felt like I'd been kicked really hard in the ass. Painful, but not nearly as horrible as I though it would be.
But the dizziness. Whether it was the combination of drugs, or the surgery, or the Oxycontin itself, something was making me horribly, awfully dizzy. And the dizziness made me nauseous. And the nausea made me vomit. I could only actually stomach fruit on that first day, and then I threw it all up at my 4pm physical therapy. I did actually manage to eat some dinner that night, which was grilled fish with a bunch of other stuff. I ate the fish, the roll, and the berry cobbler (it was delicious). All was well!
Until I took more Oxycontin at about 4am. I spent the next 10 hours of Day 2 dozing (or passing out, hard to tell), and I vomited all of my breakfast up before PT at 10am. They had given me three tablets this time instead of one or two, and it knocked me on my ass. I couldn't even sit up straight without all the blood draining from my face. The physical therapist didn't want me to try the stairs this morning because I was so out of it.
I was not going to let a little dizziness hold back the actual therapy. I did the stairs. Later this afternoon, I switched to crutches and did a lap around the nurses' station. I also stayed off the oxy until after my PT. I took one pill, and was able to eat about half of my dinner and keep it down. I even took a real shower!
I've been spending my evening on the Internet and watching trashy TV. Other than having to ask for help every time I need to pee, it's actually not that bad anymore. My hip pain is almost non-existant if I don't move, and only about a 3 or 4 when I get up and walk. The pain is different than it was before...the joint pain was deep inside my butt, and my hip popped and zinged pain up and down my leg all the time. I couldn't stand up straight.
Now the pain is all in my muscles. And like muscle pain, it gets less intense if I keep moving. Every time I get up to go to the bathroom, it hurts a little less. All the nurses are impressed with my mobility. Lets just hope I'm over this nausea thing so I can go home tomorrow!
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