Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Check-up And Progress
Well, it's been about 3 months since I had my operation now. The time seems to have flown by and I've had my check-up at the hospital with Mr Apthorp. I'm now walking and running up and down stairs and my physio, Hannah, has told me I can ride my bike too :) I have been off crutches for about 5 weeks now and being back at college has helped me massively. I'm back at swimming and am competing again although it will be some time before I'm swimming my PB's again - at the moment I'm about 2/3 seconds off them. But I've been selected for Arena League and I qualify for Counties which is all good. I have my next appointment in December and I'll put up another post then :)
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Week 2
Week 2
Day 8 - 29/07/09
I have the district nurse coming today to change my dressing. And also, my body is deciding to periodically wake me up at 3.30am every morning to go to the loo, which means sending a text to Mum so she can help me up. I also wrote a card to Mr Apthorp and all on the ward at Cookson Attenborough Ward for my Mum to take down as she's going to the hospital with my Grandma this evening. As I'm writing this at 10.00am, this time last week I was a quivering wreck waiting for the operating staff to come for me. Strange to think it's all over now.
Also, my Grandma brought over a shower stool that she had for when my late great-grandma had had a fall. So now I can have showers instead of washes by the basin :D
Later
The Nurse came today and instead of redressing my wound, she took the dressing off completely and told me to rub a little E45 cream onto it every night and morning as it helps to minimise some of the scarring. I also finished 2 books so far since being at home and am gradually working my way through the pile I got from the library last week.
Day 9 - 30/07/09
I got more mobile today and paid the price a bit in the evening because my hip was a bit sore. Still practising my physio exercises which are gradually getting easier, although I'm still struggling with the one where I have to abduct my leg outwards. I also had a shower today, instead of having to sit at the basin and have a body wash. I managed to get off a lot of the remaining pink stuff they had painted on me prior to surgery. It felt so nice to have a proper shower by myself!
Day 10 - 31/07/09
I managed to sleep through the night without having to get up which was nice. Also managed to get out to the swimming pool to see all my friends which was good and also the first time I'd been out since I came home from hospital. I have my first real challenge tomorrow as I'm going to my friends birthday BBQ at her beach-hut so I'm going to try to negotiate pebbles :S
Day 14 - 4/08/09
Well, I managed to conquer the pebbles and a half-mile of sea defences to arrive rather soggy (it was tipping it down with rain!) at Alice's beach-hut and spent an hour and half sitting in the rain under an umbrella before I had to haul my soggy self up a huge hill. Easier said than done when you're on crutches. The crutches are really starting to kill my hands now so I'm spending my days sat on the sofa watching DVD's and reading books although I feel that I've run out of good ones. A trip down to the library is needed I think. I've also spent the last three mornings being 'babysat' by my best friend Megan while Mum is at work. I'm becoming more independent but there's still many things that remain impossible to do whilst on crutches!
I've mastered getting in and out of bed and the car myself which is much more helpful, and it's hard to think that my op was only 2 weeks ago - it feels like so much longer! I'm also cutting down on my painkillers so I'm only taking 2 or 3 doses a day alongside my Iron tablets - it's not pain I'm experiencing anymore - it's stiffness - my brain is telling my leg to do something and it jut won't do it. More often than not I have to give it some help by moving my leg with my hands. That being said though, I have now been able to abduct my leg if only a little.
The one thing that is really bugging me about not being mobile is the boredom. You can only watch so many DVD's in a day. I start watching a DVD and switch off halfway through, preferring to text my friends who I have to wait years for a reply from and then I just get sooo bored. I've even taken to peeling off the glue on my wound that as started to peel off and ball up - my mum and sister think it's gross but it's making my wound look much more tidy, the glue made it look nasty, now it's all tidy :) (sorry if that grossed you out ;P)
Day 8 - 29/07/09
I have the district nurse coming today to change my dressing. And also, my body is deciding to periodically wake me up at 3.30am every morning to go to the loo, which means sending a text to Mum so she can help me up. I also wrote a card to Mr Apthorp and all on the ward at Cookson Attenborough Ward for my Mum to take down as she's going to the hospital with my Grandma this evening. As I'm writing this at 10.00am, this time last week I was a quivering wreck waiting for the operating staff to come for me. Strange to think it's all over now.
Also, my Grandma brought over a shower stool that she had for when my late great-grandma had had a fall. So now I can have showers instead of washes by the basin :D
Later
The Nurse came today and instead of redressing my wound, she took the dressing off completely and told me to rub a little E45 cream onto it every night and morning as it helps to minimise some of the scarring. I also finished 2 books so far since being at home and am gradually working my way through the pile I got from the library last week.
Day 9 - 30/07/09
I got more mobile today and paid the price a bit in the evening because my hip was a bit sore. Still practising my physio exercises which are gradually getting easier, although I'm still struggling with the one where I have to abduct my leg outwards. I also had a shower today, instead of having to sit at the basin and have a body wash. I managed to get off a lot of the remaining pink stuff they had painted on me prior to surgery. It felt so nice to have a proper shower by myself!
Day 10 - 31/07/09
I managed to sleep through the night without having to get up which was nice. Also managed to get out to the swimming pool to see all my friends which was good and also the first time I'd been out since I came home from hospital. I have my first real challenge tomorrow as I'm going to my friends birthday BBQ at her beach-hut so I'm going to try to negotiate pebbles :S
Day 14 - 4/08/09
Well, I managed to conquer the pebbles and a half-mile of sea defences to arrive rather soggy (it was tipping it down with rain!) at Alice's beach-hut and spent an hour and half sitting in the rain under an umbrella before I had to haul my soggy self up a huge hill. Easier said than done when you're on crutches. The crutches are really starting to kill my hands now so I'm spending my days sat on the sofa watching DVD's and reading books although I feel that I've run out of good ones. A trip down to the library is needed I think. I've also spent the last three mornings being 'babysat' by my best friend Megan while Mum is at work. I'm becoming more independent but there's still many things that remain impossible to do whilst on crutches!
I've mastered getting in and out of bed and the car myself which is much more helpful, and it's hard to think that my op was only 2 weeks ago - it feels like so much longer! I'm also cutting down on my painkillers so I'm only taking 2 or 3 doses a day alongside my Iron tablets - it's not pain I'm experiencing anymore - it's stiffness - my brain is telling my leg to do something and it jut won't do it. More often than not I have to give it some help by moving my leg with my hands. That being said though, I have now been able to abduct my leg if only a little.
The one thing that is really bugging me about not being mobile is the boredom. You can only watch so many DVD's in a day. I start watching a DVD and switch off halfway through, preferring to text my friends who I have to wait years for a reply from and then I just get sooo bored. I've even taken to peeling off the glue on my wound that as started to peel off and ball up - my mum and sister think it's gross but it's making my wound look much more tidy, the glue made it look nasty, now it's all tidy :) (sorry if that grossed you out ;P)
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
My Op
WEEK 1
Day 1
Well, inevitably the 22nd of July came round and after packing my bags the night before with Mum, having my two showers in HiBi scrub, we nervously drove to the Conquest Hospital. After arriving at the Richard Ticehurst unit, I was told to make my way to the Cookson Attenborough ward, and was shown to my bay, B5. There were already 4 people in the bay, ranging from ages 40-92! I was by far the youngest at 17. During the morning I was told I was second on the list, due to be wheeled down the Operating Theatre at about 10.30am. I was visited by the anaethetist, who told me I'd have a spinal and a general anaesthetic - I promptly broke down in tears, as I am needle-phobic, and to make matters worse, he said that it's a very painful injection - great. One of the sisters on the ward, Nicky, tried to reassure me, and said that I didn't need to worry, and that I could have my general before my spinal so I wouldn't feel it. That helped calm me down a little.
I was dreading the time when the operating team would come down in their scrubs and take me away to the theatre, but that time came and I cried again, more out of fear of the unknown than anything else, this being my first time under general anaesthetic. As I was wheeled through, my Mum came with me, and I was introduced to Dr Gould, a different anaesthetist from who I saw originally and he was a complete sweetheart. He even put a baby canula in for my general so it didn't hurt too much. As I started to feel a bit zoned out, I remember him talking to me about it feeling similar to feeling drunk, and as my face began to tingle the last thing I remember saying was "This feels weird".
The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery, feeling very drained and out of it. I can vaguely remember asking where I was and what time it was. Bob - the man with me in recovery, told me it was just after 2.30pm, I'd been in theatre for a good 4 hours. He fixed me up with a drip and gave me a unit of my own blood, which they had collected whilst I was in theatre, cleaned and gave back to me. After that he pricked my finger to test my Haemoglobin levels, and was about to give me 2 more units of blood, when Mr Apthorp stopped them. He reasoned that I was young and fit and healthy and should be able to replenish the blood myself. So, at 3.30pm I was wheeled back to the Cookson Attenborough ward where my family, Mum, Dad and sister Jo, greeted me. I had a catheter in and had to drink plenty so my Mum fed me orange squash through a straw as I lifted the oxygen mask - which made my nose itch! I don't remember much more of the day, as I drifted in and out of sleep. One thing that arose was that my blood pressure was extrememly low - at its lowest it was 64/31, and I was very anaemic.
That night I had my blood pressure, saturation levels and temperature taken every 2 hours, which meant that I didn't get much sleep. I was still woozy from the anaesthetic, but because I had a spinal, I had relatively low pain in my hip.
Day 2
I can't really remember much of the morning as I spent most of it drifting in and out of sleep. I
refused to eat as the medicine I was taking - paracetamol and oral morphine (it tastes like neat alcohol) - was making me feel sick. I do remember the physios coming in to try and sit me up, but as my blood pressure and blood levels were so low, I fainted and the bed had to be moved so that my feet were higher than my head to get the blood back to my brain. In the afternoon my parents, grandparents, my best friend and a couple of other friends came round to see me, exceeding the 2 people limit several times, but as the ward was relatively quiet, they didn't seem to mind much. Mum also bought me the 3 day TV, internet and radio package which provided entertainment for when they had gone at 8pm.
Day 3
I slept better and I had my drip taken away, but I was still being rudely awakened by the nurses doing my obs. I managed a few mouthfuls of toast, but food really wasn't appealing to me still. The physios came again to try and sit me up, which I managed for a few minutes before I fainted again. When I came round my bed was again tilted and I had a fan on. My Mum had also just arrived and she told me I blended into the pillow I was so white. In the evening just before Mum was due to go home, Mother Nature decided she'd be cruel and send my period a week early, so I had another thing to deal with and more blood loss, which in my state of anaemia wasn't good. Mr Apthorp still refused to let me have a transfusion. I also had a scary encounter at about midnight. I'd fallen asleep watching the BBC News at 10pm, and I'd woken up to see the film 'Halloween: The Resurrection' and it took me a few minutes in my sleepy state to realise that I had to turn the tv off for it to go away - this amused my best friend when I told her, she likes to laugh at my misfortunes.
Day 4
Saturday 25th July. I was starting to become very frustrated because I kept fainting and wasn't making any progress, and I wanted my catheter to come out. When the physio visited me in the morning she was accompanied by a nurse and they managed to stand me up and I managed to walk a few steps before I fainted again. This time, because the nurse had been in with me, she came back some time later with a doctor who asked how I was feeling. I was completely truthful with him, I said I felt awful, light-headed and sick. He then made the decision to give me blood finally. However, this brought up the problem of which canula to put the blood through. The baby one on the back of my hand leaked because it was too small, and the one on the back of my other hand could be flushed but it wouldn't take the blood. They called an IV lady and she started to squeeze the tube and I have honestly not experienced pain like it. It stung, and made my whole hand ache. It felt like someone was pouring antiseptic down my veins, and I cried and cried until she stopped, took the tube out and said that the vein wasn't big enough. So she put a tourniquet on my right arm and put a new canula in a vein in the crook of my elbow, which mercifully took the blood. It took about an hour and a half for the first unit of blood to transfuse and even after one unit I was feeling so much better, and the nurses were commenting on how I had more colour in my cheeks. After the second unit I felt a completely different person and the nurse came along with a Zimmer frame and a pair of crutches, turfed out all my visitors and got me up. I could stand without fainting, it was such a good feeling and she managed to walk me from my bed to the doorway of the bay and back again. When I sat back down on my bed I felt so proud of myself because I was finally making progress, and my parents were really happy with my progress. I will never ever underestimate the power of blood again.
Day 5
I woke to find a nurse pulling my curtains and announcing that she was going to take my catheter out. It was uncomfortable, but I was happy to be able to hobble out the the bathroom and have a proper wash for the first time in a few days. Also that morning Mr Apthorp came to see me and asked me how I was feeling, which I gave him a thumbs up and told him I was feeling much better. He told me that if I wanted to I could go home today because I had made so much progress in such a short period of time, and that if the nurses took me to the physio room and I could practise the stairs then I could go home when I wanted. My wound was also redressed, and I took a picture of it so I could gross out my friends. I also discovered that I had been glued instead of stitched or stapled, which I like because it means I don't have to go back for the staples to be taken out. When Mum came at 2.30pm, she helped me hobble out to the bathroom and she washed my hair, which was the nicest feeling ever, as it hadn't been washed in a few days. So after I had violated the visitor number by about 9 people, Mum packed up my things and I was wheeled to the front door where I awkwardly got into the car and Mum carefully drove me home. Once home I established myself in front of the TV and stayed there until I had to go to bed. I also sneezed for the first time since my surgery and wow did that hurt.
Day 6
My first night at home was weird because I had no footpumps to constantly pummel my feet and no trough in which to place my leg to prevent it from rolling out. Instead I had a pillow and a rolled up blanket which roasted my leg. I also had to sleep with 2 pillows, which I'm not used to because if i slept with one pillow, it felt as if my wound were being pulled, which was understandably not confortable. My friends came round and we spent a lot of time watching films which was nice.
Day 7
Isn't it funny how when you can't do something it's the one thing you want to do. Well sometimes when I have been sitting for a while, it feels like there is nothing wrong with my hip and I just want to get up and walk around, or sit cross legged, or sit in funny positions on the sofa. Also I have no bruising at all which is good, as some people get lots of bruising. But my tummy is all swollen and makes me look all bloated, and it hurts when I am bloated because it pulls on all the muscles. I have a district nurse coming to our house tomorrow to change my dressing but I think that's going to hurt, as the sticky bit on the dressing is covering some of the actual wound :S. I'm still taking paracetamol, iron and ibruprofen for it, but I'm not taking the tramidol, as it makes me feel really sick, and the pain isn't that bad. Well, it's not specifically pain per se, its more achy and stiff than anything else. There are benefits of being unable to do normal things and being housebound. I'm reading as if I was on holiday and before my op I went down to the library and got a huge pile of books to work my way through. Alongside lots of books I also have lots of chocolate to work through, and considering my appetite is considerably less than what it was before it's going to take me ages!
Day 1
Well, inevitably the 22nd of July came round and after packing my bags the night before with Mum, having my two showers in HiBi scrub, we nervously drove to the Conquest Hospital. After arriving at the Richard Ticehurst unit, I was told to make my way to the Cookson Attenborough ward, and was shown to my bay, B5. There were already 4 people in the bay, ranging from ages 40-92! I was by far the youngest at 17. During the morning I was told I was second on the list, due to be wheeled down the Operating Theatre at about 10.30am. I was visited by the anaethetist, who told me I'd have a spinal and a general anaesthetic - I promptly broke down in tears, as I am needle-phobic, and to make matters worse, he said that it's a very painful injection - great. One of the sisters on the ward, Nicky, tried to reassure me, and said that I didn't need to worry, and that I could have my general before my spinal so I wouldn't feel it. That helped calm me down a little.
I was dreading the time when the operating team would come down in their scrubs and take me away to the theatre, but that time came and I cried again, more out of fear of the unknown than anything else, this being my first time under general anaesthetic. As I was wheeled through, my Mum came with me, and I was introduced to Dr Gould, a different anaesthetist from who I saw originally and he was a complete sweetheart. He even put a baby canula in for my general so it didn't hurt too much. As I started to feel a bit zoned out, I remember him talking to me about it feeling similar to feeling drunk, and as my face began to tingle the last thing I remember saying was "This feels weird".
The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery, feeling very drained and out of it. I can vaguely remember asking where I was and what time it was. Bob - the man with me in recovery, told me it was just after 2.30pm, I'd been in theatre for a good 4 hours. He fixed me up with a drip and gave me a unit of my own blood, which they had collected whilst I was in theatre, cleaned and gave back to me. After that he pricked my finger to test my Haemoglobin levels, and was about to give me 2 more units of blood, when Mr Apthorp stopped them. He reasoned that I was young and fit and healthy and should be able to replenish the blood myself. So, at 3.30pm I was wheeled back to the Cookson Attenborough ward where my family, Mum, Dad and sister Jo, greeted me. I had a catheter in and had to drink plenty so my Mum fed me orange squash through a straw as I lifted the oxygen mask - which made my nose itch! I don't remember much more of the day, as I drifted in and out of sleep. One thing that arose was that my blood pressure was extrememly low - at its lowest it was 64/31, and I was very anaemic.
That night I had my blood pressure, saturation levels and temperature taken every 2 hours, which meant that I didn't get much sleep. I was still woozy from the anaesthetic, but because I had a spinal, I had relatively low pain in my hip.
Day 2
I can't really remember much of the morning as I spent most of it drifting in and out of sleep. I
refused to eat as the medicine I was taking - paracetamol and oral morphine (it tastes like neat alcohol) - was making me feel sick. I do remember the physios coming in to try and sit me up, but as my blood pressure and blood levels were so low, I fainted and the bed had to be moved so that my feet were higher than my head to get the blood back to my brain. In the afternoon my parents, grandparents, my best friend and a couple of other friends came round to see me, exceeding the 2 people limit several times, but as the ward was relatively quiet, they didn't seem to mind much. Mum also bought me the 3 day TV, internet and radio package which provided entertainment for when they had gone at 8pm.
Day 3
I slept better and I had my drip taken away, but I was still being rudely awakened by the nurses doing my obs. I managed a few mouthfuls of toast, but food really wasn't appealing to me still. The physios came again to try and sit me up, which I managed for a few minutes before I fainted again. When I came round my bed was again tilted and I had a fan on. My Mum had also just arrived and she told me I blended into the pillow I was so white. In the evening just before Mum was due to go home, Mother Nature decided she'd be cruel and send my period a week early, so I had another thing to deal with and more blood loss, which in my state of anaemia wasn't good. Mr Apthorp still refused to let me have a transfusion. I also had a scary encounter at about midnight. I'd fallen asleep watching the BBC News at 10pm, and I'd woken up to see the film 'Halloween: The Resurrection' and it took me a few minutes in my sleepy state to realise that I had to turn the tv off for it to go away - this amused my best friend when I told her, she likes to laugh at my misfortunes.
Day 4
Saturday 25th July. I was starting to become very frustrated because I kept fainting and wasn't making any progress, and I wanted my catheter to come out. When the physio visited me in the morning she was accompanied by a nurse and they managed to stand me up and I managed to walk a few steps before I fainted again. This time, because the nurse had been in with me, she came back some time later with a doctor who asked how I was feeling. I was completely truthful with him, I said I felt awful, light-headed and sick. He then made the decision to give me blood finally. However, this brought up the problem of which canula to put the blood through. The baby one on the back of my hand leaked because it was too small, and the one on the back of my other hand could be flushed but it wouldn't take the blood. They called an IV lady and she started to squeeze the tube and I have honestly not experienced pain like it. It stung, and made my whole hand ache. It felt like someone was pouring antiseptic down my veins, and I cried and cried until she stopped, took the tube out and said that the vein wasn't big enough. So she put a tourniquet on my right arm and put a new canula in a vein in the crook of my elbow, which mercifully took the blood. It took about an hour and a half for the first unit of blood to transfuse and even after one unit I was feeling so much better, and the nurses were commenting on how I had more colour in my cheeks. After the second unit I felt a completely different person and the nurse came along with a Zimmer frame and a pair of crutches, turfed out all my visitors and got me up. I could stand without fainting, it was such a good feeling and she managed to walk me from my bed to the doorway of the bay and back again. When I sat back down on my bed I felt so proud of myself because I was finally making progress, and my parents were really happy with my progress. I will never ever underestimate the power of blood again.
Day 5
I woke to find a nurse pulling my curtains and announcing that she was going to take my catheter out. It was uncomfortable, but I was happy to be able to hobble out the the bathroom and have a proper wash for the first time in a few days. Also that morning Mr Apthorp came to see me and asked me how I was feeling, which I gave him a thumbs up and told him I was feeling much better. He told me that if I wanted to I could go home today because I had made so much progress in such a short period of time, and that if the nurses took me to the physio room and I could practise the stairs then I could go home when I wanted. My wound was also redressed, and I took a picture of it so I could gross out my friends. I also discovered that I had been glued instead of stitched or stapled, which I like because it means I don't have to go back for the staples to be taken out. When Mum came at 2.30pm, she helped me hobble out to the bathroom and she washed my hair, which was the nicest feeling ever, as it hadn't been washed in a few days. So after I had violated the visitor number by about 9 people, Mum packed up my things and I was wheeled to the front door where I awkwardly got into the car and Mum carefully drove me home. Once home I established myself in front of the TV and stayed there until I had to go to bed. I also sneezed for the first time since my surgery and wow did that hurt.
Day 6
My first night at home was weird because I had no footpumps to constantly pummel my feet and no trough in which to place my leg to prevent it from rolling out. Instead I had a pillow and a rolled up blanket which roasted my leg. I also had to sleep with 2 pillows, which I'm not used to because if i slept with one pillow, it felt as if my wound were being pulled, which was understandably not confortable. My friends came round and we spent a lot of time watching films which was nice.
Day 7
Isn't it funny how when you can't do something it's the one thing you want to do. Well sometimes when I have been sitting for a while, it feels like there is nothing wrong with my hip and I just want to get up and walk around, or sit cross legged, or sit in funny positions on the sofa. Also I have no bruising at all which is good, as some people get lots of bruising. But my tummy is all swollen and makes me look all bloated, and it hurts when I am bloated because it pulls on all the muscles. I have a district nurse coming to our house tomorrow to change my dressing but I think that's going to hurt, as the sticky bit on the dressing is covering some of the actual wound :S. I'm still taking paracetamol, iron and ibruprofen for it, but I'm not taking the tramidol, as it makes me feel really sick, and the pain isn't that bad. Well, it's not specifically pain per se, its more achy and stiff than anything else. There are benefits of being unable to do normal things and being housebound. I'm reading as if I was on holiday and before my op I went down to the library and got a huge pile of books to work my way through. Alongside lots of books I also have lots of chocolate to work through, and considering my appetite is considerably less than what it was before it's going to take me ages!
Friday, 3 July 2009
Pre-Op Assessment and random ramblings
Hi, it's now only 19 days until my surgery and I must admit I'm starting to become a little nervous. Last Friday I had my pre-op at the Conquest Hospital and Val (the lovely nurse who did my pre-op) filled out a questionnaire (which I must say was aimed at old people!) and took my height and weight, my blood pressure, conducted an ECG scan and then some other nasty stuff which I'd rather not indulge. Also I was a complete and utter wimp when she tried to take some blood as I really don't like needles or blood tests, and ended up being sent to pathology because I had tensed up and not enough blood came out. I was then a complete wimp in pathology but managed to have enough blood taken. The lady at the desk then promptly gave me a bag of Haribo and a starburst! :) I walked out of hospital with two gauzes and micropore all over my arms, which really hurt when it had to come off, which it had to really, because I had a Sports Awards Evening for college that night.
I go on holiday next week to Skiathos, Greece, for a week and I'm soooooooo excited. We come back on the 17th of July, the day before my birthday and after that I'm really busy cramming anything I can in before I go into hospital, which includes a swimming gala in Croyden on my birthday, work twice on the 19th, then hopefully going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on the Monday and then who knows what on the Tuesday morning, then it's up ridiculously early on Wednesday as I'm required to be in hospital at 7.15am - what a silly time. So yeah, I'm a rather busy body when I come back from holiday :)
Will update soon
xxxxxx
I go on holiday next week to Skiathos, Greece, for a week and I'm soooooooo excited. We come back on the 17th of July, the day before my birthday and after that I'm really busy cramming anything I can in before I go into hospital, which includes a swimming gala in Croyden on my birthday, work twice on the 19th, then hopefully going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on the Monday and then who knows what on the Tuesday morning, then it's up ridiculously early on Wednesday as I'm required to be in hospital at 7.15am - what a silly time. So yeah, I'm a rather busy body when I come back from holiday :)
Will update soon
xxxxxx
Friday, 27 February 2009
Me, My Hip Problems, The Date and Emma :)
Hullo :). My name is Catherine and I'm currently 16 years old and happily at college. I am a sporty young person who competitively swims with 1066 Swimmers at County standard and holds a joint World Record for 100,000m with 9 other U18 rowers from Bexhill College.
I was told I had Hip Displasia about 3 years ago, after experiencing joint 'clicks' and pain during and after exercise. I was referred to a number of consultants for various scans (MRI, CT and X-Ray) and was finally referred to Mr Hugh Apthorp. After previously been told that I didn't/wouldn't require surgery, Mr Apthorp dropped the sudden bombshell that I would require a PAO (periacetabular osteotomy). This would mean that the area around my hip joint (acetabulum) would be cut, then repositioned and pinned to create, effectively, a new and better hip joint, without replacing any of the exisiting bone, thus not introducing the risks of rejection.
Initially, the news of having an operation daunted me, as I was only 15 at the time, and I thought that my swimming career would be over. I shed a few tears that evening but after the support of my family and friends (who promised to bring me chocolate and the biggest card they could find in Clintons), I grew accustomed to the fact that it's something that has to be done for my own good.
After meeting a wonderful lady named Emma, who wrote a blog on here (paohipsurgery.blogspot.com), I had many of my fears calmed as she had had the surgery 4 1/2 months previously and was making a fantastic recovery. It was also Emma who inspired me to write this blog, as she had done. I wanted to write one for the younger people who were going to undergo this surgery, as my view as a older teenager was likely to be very different to that of a 34 year old mother of two :). I must thank her for spending her time talking to me, and for giving me the link to her blog, which has answered any unasked questions and given some handy hints to cure the boredom of the first fairly immobile weeks :P.
I now have a date set for my surgery, which is the 22nd July'09, 4 days after my 17th birthday and in the 2nd week of my summer holidays. I will keep this posted on anything interesting that happens between now and then, and will write more nearer the day.
Much Love
I was told I had Hip Displasia about 3 years ago, after experiencing joint 'clicks' and pain during and after exercise. I was referred to a number of consultants for various scans (MRI, CT and X-Ray) and was finally referred to Mr Hugh Apthorp. After previously been told that I didn't/wouldn't require surgery, Mr Apthorp dropped the sudden bombshell that I would require a PAO (periacetabular osteotomy). This would mean that the area around my hip joint (acetabulum) would be cut, then repositioned and pinned to create, effectively, a new and better hip joint, without replacing any of the exisiting bone, thus not introducing the risks of rejection.
Initially, the news of having an operation daunted me, as I was only 15 at the time, and I thought that my swimming career would be over. I shed a few tears that evening but after the support of my family and friends (who promised to bring me chocolate and the biggest card they could find in Clintons), I grew accustomed to the fact that it's something that has to be done for my own good.
After meeting a wonderful lady named Emma, who wrote a blog on here (paohipsurgery.blogspot.com), I had many of my fears calmed as she had had the surgery 4 1/2 months previously and was making a fantastic recovery. It was also Emma who inspired me to write this blog, as she had done. I wanted to write one for the younger people who were going to undergo this surgery, as my view as a older teenager was likely to be very different to that of a 34 year old mother of two :). I must thank her for spending her time talking to me, and for giving me the link to her blog, which has answered any unasked questions and given some handy hints to cure the boredom of the first fairly immobile weeks :P.
I now have a date set for my surgery, which is the 22nd July'09, 4 days after my 17th birthday and in the 2nd week of my summer holidays. I will keep this posted on anything interesting that happens between now and then, and will write more nearer the day.
Much Love
Catherine xxx
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