The Day of Surgery

The day of surgery started like any other day, minus my coffee.  I woke up, showered, got dressed and teased Gavin a little.

My surgery outfit

We got on the road about 8 AM to make it to my 9:15 AM call time.  Traffic was stop and go but overall we made good time.  It was normally a 50 minute drive and it probably took about an hour and 10 minutes.

Driving in to San Francisco I saw the most breathtaking view.  It was such a beautiful and calming scene to see before heading into surgery.  The city fog danced across the skyline, while the sun shone down bright from up above.  My photos don't do the view justice at all.  I'm not the best photographer.

Gavin also missed a turn driving to the surgery center and his GPS decided to poop out.  But I remembered how to get there because I had been there once before.  Pretty surprising with my bad memory.

Post Street

Once I got to the surgery center I got to wait in the patient pre-op waiting room, which is really cozy and relaxing.  I got to sit in this comfy chair and there is a tv in the room if I wanted to watch a movie.

waiting for surgery, not my most glamorous moment

All of the staff was super nice and really funny.  They all had really fun and sweet personalities and liked to joke around.  Nothing puts me at ease more than a good joke!  Dr. Sampson, the anesthesiologist and the assisting nurse all came in to check on me and see how I was doing.  In no time it was time for my surgery.

The operating room was freezing.  It was like a refrigerator.  BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

But don't worry, I wont be cold during the surgery.  They have a hose that blows warm air on me while I am under a clear blanket so I will be warm during the surgery.

While the staff prepped for surgery they continued to joke with me and the anesthesiologist even complemented me on my pretty eyes; that was after he saw my boobs. wink wink.

When they were ready they gave me the anesthesia, which was given to me through the IV in my arm which I wasn't expecting it to go in my arm.  I thought I would breath it in.  The anesthesia burned my arm a little, then I felt burning and a weird taste in the back of my throat.  Then I got me "oxygen", that is what they call the happy drug that you breath in, and I coughed about 5 times from the burning in my throat then I was asleep.

I woke up in the recovery room feeling pretty groggy but otherwise okay.  My hip hurt but that was nothing new so the nurse came over and gave me some more drugs but my hip never stopped hurting.  Then Dr. Sampson came in to see me and he told me that my surgery lasted over 3 and a half hours (it was suppose to be one and a half hours) because my labrum was completely gone and because I have avascular necrosis (AVN) in my hip.  Dr. Sampson gave me a new labrum by taking tissue from my muscle and tried to smooth out my hip joint and cut out the dead parts.

Dr. Sampson said we would talk more about it at my next appointment.  I was too groggy to ask questions anyways.

So that is it for my day of surgery experience.  When I talk to Dr. Sampson about the shape my hip is in I will know more and know how to proceed with my AVN hip.  And of course I will share with you my recovery process so far.