Surgery 2b: groundhog day

The second surgery got off to a wobbly start in that I was told to report too early, to the wrong place, in a hospital that does not do or handle surgeries like this on the weekend. But we found a helpful person who connected us with people who were in fact looking for me. I was back in the same room that I had just left 10 days before ( it is not good when the staff remembers you!).

The surgery was short and sweet (I had a general this time, no stinking spinal (see earlier post)). The original cup was hand-loose, and although some extra cutting was needed to insure that the replacement with screws went in for sure, things went well and I was out in about 40 minutes. I woke up feeling great, and relieved that I was back in one piece with the Birmingham hip intact. I was able to head home after two days, given that this surgery was not quite as major.

We never really had an explanation for how the cup could have popped out so quickly. There was no recorded fall or incident that I had. True, my leg was numb for too long after surgery, but I didn't try walking on it or anything. Dr. Ferrante said that is went in well and firm. ALl I can figure is that the press fit was just barely ok, and it popped out under a fairly minor nudge in normal use. There's no point in blame for anyone because there is no evidence of anything particular happening, and the repair worked out. 

But... if you feel lots of sudden shifts and motion in the days post surgery, don't wait: see you surgeon. I would have saved myself a bunch of wasted recovery days if I had reported the systems and asked for an examination and x-ray.