Post Pre-Op Appointment

All went well with the pre-op appointment so I can relax a bit now.  Maybe I should have a nap this afternoon :)

Some of the questions that I had left had been answered and I have been given reassurance that I am definitely booked in for bilateral, I will be going to ICU for at least one night post surgery and all is good.  I have had my pre-op blood work done (results still to come in though there shouldn't be any issues based on the blood work I had done about three weeks ago) and had an ECG which apparently looks normal.

I also filled out some surveys relating to pain and mobility and signed a consent form for a tiny little bit of my tissue near the bone to be taken for research.  I asked what happens to the bone that they cut out too and it gets sent off somewhere to maybe be used for something too.

Side Note:  Speaking of research, I have recently been involved as a participant in the Motherhood Choices Survey being run by the University of Western Sydney to develop a decision aid to assist women with rheumatoid arthritis aged 20 - 45 who are considering having children.  If you've come here and meet that criteria, please consider participating as they are still looking for people.  I'm not sure how they will collate the information collected though I hope that it is the start of further research into issues affecting people with arthritis and result in the development of resources, knowledge and communities.

Introduction

The decision to have bilateral hip replacement surgery has taken a little while to come to and has been a consideration for me for some time.  It will take me a number of posts to cover the things that I considered before booking the surgery as well as what I have done since in preparation.  I hope to chronicle the journey from now through rehabilitation and living with new hips in the hope that this information is useful to someone else out there who is in the same situation as I am.

I have done a lot of google searching looking for not only information about the procedure itself, but also the stories of people that have had hip replacements. Of most interest to me are the accounts of women of child bearing age who haven't had children yet and are looking to do so at some point in the future (or maybe have since their op).  I was also interested in hearing the stories of women who have severe hip joint problems primarily caused by arthritis (rheumatoid or other).  Having grown up with a chronic illness that I really didn't want to talk about as a child or even as an adult, it didn't really surprise me that there weren't a lot of personal accounts online.  Thought I don't know what I really expected to find, it certainly was more than what was out there.  I would still love to hear from you and your story if you have been through this, or thinking about going through this.

The story as I tell it here will probably be a little disjointed as a lot has happened leading up to this point which is needed to understand some of how I ended up at this point.  In between the day-to-days activities that are going on in the lead up to and post surgery, I'll do my best to explain the history.

Lori