A 3-hour grind

I was ready to have surgery on Tuesday, but still--- surgery is scary. The IV goes in, the sedative, and after what seems like seconds, you wake up, but hours have passed, during which a team of medical professionals have done a series of things to you that you have absolutely no recollection of. Perhaps they encountered a minor emergency. Perhaps they encountered a big one. Perhaps they had a question that only you could answer-- is this the hair transplant guy or the hip surgery guy... or the transgender patient. The point is-- you're gone, out, and you can only hope they do the right things. Before going under, they gave me a pen and asked me to sign my affected hip-- extra assurance, but it only made my mind run wild as I waited my turn.

I was in surgery for 3 hours. My doc was very upbeat when we talked the next day. He showed me lots of pictures of what he did-- various shots of instruments cutting, shaving, grinding into bone, cartilage, it's hard to tell-- I call it arthro-porn. I could sense genuine pride in what he'd accomplished. What I call the "money shot" was a before and after x-ray of the femoral neck-- distinct bumps before grinding, no bumps afterwards. The labrum looked good-- the repair from a year ago had taken. The entire 3 hours of surgery was spent grinding on my femur-- osteoplasty. How boring that must have been.... This is to fix my femoral acetabular impingement (FAI) which wasn't quite fixed in my last surgery.

I'm not sure what that means for my recovery-- it would make sense that grinding on some bone wouldn't require much recovery when compared to labral repair. And 3 days after surgery I'm already able to walk without pain. I'm still using the a crutch to get around some, but I can tell that it won't be long before I toss it. I've been riding the stationary bike also-- 15 minutes last night. For comparison, I was 3 weeks post-surgery before I could do these things a year ago. Everything looks and feels good. They even used the same holes in the side of my buttock from last time, so no new scars on my ass, not that I'm concerned or anything.

But to be honest, I'm afraid to get too excited.