Surgery and the Hips - Part 1

Finally, I got the call saying that my surgery time was 11:30am and I had to be there by 9:30am. Going through Registration, I find that there's been some changes in the way ASL interpreter requests are handled. According to the Registration person and interpreter, there was a case in 2010 that was settled in 2011.

Hospital fined for failure to accommodate
Inova Health System settles with Justice Department

Definitely an improvement there. I had interpreters the entire time I was there, even at night. One nurse I talked with briefly mentioned what they went through in the training classes related to this. I half expected him to show one of his test papers, after talking with him about how the classes went.

Going through prep, it was painful enough having someone lift my left leg onto the wheelchair footrest and prep bed. One of the people I talked with was the anesthesiologist. He tried learning some sign and got everyone in the room laughing a bit when he got a couple signs wrong, then right. We talked about what he was going to give me and so on. The surgeon came in briefly and we wrote in the area where the incision was to be. Other people came in as well. I also had an epidural, or spinal block, right before heading into the operating room.

Going into the operating room, I wasn't able to make note of the room number like last time. I was awake just long enough to take a quick look around the room before going under. What made things different here was the fact that I was requested to leave my hearing aids on as they were going to talk with me some before the actual surgery started. Only thing is that they said I wouldn't remember it and they were right. I didn't wake up in the recovery room, rather, in the operating room. My arms were out on my sides and there was a sheet blocking my view from the stomach down. All that was taken down just before going to the recovery room where I spent about an hour. Total time going through both was about 4 hours.

Then my bed was wheeled to where I would be for the next few days. Interestingly enough, it was room 404. You may recognize 404 as being a "not found" error on a website.

Next - Part 2