On the day of your surgery you'll go to Patient Registration
located on the ground floor across from the Gift Shop. Patient Registration
opens at 6:00 a.m.
You go to the admittance, every time you go to the hospital you go there first
and then they take you to the Day Surgery, they get you ready,
you get into your gown and you're sitting in kind of a lounge
waiting. I think I only waited 45 minutes, if, that and then
they called our names then we both walked down to the
surgical area together. It was kind of surreal.
Before the surgery begins you'll have an opportunity to speak with the surgeon,
you'll also meet the anesthetist, the OR nurse and other members of the team.
The surgeon comes by along with the anesthesiologist and
try to put you at ease.
I think you walk into the operating room as well
and they give you the intravenous to make you sleepy.
But then I also had a spinal which I've never have before and that made me a bit nervous
because I've never had one but
there was nothing to it.
Before the surgery I got an epidural and they wait until
they're absolutely sure you can't feel anything in the affected
lower part of your body. The surgery took
about an hour and 15 minutes. I was surprised at how efficient it was.
After the surgery is complete, you'll be moved to the Post Anesthetic Care Unit
or PACU
where you'll be observed closely. You will likely stay in the recovery area for 2
to 3 hours.
Once the PACU team is satisfied with your recovery
you'll be transferred up to the inpatient floor for your post-operative care.
Welcome to for 4 West, the orthopedic floor. While you're on the floor
you'll see physiotherapists, physiotherapist assistants and
occupational therapists.
The therapy team will teach you how to get in and out of bed,
how to walk with a walker, how to get up and down stairs
and some exercises which will improve your mobility
over the short term. The occupational therapist will teach you techniques to
get in and out of the bathroom
and will also go over some equipment which will make your life easier
when you get home.
On the first day after the operation they let me walk, maybe half a block or 1/4 block
and then the second day they let me climb the stairs going
up and down.
It was a a very good experience in the orthopedic ward. The very first day
after the surgery the physio came around,
they do encourage you to get out of bed and sit in a chair
but they also encourage you to
start your physio immediately following the surgery.
And then the next day they come out and try to get a little bit
farther out and you're feeling more confident with it
and I think you want to get up and move around. So I started
walking around the halls myself each day I went a little bit farther
and then
the physiotherapist team came in to show you the bed exercises which are
important.
And the one thing they really stress is the
wiggling of your feet and your ankles because of blood clots
and that just get helps keep things clear. You do have blood thinners
but just as a precaution and you keep on doing them for a while.
And then, I think it was the day before I went home,
they took me to the stairs and show you how to go down the stairs, come up the stairs
and they had to do it one more time to make sure before I could go home
to make sure I could handle the stairs okay and you surprise yourself how well
you do it.
Pain control is an important part of your recovery. If your pain is not well
controlled
please inform the staff immediately as there is a pain service team
that can make adjustments to your pain medication so that you can perform the
activities that you need to
to recover from your surgery.
If you don't take the sufficient medication or try to skip some of it
you will not be able to do the rehab work that you need to do
because it may hurt to do that. So
they encourage you to take the recommended dosages which I did
and I never experienced any pain
and I was able to do all the
rehab exercises that my physio
wanted me to do and thought were necessary.