Left hip pain/surgery

I had a surgery date to have my right hip replaced. Then the left hip began to misbehave. On 5/17/2021 constant sharp pain at left hip and knee, pain level 8. Aggravated by walking. Not sensitive to touch. Hip pain, sharp and boring. moderate 5-7. both L,R hip/knee pain awaken me at night

5/21 Ecises (from Pete Egoscue book, "Painfree") done at 0645. Maybe less knee pain. Swim hip pain when backstroking. 2 ES Tylenol at 1300. Exercises not working for hip arthritis.

1500 visit to KP with J Ernst. Internal rotation of femur >>pain hip and knee. Ernst Injected hip bursa >>relief (?) with internal femur rotation. 

2200 Sharp pain in L knee, inferior and lateral to kneecap. ES Tylenol taken. 2220 Cold compress applied to knee.

June 1. Pre-op visit with Dr Darrin Trask. All set for surgery on the 9th. 

June 9. 0610 at the surgery center. Some anxiety (blood pressure of 179/ ) IV start. A few minutes and a walk to the OR.a memory of walking into the OR, getting onto the operating table breathing Oxygen through the mask. Nothing else until I woke up in the recovery room. Surgery done at about 10.  not ready for a short walk - puked up some ginger ale. Back to 30 minute naps until the anesthesia wore off. I asked the nurse about the half life of fentanyl--she reads from her phone "one minute and eighteen minutes" completely confusing me. Finally about 1600, up with the walker. To the bathroom, and then readied for discharge. Then to Lydia's basement to my cot and mattress

. I kept sips of water down and slept until morning. Two hundred micrograms of fentanyl messed me up. Will they use it again next time?.   Fentanyl for outpatient surgery? Not sufentanil, or alfentanil?  

I used the walker for a few days. The hip felt like I'd been punched in the upper thigh, like I had a Charlie horse. Going upstairs on the third post operative day, I felt like that leg was weaker or at least inhibited by a the Charlie horse.  At 5 days I went to Kaiser for PT - Tracy moved me to a cane. I was ready for that .

20 days after the surgery I felt well enough to walk and hit tennis balls, even if the left hip was causing severe pain after and sometimes during. After a few more weeks of this, I began the process of getting my left hip operated. I finally had a surgery date: October 13th.

On the morning of October 13, I went into the surgery center, told the anesthesiologist, Dr Lemoine, that I took a long time to awaken after the first hip surgery. I left the surgery center 3 hours earlier than the first time. Since I slept poorly the night before, I napped a lot. The next day, I used the walker to get around, but just a trekking pole to go upstairs.

On post-op day 4, I walked a quarter mile outside. On post-op day 5, I noticed swelling on my lateral leg and remembered the same swelling after my other hip surgery. On day 6, before getting in the shower I noticed my left calf was a little larger than my right. I squeezed it for 10 seconds and left the imprint of my thumb and index finger. The swelling in the lateral thigh and the calf comes from fluid accumulation because the surgical incision interrupts the lymphatics from that part of the legs--after a week or three the cut lymph vessels find their way back to each other or make new channels (Google "do lymphatics regenerate?"). On day 7, I elevated my leg a few times. I walked around the block - distance 0.4 mi. Somehow, the message hadn't gotten to Kaiser physical therapy that I was having surgery, so I just used the PT worksheet I'd kept from my first operation and did the exercises. 

March 2022. Life is great.I drove to Vegas.  I replaced a reverse osmosis filter in my Moms house. I replaced a dishwasher.  Moving well on the tennis courts. Too well. I pulled a hip flexor muscle and slowed down to let it heal. I played some doubles and won all my service games.