Part 2 Plus Surgery!

This is the pretend like Amy Layne was here face!

Beautiful view from the Y!

After I went to hike the Y. The only time I had done that before was with Amy Fowler Layne 6 years ago. It was a ton of fun and kind of a last hurrah before surgery.

I drove to SLC to my grandma’s house. I got to talk with her for 20-30 minutes. She was doing a lot better than I felt like I had been told so that made me happy. She is always so fun to talk to and has so many stories to tell.

I went to Quebe’s place and got to tour it. We then went to this delicious diner. We also got frozen yogurt afterward. I got to the airport and started cleaning out the car when I realized that I had the cake batter pie in the back and didn’t give it to Quebes. So, instead I got to enjoy it again!

This picture is for my father-in-law, because he likes Roy Rogers.

At security I went in a line without the body scanner. The man in front of me kept going off so they asked me to go through the body scanner. I said I’d rather just go through the x-ray machine. They told me that I had to go through the body scanner or get a pat down. So, I opted for the pat down. It really wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. I didn’t get touched anywhere that I felt like was horrible. The lady was very respectful. It didn’t even take too much more time. I also got to see 2 of my cousins walk by because I took a little longer.

On my flight from Dallas I sat next to a very nice lady and we talked for 1 1/2 of the 2ish hour flight.

Scott picked me up from the airport and we drove down to Nashville that night. We got into Nashville around 1:30 and talked with my cousin and her husband for a little while.

This car was all decked out with guns, horse hooves, and silver dollar pieces.

The next morning we were able to hang out with Zoe and her kids in the morning. We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and also bought tickets to the RCA studio B tour. This was a ton more fun than I thought it would be. The RCA tour was worth every bit. This is the recording studio that Elvis Presley used the most. RCA built a studio that is more than 3 times as big next door for Elvis and he recorded in there once and then said he didn’t like it and recorded in the Studio B (the first studio). The recording studio was really big for now days but pretty small back then. They had the Stienway piano that Elvis recorded on in the studio. They let us sit and play as much as we wanted. Scott sat down and started playing jazz. Everyone was amazed and asked him to play more, but he was modest and let other’s get pictures with it.

Zoe picked us up with her kids and we drove by some famous places like a full sized replica of the Parthanon, some “old money” houses, Alan Jackson’s house (HUGE), and Brooks or Dunn’s house. We went with her to see a house they are thinking about buying and then went to dinner at a Greek restaurant. It was so fun to run around the parking lot with their boys.

We went to tour around the Opry land hotel, which was gorgeous. The next day we thought that my appointment was at 12:00 (that’s what we were told on the phone), but around 10:30 I double checked online and it was supposed to be at 11:00. We ran out of there and went to 3 wrong places before we made it to the right place. I had to get a CT scan and MRI and then when we got to Dr. Byrd’s office, I had to get an X-ray.

Dr. Byrd was amazingly nice. He was a very pleasant Southern Gentelman. He told us that he felt as though surgery was the best plan even though we should stay as far away from surgeons as possible. He also made a joke that the difference between minor and major surgery was that it was minor if it was happening to us and major if it was happening to him. We had questions lined out and pulled those out and said sorry we have a couple questions. He said, “of course! That is a great thing that you wrote down and brought questions!” I felt like I had as much time as I needed with him, it was so nice!

After the appointment, it was 4:30 pm. So it all took 5 ½ hours! We went to a park close to Zoe’s house and went on a 5-mile hike with a ½ mile run in the middle. This was really the last hurrah. Dr. Byrd said no running for 4-6 months! This will be agony. Now I’ll have a count down for when I can run again instead of when I can have surgery.

We both got gussied up when we arrived home. Zoe, Brad and us went to down town and got some Mexican food and then went to Station Inn to listen to Marshall Chapman (girl). The first half was awesome, she was so funny and was extremely good with words. She said that her give-a-pooper gave out a long time ago, so now she plays in gym shorts a tank top and a pearl necklace. After the break this women’s phone kept going off and then she took the battery out, then she took it out to the mailbox, then she realized that it was her other phone so had to turn that one off. Well, Marshall got so upset and cussed at her and then just wasn’t the same afterward. She wasn’t as light and funny.

We went to broadway street afterward and did some bar hopping. There were some awesome bands and it seemed really packed to us even thought Zoe said that it was pretty dead since wed. is a church night. We also went to printer’s ally, which used to be the scandalous place of Nashville, but now we only saw one strip club which happened to have nude karaoke. For some reason we decided to pass.

We got home around 1:00 am the night before surgery. At least I got to party well before I now can’t for a while.

Scott and I woke up at 5:00 so we could leave by 5:30 and get there by 6:00am. I was a little nervous, because last time I got put under I was just miserable. They got me out of the hospital 1 hour after the procedure and I was just so drugged up for so long.

They took me back for pre-op but wouldn’t let Scott come back, which made me very sad. All I want when I am nervous or scared or worried is to have him there with me. They said that it was their medical director’s direction because the rooms are so small and they have had family members pass out during pre-op. After everything was done, Scott got to come back to me. He made me much more calm, even laugh a bit! Oh, what an amazing husband I have!

Dr. Byrd came by to say hi in a full suit and tie! I was taken back and given some happy meds. I always try to hold on as long as I can to reality. I remember being wheeled into the operating room, and then it blanks out. That’s where I have made it every time.

I remember waking up and then Scott being there shortly after. I was freezing cold but they had the bear hugger machine on that they did last time. Now that I tell them I get really cold after anesthesia, they always put that bear hugger on. The first time I went under, I woke up shivering with 4 blankets and then they put a bear hugger on me. I had already gotten so cold that I was shivering for 4-5 hours afterward. The nurse came in and talked to us/mostly Scott about what I could and couldn’t do. Scott helped me get dressed into my black long dress. I did this because I remember hating anything touching my hip after the sports hernia surgeries.

Scott went out to get the car and someone wheeled me out in a wheelchair. We drove past this gas station with frozen yogurt on the way home, so I asked if we could stop. Of course 2-3 hours after surgery I walked into a gas station and got a massive thing of frozen yogurt. It wasn’t as good or cheap as Maverick’s, but still good. They had toppings at this place, which Maverick’s hasn’t upgraded to yet.

After we got to my Cousin’s husband’s parent’s house I fell asleep watching a movie on the couch. I was really in and out for the whole day. I wanted to sleep because I ended up being in quiet a bit of pain, but they told me it would be bad for the first 10 hours and then get better. I tried to watch the bachelorette but I fell asleep again half way through. I hate the feeling of waking up on the couch after a couple hours of sleep, and realizing you have to pull yourself together and make it to bed. This was even worse, because I had to crutch myself upstairs while in pain, just to go to sleep again.

Fortunately, I have an amazing husband who helped me a lot. The next day we took off at 8:00 to go in for a PT/post-op appointment. The PT had someone else in right before us. I got to watch this other girl walk around and get tortured before I went. She seemed like she was in a ton more pain than I was. She couldn’t get around very well at all. It made me feel grateful for how good I was feeling that morning.

We talked with her and her mom a little bit and found out that they were from Cincinnati of all places! We talked about all the crazy Cincinnati things there are and laughed together.

After PT which wasn’t that bad, I had a post-op appointment. He said he had to cut away the bone in 2 places on the acetabulum (hip socket) and also use some stitches to fix the labrum as well. He showed/gave us pictures of the surgery, which usually I love to look at. I watched a whole video of my previous surgery. Since it was recent it did make me cringe a little, seeing inside me and pictures of a metal object cutting away huge chunks of my bone, well they looked huge in a blown up picture. We also got a DVD of the surgery! He said no running for at least 4 months, and we’ll have to see even when that time comes if I should be starting. Again, he spent as much time and more that we needed with him. He gave us numbers to call with questions and sent us on our way.

We did some errands on the way home like the grocery store, and stopped at Target and TJ max to look for some cute summer dresses, since dresses are a lot easier to wear than pants right now. I am not allowed to flex and the hip more than 90 degrees or have any external rotation of the hip. So, I can’t reach my feet (we bought me more flipflops) and it’s almost impossible to get anything over my feet by myself. At TJmax they wouldn’t let Scott come back with me to help. He told the dressing room lady that I had surgery yesterday. She look at us and said “oh uh-huh, sorry, oh!” then proceeded to try to hand me the number 2 while I was trying to crutch back to the room with the clothes. I just looked at her and said, “I can’t take it.” And kept going back to the changing room. This was a stark contrast to when we stopped at Subway and a man ran up from his chair to open the door for me. He said, “I’ve been there.” I think it’ll be very interesting to see how people treat me on crutches.

This was what Scott did to Stitch before he left and he greeted me with some flowers as well. It took me a second look to notice that Scott had made cute crutches for him.

Saturday we went out to get the rest of the things we needed for camp. Then went to Kohls and Mejier to look for more dresses. A woman at Kohls told her daughter to be very careful around me because it looked as though I had a hard enough time already. I went to the bathroom there and a woman got me paper towels and waited for me so she could hold the door for me. At Meijer we found the best dresses/prices. I ended up with 4-5 dresses and 2 shrugs for them. I have a feeling those are going to be my outfits for the next 4 weeks.

New clothes at least made me happy if not for anything else. I have a feeling if I don’t keep myself as busy as I can, I will not be too happy. It is so true that the best thing you can do for self-pity is to do things for other people. 6-8 months without running for a runner is eternity. That will defiantly be a record for 14 years and really probably my entire life from the point I was able to run. I have always enjoyed running. I used to beg my family to play tag with me outside. I would run laps inside our house! Here is the self-pity coming! I’m just glad that hopefully I will be able to do this again without pain.

So, this is the end of the hip saga, or at least the beginning of the end. This has taken a year of our life. Hopefully a year well worth it, but we will find out in the next year. I will keep you updated with my saga of crutches stories that I am sure will happen, and on rehab. I need to make a countdown for days till I can run, 118. That was a lot more days than I was thinking…