After Surgery

From what I remember the surgery took about 4 hours. When I woke up later in recovery I immediately felt awful pain in my left hip. I was set up on a morphine drip so as soon as it kicked in I was ok, it was just a bit uncomfortable. The morphine made me feel spaced out and after a while very itchy. I had a bandage over my wound and couldn't move my leg, which was put into a foam trough to raise it slightly. I had to wear an oxygen mask for several hours after the operation, and was connected to a machine monitoring my blood pressure and oxygen levels. I was also attached to a drip, and had a catheter for a few days until I could walk to the loo. As well as the attractive white stockings (which I had to wear for 6 weeks) I also had to wear foot pumps which punch you in the feet every few seconds to get the blood going round to prevent clotting.
It's very common to lose a lot of blood during the operation but rather that having a blood transfusion they recycle your own blood. You may find they take some blood when you are back on the ward to check whether you are anaemic.
I had my operation on the Wednesday morning and for the first couple of days you do not get up. After a while it becomes really uncomfortable not being able to move around and you spend a lot of time trying to get comfortable by sitting up a bit more. If you have a drip in your hand, it can be difficult to use this hand when pushing yourself up the bed.
As you are unable to get to the toilet you are likely to need a bedpan for bowel movements. I was grateful that I didn't need to go during the first few days, i managed to wait until I could make it to the toilet! I found it difficult to go for a few days as the pain killers seemed to constipate me, which I believe is quite common.
I was very emotional after the operation and I would start to cry at the silliest of things.