Recovering from Surgery

The day of surgery I was fairly loopy and slept a lot.  The next day, I got to get up and walk with a walker. 

Walking was great in that twice a day I got up and walk around and it felt better than the last time I got up and walked around.  By the next day, I'd made it out the door and down the hall though, and on day 3 post-surgery, I graduated from a walker to crutches.

Physiotherapy!

By day 3 I was off all the drips and tubes, which was good. I also got new x-rays so that Dr. Bose could see the positioning of the implant, and all looked well.

In the meantime, my husband Ted was great about adjusting and fixing the bed, the blankets, the pillow, hoisting my leg back onto the bed, opening jelly packets, all the important stuff that I couldn't quite do on my own.  He was able to stay with me in the room - there was a 'companion' cot in the room as well as my hospital bed.  We apparently don't have a photo with his bed made (which is surprising to me, as he did make his bed every day), so you'll just have to excuse us - this view is standing in the doorway.

Companion cot, door to bathroom, my bed off to the right

Here are a few pictures of what we could see out our windows.  The large white building is the Rain Tree Anna Salai hotel, where we would have stayed our first night (had the flights gone according to plan), but also were we would stay on our last night in Chennai.

By this time, I was amazed at the progress I'd made and in some ways I was wishing I felt better; I think that's normal.

I called Day 4 post surgery a 5-star day!!  We had many achievements.

First, my PT (we call it "physiotherapy" in India) told me he was very pleased with how I'd done. I could do all of the exercises that he'd been doing with me twice a day without any assistance, and then... I got to do stairs with the crutches.  I'm only sorry that Ted was not there to document it.  This was the final milestone I had to pass to be discharged!  So the next day we could be on the way to the Fisherman's Cove Resort until we come back to the hospital on Saturday for a final checkup.

Day 4 is ALSO the day they give you a waterproof dressing for the incision, so I was able to shower for the first time in four days.  The nurses were laughing and touching my hair once it was clean again - I had just been pulling it back into a ponytail, and after washing it, it was kind of frizzy/wavy/air-dried.

Ted had an adventure to the immigration office to get one more piece of paper we allegedly have to have to leave - some sort of "exit permit".  Only this trip was only the first one, he had to go back the next day to GET the paper.  He was gone for a bit longer than two of hours, and describes it thusly: "Think of the DMV. However it included no ticket numbers, just a poorly organized seated sort of line up, where chairs were placed tightly together, and when the person ahead of you moved, you were supposed to move, before someone else sat down.  Also up at the front of the line were always four or five people either returning with new information or just plain cutting in line.  Oh, also, there were no writing surfaces – no tables, counters, clipboards, so you had to manage filling out all your papers on your knee, while you were defending your spot."

This sounds exactly like driving in India.  There are lanes drawn on the road, but the object really is to cram as many vehicles into the width of the road as possible – trucks, vans, cars, little three-wheelers and motorbikes with anywhere from 1 to 4 people on them!  Actually we only saw 4 twice – small child in front of dad driving, mom side-saddle on the back, holding on to dad with one hand, holding the baby.  But we caught a picture of one of the families!

Family of four on a bike

I saw a dad with his two boys behind him, the smaller one seeming to be sleeping right behind dad, with big brother behind the small one, keeping him on the bike.  It’s great fun to watch, but I think I would not ever like to have a go driving here.