Hip Surgery

Talking about diseases is annoying and a killer of any good conversation. So, you are welcome to ignore this blog about my hip surgery at Loretto Hospital in Freiburg last Monday afternoon.

I didn't want to have done anything anymore to my body at my age, but the operation became unavoidable. I have been struggling with my joint since 2007.

On October 23, a Friday afternoon – bad things always happen on the weekend - the pain in my right leg suddenly became unbearable on my way home, so I could barely make it to my apartment. Over the following long weekend, moving around in my apartment, supported by a walking stick, I completed my medical record, prepared my patient file, informed my orthopedist, and contacted my health insurance.

The following Monday, at 8 a.m., I took a taxi to the nearby Loretto hospital. Still, when I announced my desire to be taken in charge, the lady at the reception of the orthopedics department told me," If you have pain, you must go to the outpatient clinic."

When I insisted, a doctor came from behind, "This week, there are school holidays in Baden-Württemberg. I am alone in the department. Let the receptionist give you an appointment." She offered me to come to a first examination on October 28, at 2 p.m. This was early.

The x-ray showed the devastating condition of my right hip that I discussed with Dr. Rütschi, the specialist who is not only well known in Freiburg as the master of artificial hips. People come to the Lorettokrankenhaus from all over Germany to get defective joints replaced.

Rütschi, the *real stable genius, looked at his schedule hanging from the wall, found a slot that had become free due to the Corona pandemic, and said, "I'll fit you in." He then determined the date of my surgery for Monday, November 16. This was late, but the earliest date that I could get.

On the one hand, many people afraid of going to a hospital in times of Corona have their surgery canceled or postponed, thus opening slots for other suffering people like me. On the other hand, during the following two weeks, Red Baron lived in a mounting feeling of angst that the replacement of his right hip might be postponed due to hospitalizations of Corona patients. Their number was and still is steadily increasing as new cases surge in Germany.

Eventually, my tension dropped when I underwent my entrance examination at the Lorettokrankenhaus on November 12. They wouldn't let me suffer four long hours for nothing? And so it was.

I entered the hospital on November 15, a lazy Sunday afternoon, but suddenly on Monday morning, Dr. Rütschi entered my room with the shocking message, "We have to postpone your operation. Your blood value is not good enough yet. Maybe in the afternoon. "At home, I had brought down my haemodilution-value to 1.4 on Saturday morning, assuming that the INR would have decreased to 1.0 valid for an average person by Monday morning. The medical people administered vitamin K to accelerate the degradation of the blood thinner.

Eventually, at 1 p.m. - my hair covered by a thin net - the anesthetists rolled me into the vestibule of the operating room … around 4 p.m. I awoke in the recovery room. 

My new hip

I could move my torso. Around me, in the dim light, I distinguished four other people on stretchers and waved to them. I could not sense my lower body, though, and felt bent legs with my soles firmly posed on the stretcher. In reality, my legs were fully stretched as I saw for myself.

Me and my walking buck

After the first night with my new hip, I had a good feeling, for the pain was quite bearable. Five days after surgery, I only notice postoperative pain in my leg when I walk, leaning heavily on a Gehbock (walking buck). This support is safer than a walker with wheels. The annoying part is that one has to carry the buck before the body, displacing it when advancing.

The coming Monday, I shall be transferred to a REHA, a rehabilitation clinic in a Freiburg suburb, for three weeks. For re-learning walking, the method of choice is crutches but suffering from balance problems, Red Baron has ordered a Hochrollator, i. e., a high walker with arm supports. Placing the forearms into them while walking will relieve weight from the body on my legs.

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