I recently had major hip surgery and have been out of class and sitting in a bed for the past two weeks.
I’m really glad I got my hip problem taken care of and am more than lucky to have all my teachers, friends, family, and teammates care for me and be supportive. Getting surgery is scary but definitely exciting because you get to take some time off from being a normal college student. The only thing that was more than awesome about getting my surgery was my super sweet and super sexy surgeon……and getting to hang out with my family was okay, too I guess.
But, it wasn’t all great! Here are some assumptions people make when you get surgery!
Assumption 1. “You’re so lucky you get to miss class!”
At first you might have good and happy feelings about not having to go to class and you get to relax, but the second you realize you’ll have even more work when you get back, that feeling quickly goes away. The only thing worse than going to class, is trying catching up. Trying to do the homework when you weren’t in class when the professor was explaining it is extremely difficult.
Assumption 2. “OMG, you’ll get to eat whatever you want!”
For me this was nowhere near true. You really don’t have an appetite when you get out of the hospital and your meds make you feel nauseous 24/7. For me, food was the last thing on my mind. However, when you do feel better it’s nice to be able to treat yourself to a few goodies and finally eat some care package treats–but that’s maybe a week after surgery.
Assumption 3. “Wow I wish I was having surgery so I can sleep all day!”
For some this might be true, but for me I had to be on a painful machine for hours throughout the day, and the pain was so bad that sometimes I couldn’t sleep. When I wasn’t on the machine I had Physical Therapy and exercises to do, which most post-surgery athletes have to do as well. If I wasn’t busy doing one of those I was busy doing make up work…not fun.
As for sleeping at night, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in is only half the battle. It seems like once you finally get comfortable, you’re so awake from rolling around that you won’t be able to fall asleep anyway. Typical.
Assumption 4. “You’ll get the royal treatment and everyone will have to wait on you.”
At first this was great! My mom and dad spoiled me, my nurses and care takers got me anything I needed, and for once my siblings couldn’t argue that I got to sit in the front seat. But after a while, I realized my family stopped being so eager to help me, and I started to feel like a huge burden.
Being used to doing so many things on your own, like shower, get dressed, carry your plate to the table, get a midnight snack, and just be an individual, suddenly requires help which is frustrating and makes you feel helpess and like a burden.
Assumption 5. “You get to be on good pain meds and be all loopy!”
That was probably the worst part. Yes, at first the pain meds are great because you don’t feel any of the excruciating pain and you feel happy all the time. But the side effects of the medication are horrible. You don’t feel like yourself and you can’t form proper texts or sentences because you can barely open your eyes.
Mine would knock me out for a solid couple of hours, which made me miss when company came to visit. When I was awake for visitors, I was too loopy to have a conversation with them, which is never fun. Something else that’s never fun is being extremely nauseous and having your whole system get messed up.
I also had never had such bad stomach aches until I was on all my pain medications, and it got to the point where now my hip pain from the surgery was less painful than the pain caused by the side effects of the medicine. Not to mention managing how many pills, what time to take them, and which medications to take was exhausting.
After having surgery I have a new appreciation for those who have worse surgeries than I had. I don’t ever wish to have to have surgery again, but now I know what to generally expect if I do ever have to go through this again.
Stay healthy and out of the ER, Collegiettes!