Sutures

Sorry there wasn't much forewarning about this post.  It's not only graphic, it has nudity.  Here are the sutures, 2 days after surgery.  Looks a little painful but it's not that bad, really.  Notice the surgeon's initial, JNP, to the left of the wound.  When I was in pre-op, I tried to take the pen from the surgeon and annotate my hips.  This was because my friend Geoff suggested it.  Smiley face on the left one, "NOT THIS HIP" on the right, "leave this area alone" near the middle, (forgetting that I'd get a catheter).  The surgeon knew I was hopped up on goofballs and smiled at me and kindly reminded me that he uses the pen and I point to the hip that will get worked on.  He put's his initials on it and then I guess folks in the OR all come around and say, "yup, that's the hip the patient pointed to".  Double-checking is a good thing.

At the pre-admissions conference, the nurse asked me what I was coming to Swedish for and replied, "well you should know, didn't the surgeon tell you when he sent all the lab work over?", she kindly replied, "we KNOW what we are doing to you, you just need to tell us, so that everything lines up.", "oh, I see".  Again, Double-checking is a good thing.

BTW - the cut is long so that the surgeon can have some room to work.  When you do resurfacing you need some room to dislocate, get the tools in there to grind the femur top, grind the cup area in the acetabulum, and be able to sight the angles and make sure it all lines up right.  None of the muscles below get cut, they just get moved over a little.