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My Experience at Mayo Clinic Rochester
Everyone has an opinion of Mayo Clinic. Whether they’ve been accepted as a patient or denied, people usually have something to say about it. The reviews I heard before going were difficult to follow. They were all specific to doctors or an isolated experience. I wanted to shed light on my experience as a whole. I’ve been treated at Mayo Clinic for a year now. I’ve seen hundreds of doctors and been hospitalized multiple times. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences. This is an overview of my experience at Mayo Clinic Rochester. The first doctor I saw at Mayo Clinic was less than thrilling. I had an anxious stomach…
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I'm Getting My Wisdom Teeth Removed
I’ve chosen to get my wisdom teeth removed. For me, this is a big decision. Any procedure can cause stress to my nervous system. This could increase my daily symptoms making it difficult for me to function. So why now? It’s very simple, they’ve finally become a problem for me. I was told two or three years ago they’d have to be removed. My mouth doesn’t have the space for four extra teeth. I blew it off at the time, thinking I didn’t have the time or it wasn’t worth the hassle. Now, it’s clear that they were right. As my teeth are growing in, it’s causing a lot of…
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How to Prepare for a Tonsillectomy
I got my tonsils out almost six months ago. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Everyone told me ahead of time that it would be the most painful surgery ever, as an adult. They were right, it was painful. I would say it was on par with my other surgeries but it did take a longer recovery time. There are a lot of different things you can do to prepare for this type of surgery so I thought I’d lay them out in a list. Calories That Count In general, after your surgery, you won’t be up for anything more than liquids. It’s important to stay hydrated…
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A Setback
About two weeks ago, I wrote about the progress I was making with my hip. I was thrilled at the prospect of biking thirty minutes each day. I could take long walks without pain or issue. I was elated. Now, I’ve had a setback. It’s not major but any setback can feel like a blow, not only in my progress but to my confidence. I want to trust my hip and allow it to succeed but the more I worked, the more pain came along with it. I discussed this with my physical therapist and even my surgeon. A setback is to be expected here and there but I wasn’t…
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Exercises for After a Hip Arthroscopy
Finding exercises that don’t include your hip feels impossible. At least in my experience. All abdominal exercises and even some arm exercises include the hip. Now I’m not a personal trainer or a physical therapist. I have absolutely no qualifications to tell you how you should or shouldn’t exercise. I’m simply putting this out there because it took around ten hours of google and youtube searching to find exercises. I wanted to recondition my body without involving my hip. Crunches Crunches are a great exercise when you want to work on your abs. It’s the only exercise that I’ve found to be applicable to my situation. I tried a sit…
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Making Progress With My Hip
After my hip surgery, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. For the most part, everyone is excited to see the progress I’ve made. I’m ahead of schedule and my hip is recovering nicely. I was ecstatic to get off crutches but it came with a price. I started to have extra pain in my hip when walking, something I didn’t experience with crutches. This brought me to a difficult fork in the road. Suddenly, I had to scale back what I was doing to accommodate this new change. Even with that set back, I’ve started physical therapy and we can see new results everyday. Choosing to get this…
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What I Learned From Hip Surgery
We all know that surgery, in one form or another, is not always an enjoyable experience. It’s not the worst by any means (at least mine haven’t been) but if given the choice, most of us would opt out. Orthopedic surgery is a whole new experience for me. It’s the first opportunity I have to jeopardize my health by trying to recover too quickly. It doesn’t matter if I want to walk, if I want to push through pain, or if I want to test the limits of what my new hip can do. I can cause damage. That scares me. Everyone who is close to me is aware of…
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Tomorrow is Surgery Day
I have to write about this because it’s heavy on my mind. I’ve been preparing all week, moving upstairs, buying snacks and sweatpants. Going out with friends and ensuring my health is all in order. Today, I have a few preoperative appointments. I’ll sign documents that accept the risks of surgery, which is always anxiety provoking for me. I’ll meet with a physical therapist that will tell me my restrictions. Most of which are pretty extensive for the first few weeks. I didn’t anticipate needing hip surgery. When my original physician brought it up I assumed it was a scare tactic. Stop running or you’ll cause real damage. I didn’t…
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Preparing For Surgery
I have a surgery date for my hip arthroscopy! This is exciting to me because I’m ready to start recovery. My surgery will take place the second week of February. Apparently, I like to recover during holidays because it’s the day before Valentine’s day. Getting to this point was a long journey and now it’s time to prepare. This means that I need to train Crush to work with crutches. This is new to both of us. I need to strengthen my body, specifically my abdominal muscles and my arms. Finally, I need to prepare for being somewhat immoblie. This means moving into a different room closer to surgery.The appointment…
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What I Wish I Knew Before Surgery
A week ago, I got my tonsils removed. This was my second surgery, I had my gallbladder removed a year ago. People will warn you about a lot of things when going into surgery. Pain, recovery time, and the inherent risks you take when undergoing a procedure. I always feel like I’m signing my life away, I guess in some ways you are. Accepting the risks of surgery is terrifying to me. It’s terrifying for most people. Even though you sign that scary form and acknowledge that there is a laundry list of risks with fractions of a percent that everything could go horribly wrong, These are the things I…
