Preop at the Hospital and More About the Replacement

I was scheduled this afternoon for my preop appointment at the hospital. The utility of this appointment was to allow me to preregister for my surgery on Thursday -- allowing me to go straight to the surgical suite -- and to draw additional blood and give me last-minute preop instructions. These instructions include my having to wipe myself down with antibacterial wipes the night before surgery. I'll evidently have to repeat the process at the hospital on Thursday morning as well. Other than that, a pretty straightforward process and I already have my hospital wrist band. I'm really, finally, getting a new hip!

Speaking of the hip, while I was researching hip replacements over the last several months, I read quite a bit about the relative merits of the posterior and anterior approaches -- the place on your body through which the surgical team reaches and replaces your hip. Generally speaking, the posterior approach is a bit more old school, whereas the anterior approach is newer and marketed as less invasive and easier to recover from. This is because the surgeon must cut through muscle in the posterior approach but not in the anterior.

My surgeon is not a fan of the anterior approach and only does posterior approach replacements. In his experience, he finds it more difficult to see the hip joint using the anterior approach and is generally more confident of the fit of the artificial joint when using the posterior approach. He also has explained to me that the femoral nerve runs down the front of the leg near where the incision is made on an anterior approach patient, meaning there is a risk (albeit a small one) of the nerve being severred.

So I am having a posterior approach replacement. My doctor tells me this might slow my recovery in the first week or two as compared to an anterior approach patient, but the odds of long-term success are higher.

Just a few more days to go.