Welcome to my surgery blog!

Hello! I'm yr Auntie, the hospital system knows me as Katrina. I'm 43 years old, and I learned exactly one week ago that I need my left hip joint completely replaced.

The past week has been a flurry of planning and list making, and part of the planning included a blog/vlog component. Why? This ain't my first rodeo, creampuff. Between 2021 and 2023 I had four spinal laminectomies on two levels - two on the lower lumbar level, two on the lower thoracic. I know what major surgery is like. And I know how my fibromyalgia body and brain respond to it, and what to prepare to make it all easier. But I'm also discovering that a lot of the details are fuzzy two years later, so this is my record for Future Auntie, because I already have a reduction mastectomy planned , I just have to wait two years to get in for the procedure. And with my core joint hypermobility? I'll be darkening orthopedics' doorway again after this, same with neurosurgery...

Original plan was for a YouTube vlog, but I have always been better expressing myself in writing, and writing a script to record feels like extra steps. So, anything that requires a visual will get a video, and anything more long form will be written out here, and they'll all be linked to each other.

New this time is five food allergies to eat around, so preparations are a bit more complicated than they were in the past, as well. Thankfully, I've been blogging my recipes all along,

so meal prep and quick low-effort meals won't be too hard, but the hospital stay does require I provide a few bougie, expensive, pre-packaged goods. I'll talk about that more in-depth in future posts.

Alright, signing off to go to bed, I have a few pre-op appointments tomorrow morning that I'll be telling you about!