Had lower back surgery disk removal in the 80's. Did the cutting in the early afternoon woke up in the early evening, nobody around, kind a groggy, but feeling pretty good, needed to use the head. So I swung my legs out on the side with the IV tree, grabbed the extra hoses and wheel it to the head with me. When I got back to bed I was sweating a bit and dizzy. Very shortly after that excursion the floor nurse came in. She took one look at me and my tubing and said "what has happened here". I also screwed up the IV needles in the top of my left hand. I had blood traveling back up the tube. So the nurse took a big syringe full of saline and forced all the bloody fluid back where it came from. Man that hurt! Nurse said that's what I get for being bad.
But they gave me two pills for pain at that time, first pills after surgery. Couple hours later the nurse was back to check on me and I said the pain medication was marginal and " more please" so she gave me two more. Doctor George came in to check on me and before he left I asked about the pain medication as it seemed marginal. Doc said the it was aspirin and that was all I was going to get. I was impressed, with the low level of pain which was quite manageable, as a matter of fact I felt good, very good compared to the pain I came in with. I had disk problems for a year or so but was out cutting and loading 8' green spruce logs into the truck and crushed out all the disk material in 4 & 5 L, and it jammed my nerves. Away surgery was a major release from pain. Four months later I was carrying 2 quartered up Caribou a half mile on a freighter frame to the plane on Brown Grass lake up north.
Later George did a compound fracture of my right leg and in a cast for two years. An other Doctor did knee surgery on my left knee. The knee surgery was a pain as it affected mobility so much and recovery took time, I did not have being a repair shop business owner. The back surgery was almost instant increase in mobility. As a matter of fact I felt so good I was back at the shop working full days on day three.
Knees, hips, ankle, foot problems are difficult. If I can stay on my feet, I can work. Or, well I used to be able to. Now l have the luxury of whining and getting away with it.