THR BellaMac Recovery

Hello
How does one get to have peace of mind before I go in for surgery?
Good luck with that. Keep posting here.
KIMI99 - the primary issue is to hire a surgeon with experience, integrity and one that answers any questions you have and the ones you didn't think to ask. Trust in the surgeon has a lot to do with peace of mind when you are rolled into the OR.
 
I emphatically told this surgeon I wanted ceramic and polyethylene parts - not metal/titanium. I said my husband has researched (he has a doctorate in anatomy) and ceramic and polyethylene is what I should have.. Dr. James Rubano said ok. He installed titanium today!

Good Morning BellaMac,
I‘m so sorry you feel your surgeon didn’t respect your wishes. It is my understanding the surgeon uses the implant they are most comfortable with unless there is a specific reason why it won’t work for you. It‘s a decision based upon your age, lifestyle and surgeons experience with it. I know there is some testing / analyzing during the surgery regarding the size and fit of the components to be used before settling on one. While it’s too late to make changes, please discuss the issue with your surgeon so you can gain a better understanding of his choice and hopefully feel comfortable with his decision.

I hope you had a peaceful overnight and enjoyed some restorative rest. I look forward to following your healing journey and supporting you as you move toward getting your life back. Wishing you comfort and a good day! Hugs :) :-) (:
 
Thank you Layla, I felt hugged with your reply. Very wise words on implant choice.
 
Hmmmm ... I'm thinking maybe someone misunderstood your question.

Yes, the device is mainly titanium, that's the whole thing. At the bottom the device gets banged into your bone and at the top there sits a ball. At the bottom it's titanium with a porous covering to allow it to grow into the bone. And at the top the socket (a separate device but part of the system) is also titanium most of the time.

So I think almost all devices are titanium. Mine is titanium.

The discussion about materials refers to the ball (that goes into the socket) and to the liner of the socket. My ball is ceramic and the liner is cross-linked polyethylene (much improved from the old polyethylene). Sometimes surgeons say "plastic" to mean polyethylene.

Some sockets don't come with liners, but that's usually for a metal on metal device (which is extremely rare these days, especially for women) and ceramic on ceramic. If you got a ceramic socket, those don't have liners.

You want to know what the material of the ball is. And you want to know if there is a liner to the hip socket and what that liner material is. It's the interaction between the ball and the liner or the socket that is important.

So the answer you got, that the device is titanium, sounds like someone misunderstood your question.

The questions are:

1. What is the material for the ball (that sits atop the titanium device) and

2. What is the material for the liner to the hip socket, which sits inside the titanium socket.

So I encourage you to ask your question again and get clarification. I doubt that you got metal on metal.
 
Last edited:
Bella, I'm interested in the answer you get.

It's quite possible you got ceramic on cross-linked polyethylene. Did you find out? The surgeon's office would know this. They'd have a record of the device the surgeon inserts and the materials of that device. A nurse or a PA could give you that information.

And they (the staff) know it's patients want information on the device the surgeon uses. This is not an intrusive or distrustful question to ask.

Take them 2 minutes to call it up. And you deserve an answer.
 
Last edited:
I will find out and post the answer. Thank you.
 
Doing great. PT 3 times a week outside of home, and repeating at home the other 4 days. No complications just having trouble sleeping in bed at night.
 
You're doing great. PT already?? I'm not there, yet. It will be a few weeks I think.
Congrats.to you.

I'm.gonna try sleeping in my bed tonight since my swelling is pretty uncomfortable, I want to elevate and ice. We will.see how that goes.
 
One week post op and already husband and daughter are telling me to focus on getting off my hydromorphone (2mg tabs) and Valium (2mg tabs). The Valium is for muscle pain and I take it with Celebrex and Tylenol. The combo Doc prescribed is to be taken together, in the morning and at night works very well. If I am in still in pain, I can take 1 or 2 Morphine pills every 6 hours. This keeps me moving, doing PT, home PT and 15 min of walking every hour. I am able to walk without walker or cane! PT therapist said use one!. I don't think taking pills doc prescribes is an issue!! Any input?
 
You should use the pain meds as long as you need them to be able to move every hour or so. But it also sounds to me like you are walking more than you need to at this point, and home PT as well? What kind of PT are you doing? Hips don't really need PT to recover, just walking will do the job. I was one of many here that didn't do formal PT in recovery, yet have had a fantastic outcome. Take another look at the activity guidelines for THR.
 
I'm not a doctor, but here's my thinking. Just a note: depression and addictions run in my family, so I've always approached narcotics carefully.

So, when you take the pain meds and they reduce the pain for hours, that's good--and that's non addictive. I think I went two weeks on the narcotics. I didn't feel "high" on the med--I felt a decline in feeling bad. There's a huge difference. The addiction problems happen (again this is my lay understanding) when people use more and more of the med and get less and less relief. That's the addiction path. I wasn't increasing my use of oxy when I got home after surgery. Maybe one day I did a trial skip, slept poorly and then didn't skip the next day, but I was not increasing my dose and I was experiencing hours and hours of relief.

What seems to get people in trouble with narcotics is when they have some kind of chronic pain (that isn't going to decline as your hip pain will). They take a narcotic and get a bit of relief, but not great relief. A close relative of mine took narcotics after a stroke and after a fall following the stroke. He'd take it, 20 minutes later, he was in pain again begging for more. Narcotics don't really help with that kind of pain--he'd get a short relief and then he was back in unremitting pain. That' the bad scenario. The narcotics gave his brain a hit of relief, but didn't help with the pain.

Your pain and discomfort will decline--will decline a lot even over the next week (though it could go longer and that's also fine).

I picked my surgeon carefully and I trusted his judgment on the pain regimen. I also think I got something similar to Valium, if I recall, and I have to say my surgeon's cocktail worked! Your cocktail is allowing you to move without pain--that's great! And you're good basically to the next scheduled dose. That' good and healthy and the proper use of the pain meds.

Having pain only slows recovery and hampers the mood.
 
I am wondering if you were taking some kind of narcotic pain reliever before your surgery? I’m kind of surprised that they would prescribe morphine unless you already had a tolerance to pain meds. Personally, I had a terrible staph infection that destroyed my hip In the months before surgery. I was in horrible pain and took 10mg of oxycodone 4x a day for 4 months before my surgery, so I had built up some tolerance. They put me on 15mg every 3 hours when I first came home. 10mg wasn’t working for me. I have now reduced that to 5mg every 8 hours and I think I will be able to stop soon, as my pain is much better. Anyway, morphine is a very strong pain reliever. Perhaps you would still get pain relief from Oxycodone or hydrocodone, which aren’t as strong as morphine. You are taking what is prescribed and that is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. However, I would be alert for any signs of taking them for the little “boost” they might give you in addition to the pain relief. Every situation is different and maybe you need the morphine. I don’t know.
 
Taking pain relief as prescribed usually isn't an issue and does help with a more comfortable recovery. What seems to happen to all of us is the thinking doing more will speed the recovery or make us stronger faster and then that causes pain. Then to make the recovery more comfortable we take the pain relief so we can do more and it becomes a cycle. In the end the doing more really isn't doing anything more than causing pain.
 
The combo Doc prescribed is to be taken together, in the morning and at night works very well. If I am in still in pain, I can take 1 or 2 Morphine pills every 6 hours. This keeps me moving, doing PT, home PT and 15 min of walking every hour. I am able to walk without walker or cane! PT therapist said use one!. I don't think taking pills doc prescribes is an issue!! Any input?
If you need the medications, take them as prescribed.
But, I feel that you're doing a lot of exercising for so early in recovery. Your new hip still needs the partial support of a walker or a cane. Giving them up too soon can have an adverse effect.

Most of the exercising you're doing isn't necessary and if you cut it back, you should find that your pain decreases as well.

Remember what was in the Recovery Guidelines that Jaycey posted for you on Page One:
"BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then not to excess."

Complete recovery from a hip replacement is gong to take about a year and nothing you can do will speed that up.
Of course, you'll be able to do most things long before the year is up, but your hip and its surrounding soft tissues will still be healing inside.
 
Thank you and I am torn between doing what my doc has ordered and the wise advice here. I see my doc on wed and it is the first question on my list. Thank you.
 
Recovery is all about finding your limits, accepting them and then trying again. What seems impossible one day will be easy on another day. Very early days for you!
 
I am wondering if you were taking some kind of narcotic pain reliever before your surgery? I’m kind of surprised that they would prescribe morphine unless you already had a tolerance to pain meds. Personally, I had a terrible staph infection that destroyed my hip In the months before surgery. I was in horrible pain and took 10mg of oxycodone 4x a day for 4 months before my surgery, so I had built up some tolerance. They put me on 15mg every 3 hours when I first came home. 10mg wasn’t working for me. I have now reduced that to 5mg every 8 hours and I think I will be able to stop soon, as my pain is much better. Anyway, morphine is a very strong pain reliever. Perhaps you would still get pain relief from Oxycodone or hydrocodone, which aren’t as strong as morphine. You are taking what is prescribed and that is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. However, I would be alert for any signs of taking them for the little “boost” they might give you in addition to the pain relief. Every situation is different and maybe you need the morphine. I don’t know.
Sorry, I missed your post. No, I was not taking anything except Tylenol and/or Alleve. No opiods in this body since last major surgery 15 years ago. 2mg tablets of morphine is what I have been prescribed and I can take a max of 2 pills every 6 hours.
 

BoneSmart #1 Best Blog

Staff online

  • Jaycey
    ADMINISTRATOR Staff member since February 2011

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
65,167
Messages
1,596,864
BoneSmarties
39,356
Latest member
JanieMarie
Recent bookmarks
0
Back
Top Bottom