THR 49M, Active Military, Left Anterior THR 9 November 2022

BradyDa

new member
Joined
Nov 25, 2022
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United States United States
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Team-

Happy Saturday!

I am two weeks and two days post surgery. I struggled with a bad hip for the last 6 years of a 22 year career in the US Army. This is the first time I have been in a position where I felt I could "take a knee" and get myself fixed.

The information you guys provide is amazing. Thank you for the support you provide to all of us. I'll continue to update my recovery post as I progress through the next months. Your advice on taking it slow is exactly what I needed to see. Thank you so much and best of luck to all of us!
 
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Thank you so much! God bless our military.
Best wishes for a smooth recovery.
 
@BradyDa Welcome to BoneSmart and the healing side. We are so glad you were finally able to get that painful hip fixed! I thought I had it rough waiting 18 months. I can't imagine 6 years. Thank you for your dedicated service.

Taking it slow is some of the best advice that you can glean from this sight. I will leave you with some post op guidelines that have even more tips and helpful information. Pay special attention to the ice and elevation guideline. Those were my best friends for a good long time in my recovery. Also keep in mind that the longer you went before having your surgery, the slower your recovery might progress. That's not set in stone but it is fairly common as I can attest. I can't imagine a better closing to one year and starting the new than with a shiny, new hip. Congrats!

Please leave the exact date of your surgery and which hip so we can create a signature for you to better advise you as your journey continues. Come back often. We would love to read your progress.

HIP RECOVERY GUIDELINES

1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary.

If you want to use something to assist with healing and scar management, BoneSmart recommends hypochlorous solution. Members in the US can purchase ACTIVE Antimicrobial Hydrogelthrough BoneSmart at a discount. Similar products should be available in the UK and other countries.

2. Control discomfort:
rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)

3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.

4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these
BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this
Activity progression for THRs

The recovery articles
Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery
Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key
Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

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.

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery. While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.
 
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Team-

Left hip. Anterior approach. 9 November 2022.

Thank you for what you do!
 
Hello and Welcome to BoneSmart! What a lovely refreshing post.
Thank you so much for serving!
May your recovery be all smooth sailing.
@BradyDa
 
:wave: @BradyDa
Thank you for your service and sorry you've been in the hurt locker for so long with that bad hip.
Glad you are on your way back to healthy, happy and hip pain free.
For this recovery, make sure you lose the Army Push through it mentality, and listen to your body... Rest and Heal.
It will make your recovery actually faster if you go slow... Soooo....
Standby to standby.:heehee:

Sending good mojo for Speedy healing.
 
Welcome and thank you for your service.
My Dad was WWII vet so my love of the armed forces runs deep, he was such a proud veteran.
This site is amazing and you will receive lots of helpful information to assist with your recovery.
I wish you the best.
 
Team-

Wanted to provide a week 3 update. To be clear, I will be 3 weeks post op on Wednesday, but I've experienced a couple of the issues that have been expertly discussed on this site.

1) I woke up yesterday (Sunday) with a significant case of anxiety. No real catalyst or shiny object in my head, just a feeling of "mehh!" Absolutely out of the norm for me. Having read about the post op blues helped me explain this to my wife and power through with my day.

2) On multiple occasions now, I have hit that "wall" that you guys talk about. It happened today as I took a stroll with my wife around our neighborhood. Again, great to understand this is normal. I even had a little chuckle as I realized I was "falling out" of our walk.

As I've stated before, you provide an amazing service to all of us. I'll continue to update my recovery post and am standing by for any questions or comments from the group.
 
On multiple occasions now, I have hit that "wall" that you guys talk about. It happened today as I took a stroll with my wife around our neighborhood. Again, great to understand this is normal. I even had a little chuckle as I realized I was "falling out" of our walk.
It is common to experience this.
Our body's energy supply isn't limitless. So when we're in healing mode after major surgery
our energy will be used for healing first, not leaving a great reserve for all of the other activity of daily life. It is completely normal to feel you hit a wall this early on. How long does this last....it relates to your body's rate of healing. Give it your best effort to get adequate sleep and rest. Our body does it's best healing while we're sleeping. I hope you sleep well tonight.:sleep:
 
@BradyDa welcome to the healing side, thank you for your service. As @Mojo333 mentioned above, do not keep the Army mindset of just work through the pain and down some GI M&Ms (ibuprofen) and definitely the no pain no gain attitude. Keep reminding yourself that you are in recovery and not training. Also please make sure all of this is documented so when the time comes to submit to VA you have everything.

Take your time, listen to your body and you'll come out the end just fine. And please remember that you have to take care of you to be able to take care of your troops. :wave:
 
Happy One Month Anniversary!
I hope your recovery continues to go well. If we don't hear from you before the holidays, I hope yours are full of happiness and good cheer. Take care!
@BradyDa
 
Thank you! You guys are great. I am doing awesome and will return to work (Army, office job) on Monday. I'll update after a week or two back. I have my six week follow up on the 22nd.
Happy holidays!
 
Happy Two Month Anniversary!
Happy New Year too! I hope your return to work is going smoothly and you had a good visit with your OS on the 22nd.
A great week to you!
@BradyDa
 
Happy New Year to you too!

The visit went well and I'm still progressing nicely. The transition back to work has been wonderful. I can actually move around my organization with ease which makes it a pleasure to get up and walk. My next touchpoint with the OS is on the 22nd of February. We discussed opening me up to full activity at that point.
 
Nice to hear!!!! A pleasure to get up and walk--great words.
 
@BradyDa happy to hear you're progressing nicely. Please keep in mind that full recovery can take a year or more. Full activity in the military is totally different than full activity at a normal civilian job, please listen to your body. I also realize that you being active military had you in better shape when starting this. Not trying to be Debbie Downer, have just seen too many folks push the limits. But you seem to have been doing an awesome job at listening to your body.
 
Happy Three Month Anniversary!
Best Wishes for the appointment with your OS on the 22nd.
Please let us know how it goes if you don't mind sharing.
I hope he releases you for full activity. :fingersx:
@BradyDa
 
Thank you! The appointment moved back two weeks due to scheduling conflicts. I'm still doing great and look forward to sharing with the group.

Best wishes!
 

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