Bilateral THR “Oh you brave soul!”<

[Mojo333]

Yep...we feel very vulnerable at first.
But as Layla said, keep it slow you go...and things will be getting better and better.

Yay for getting home!
Now....assume the position

 

[Alitm]

How are you doing at home? Thinking about you and hoping your first night home was peaceful and that you slept as well as to be expected! You have done so well. Sounds like a really great rehab facility
I was told at my pre-op joint class yesterday to expect to go home after two nights, but that it of course depended on how I was doing! If I'm walking to the bathroom and doing stairs in two days I will be TOTALLY amazed! I'm going with the flow!

 

[mannyalfa]

Home feels weird: it’s the same, but I’m not: think of this whole process as a physical, emotional and even spiritual journey: it has changed me in ways I had not considered.

You can read about it, watch videos and talk to folks who’ve been through it, but your own personal journey will be uniquely yours. If you are stressing now, you may be surprised to find a sense of calm as you ride to the hospital on the day of surgery.

I must admit that I may have ‘pushed the edge of the envelope’ during PT/OT, but when my body said ‘stop’ I stopped. I was supposed to get a wheelchair for longer forays out of the house, but based on my final assessment they told me that a walker and cane should be fine, and I am now finding the walker a bit cumbersome around the house, so I’m using the cane almost exclusively.

My incision was ‘glued’ and internal stitches will dissolve, BUT OH, HOW THEY ITCH!!!! Which is a good sign.

Been sleeping a lot since I got home....

As for PT, I start outpatient Monday, so I’ll relax for my three-day weekend: I’m doing very light stretching, enjoying the fact that I can raise my knees while on my back, which I couldn’t do before surgery. I’m planning on a little stroll this evening, and it feels good to get in the kitchen and prepare my own meals.

If anyone has ever followed a rigorous workout regimen, there is the occasional ‘lay-off’ period of a few days to let muscles grow and heal: this weekend is mine.

Monday begins a new chapter....

 

[Mojo333]

Great thought!
Surgery is very humbling...but you are going to be so happy when this recovery mess it's done!
Bet you'll be doing this by Christmas!

 

[mannyalfa]

It may take time, but I want to do this again!!!

 

[Mojo333]

Oh I was an awesome rollerskater!
Haven't done THAT in a while.
I was best skating backward.

No doing that ANY TIME soon, per Mojo!
No falling down and going boom..is against the rules!

Hope you have a great Restful weekend!

 

[mannyalfa]

Lots of leg strength & flexibility to build up first.... that’s on my radar for maybe Summer 2019, which ironically will be 40 years since I first learned to roller skate.

 

[Josephine]

I have one PT session tomorrow
Night after intensive PT: YEOUCH!

Did you forget the BIG TIP so soon?

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.

got Tramadol and morphine

Either one or the other, not both. I recommend the Tramadol which you can take with Tylenol.

 

[mannyalfa]

Day 2 of my three day 'layoff' between inpatient and outpatient PT. Been craving pizza for a week, and this was my first foray into the 'real world' since surgery. Mobility is great, getting strength in my former 'bad leg', went down real stairs like a champ, cane is now primarily for balance. Went to a restaurant and felt 'human' again!

However, I am easily winded and get dizzy if I stand up too quickly. My ego is a little bruised, but my intellect says "You just had a reality-check!!" Indeed it was... Back home for a nap and continued weekend 'R&R'...

I have 'numb spots' in my thighs, I was told this would probably happen, I'm not really concerned. It just feels weird, like touching your face after a shot of Novocain @ the dentist...

 

[Mojo333]

I was beginning to get concerned about some of my numbness...though numbness in thighs was preferable to excruciating hip pain...so i was still grateful....took up to 5 months before mine truly dissipated!
All normal now though.

 

[mannyalfa]

I was beginning to get concerned about some of my numbness...though numbness in thighs was preferable to excruciating hip pain...so i was still grateful....took up to 5 months before mine truly dissipated!
All normal now though.

For me it’s more a source of curiosity than anything else: family members yell at me ‘Stop poking at your thighs!!’

My dressings fell off, called my Dr, the on-call nurse said it was fine, let them ‘air out’. Once the doc looks at them on Monday and gives the ‘all-clear’ I’ll start dabbing Scar-away on them.

 

[Layla]

Hi @mannyalfa
Please ask your OS on Monday if it's okay to apply anything to your scar / incision at this time.
Have a nice evening!

 

[Alitm]

Thanks for your "loaded with info" post yesterday. You are continuing to do really well. Yes, it will truly be my own journey for sure!

Great that you got out, and weathered the reality check in good form, mentally and physically. Hope the pizza was tasty! I have the low end of normal blood pressure, and worry about the dizziness. What was your cardio fitness like going into the surgery? Was the windedness a surprise for you?

Are your incisions still itching? My OS mentioned the numbness to me and told me that it may or may not ever go away. Either way, the nerve that is damaged to cause that numbness only serves the skin area where the numbness occurs, and doesn't have anything to do with the muscle function....there is a medical name for each of the two different types of nerves, but I can't remember them!!

Good luck with the doctor's visit and outpatient PT!

 

[mannyalfa]

Being winded was a surprise. I think there are a couple of factors:
I am gaining strength in my ‘bad leg’ but endurance needs to catch up as I’ve been stiff-legged on it for the last two years.
I’m now walking in a way that I haven’t walked in a couple of years: more upright and minimal weight-bearing on my cane.

Also, yes, I was a champ walking the straightaway in the hospital hallways, where there is plenty of room and people know to get out of your way, but shifting weight and dodging people in a crowded restaurant presented new stressors and coordination skills I wasn’t quite prepared for. I wasn’t trying to overextended myself, I just didn’t see it coming. It was just a reminder that I still have a ways to go. I made a mental note to discuss lateral movement exercises with my Outpatient Physical Therapist on Monday..

What I find unusual is that I had high blood pressure for years, which in the last year I worked on through diet and supplements, but in my last days at inpatient rehab had dropped a bit to ‘borderline low’ (!) so this is totally new to me.

And yes, the pizza was excellent!

Incisions don’t itch as bad now, and the numbness isn’t really bad: it’s in my upper quads, mid hip between my incisions and glutes (pretty much ‘ground zero’ for stretching & retracting during surgery) but there is still a little swelling there, so we’ll see what happens...

 

[Mojo333]

I’m now walking in a way that I haven’t walked in a couple of years: more upright and minimal weight-bearing on my cane

Isn't that wonderful. My posture improvement reminded me of the old evolution graphic we all remember...just need spear changed to walking stick

No secular/religious connotations inferred

 

[mannyalfa]

Isn't that wonderful. My posture improvement reminded me of the old evolution graphic we all remember...just need spear changed to walking stick

No secular/religious connotations inferred

Mojo333, your illustration makes an excellent point: yes, I FULLY UNDERSTAND THAT “Hips actually don’t need any exercise to get better”, I have the latest & greatest artificial hips available, and my body will integrate the prosthetic’s specially texturized surfaces into my own bone structure in around the same time that it takes to heal a broken bone with no conscious effort on my part, except for ensuring proper diet and nutrition. The surgical trauma to my quads are healing quite nicely: movement and mild stretching has helped the process and kept them flexible.

But like you, I had the surgery at end-stage OA, and had been walking on a cane for nearly two years, and in addition to all of the above, I need to regain strength & endurance in my former ‘bad leg’, as well as tendons and ligaments that have lost elasticity from disuse. I also need to strengthen back muscles that are accustomed to my walking hunched-over and having supported a lot of my weight on a cane, in fact they spasmed the first time I tried to walk (with my walker) while concentrating on my form and posture. I’ve worked hard in PT, not so much for my hips or to heal, but to undo the effects of YEARS of hobbling around, adapting to an unhealthy situation and the effects those adaptive ‘bad habits’ have on my mobility, not only for my hips, but my entire body as well.

Something that never occurred to me: I need my brain to assimilate the fact that I now have two good hips again. I noted that even now, when I get ready to stand from a seated position, I still wince in anticipation of pain that’s not there anymore: Pavlovian reaction after years of agony. And emotionally: pain leads to short temper and impaired ability to concentrate. Psychologically: my world shrunk, and motivation was low. Just like certain muscles and tissues in my body, my outlook and expectations atrophied as well. I have to rethink all of that now, retraining mind and spirit as well as body.

I had lost a considerable amount of weight before surgery, but plateaued due to the fact that my hip-pain didn’t allow me to engage in aerobic activity: I swam for a while, but eventually it even hurt to do that. That will now change......

If someone has THR (& especially bilateral THR) after advanced or end-stage OA, Rehab and recovery to ‘get your life back’ is a multifaceted endeavor that will take time and considerable effort to regain your quality of life, and maybe eventually be better than you were before!

 

[Layla]

I hope Mojo never looked like the image on the far left

Something that never occurred to me: I need my brain to assimilate the fact that I now have two good hips again. I noted that even now, when I get ready to stand from a seated position, I still wince in anticipation of pain that’s not there anymore: Pavlovian reaction after years of agony. And emotionally: pain leads to short temper and impaired ability to concentrate. Psychologically: my world shrunk, and motivation was low. Just like certain muscles and tissues in my body, my outlook and expectations atrophied as well. I have to rethink all of that now, retraining mind and spirit as well as body.

So very true. I can relate to this. I love your upbeat and positive attitude. It will take you far.
A great week to you!
@mannyalfa

 

[Alitm]

@mannyalfa Thank you for another informative post. I'm a detail person when it comes to all this surgical and recovery info, so really do appreciate the time you take writing your posts. Hopefully I can do the same when I get there!

I have a riding friend here who had her knee replaced back in Feb, and I talk with her about the replacement, and she said, "You have to own your new hips". It seems to me that most people, at about six months, seem to start to forget that they have a prosthesis in them, but a better way to view it is they accept them as their own. I welcome these new hips, having briefly gone through first a disbelief about the situation (not sure why disbelief with my narrowed life!), a bit of a mourning process about my God given hips going caput, but now a welcoming of the new prothesis and a better life. I'm sure I will have my moments, but I never want to go back to where I am now.

I totally understand the image that @Mojo333 posted. As a competitive dressage rider, posture and "seat' are huge. Core strength is of upmost importance. If the horse was taken out from underneath one, one's posture should be that of correct posture when standing. I haven't been able to sit in a saddle for two years due to extreme pain. Despite continuing with yoga and pilates, it was like trying to maintain a healthy posture. I have had to stop all that due to pain. I still do a few stretches and minimal core exercises (no bridges!) to try and keep my core engaged and back stretched out. I walk like a duck/penguin and lean forward now...so demoralizing. My rider friends really notice my change in posture.

I know there will be a lot of slow re-stretching and strengthening going on as I progress post op. With soft tissue injuries in horses, the rehab is very slow and steady...hand walking in straight lines for ten mins for two weeks, and stall rest. Every two weeks we increase the walk by five mins. Every eight weeks we re-ultrasound the lesion, as horses can't talk and give feedback...it is all clinical analysis. It is a 8 - 9 month process. Anyway, I'm struggling with knowing that there will be major soft tissue trauma (but not actual lesions) which takes a long time to heal (but with anterior, fewer soft tissue issues), that it takes three months on average for the bone to graft around the prothesis, the undoing of some poor gait patterns and muscles habits and not really feeling clear as to when to start PT (with getting back to life and riding when appropriate to healing)? I have a wonderful physio who has guided me through the last three years as things went down hill, and had helped with back pain relief. The hospital where I am having my surgery offers outpatient PT at two, six and twelve weeks. They also say if you already have a good PT to see them. I go back to knowing I have to heal those soft tissues, and see some folks here go way too fast after both posterior and anterior surgery, and end up with long term soft tissue issues...you can just read their posts and see what is coming...I don't want to go there! There is so much healing going on, and very different schools of thought on PT. I guess once I've had the surgery, I will have a better feel of things, literally, and will have to listen to my body first and foremost. Maybe I should just get through the surgery first and stop trying to micromanage the future
Thanks again for your informative posts and I continue to look forward to reading about your healing and fitness journey, and how you find the balance without soft tissue injury! Much appreciated.
Sorry to be so long winded! Hope you had a nice cup of coffee with this!

 

[Mojo333]

Something that never occurred to me: I need my brain to assimilate the fact that I now have two good hips again. I noted that even now, when I get ready to stand from a seated position, I still wince in anticipation of pain that’s not there anymore: Pavlovian reaction after years of agony. And emotionally: pain leads to short temper and impaired ability to concentrate. Psychologically: my world shrunk, and motivation was low. Just like certain muscles and tissues in my body, my outlook and expectations atrophied as well. I have to rethink all of that now, retraining mind and spirit as well as body.

Totally get that, and very well put.
I felt very much the same way and have had to retrain myself to be healthy and happy!

Well said.

 

[mannyalfa]

2-week post-op follow up with OS, walked 50ft unassisted (!). still getting my ‘sea-legs’... Endurance is better. Incisions healing very nicely, no more itching. Cleared to drive and back to work on Monday a week from today.