1/25/11 anterior THR

[Jaycey]

Good stuff Mary Jane! It's all about finding the balance of activity and rest.

The rest times are very necessary but they will get shorter and shorter as you progress through your recovery.

Meanwhile don't worry if you have down days. It means you are healing.

Take care!

 

[Jamie]

You are doing a great job of listening to your body and responding. You will have some days that are more active than others. Also, don't hesitate to take additional pain meds on those days you need them. It's all part of the ups and downs of recovery.

 

[TEXAS JACK]

Dear Mary Jane,

Trust me....the reduction in discomfort and gain in stamina are not linear straight lines. More like an unstable Sine Wave. I was commited to increasing my distance on the treadmill every day. So much for making plans! Mother Nature or some obscure physiological mechanism deceided otherwise.

Minimal or not, we are recovering from some pretty heavy duty surgery. I'm now thinking low and slow.

 

[Ruby Red]

I am almost 3 weeks post op. now (anterior min. invasive THR) and I haven't been sleeping well at all the past couple nights. I wonder if I am not taking enough pain medication too early in the recovery.

As my pain levels were decreasing, I started to take the Tramadol on an as needed basis, which meant I was spacing the doses farther apart. Think that may have been a mistake because I am in pain during the night and can't sleep. I thought just taking two Tramadol at bedtime would be ok, but apparently isn't enough.

Is it too early to be cutting back on the med's then even if I am feeling a bit better during the day? Is this what might be causing me to feel the pain more in the middle of the night?

I have been a bit more active the past couple of days, maybe I'm a little more active than I should be at this point. Does the increase in activity increase the pain, or is that a sign I'm doing too much?

Any advice? Back on a more regular medication schedule and cut back on activity? I guess I have been reading that people are off the pain med's. in a relatively short period of time, so I thought it would be okay to just take it on as needed basis.

I don't have a refill and will need to call for another prescription next week. I find myself counting pills, to see how many I have left and how long they will last, like I think they won't give me another prescription ... obviously I'm worrying too much! :pzld:

 

[Steve_Marlow]

Hey Mary Jane, sounds like you're doing OK.

It certainly sounds like a familiar scenario and it is exactly what I did. Just as I got more confident and active I felt I could reduce the medication, so it hit myself with a double whammy.

Just listen to your body and don't plan to do too much, you will usually end up doing more than you plan anyway. If you go back on a regular pain med schedule for a few days I think you'll sleep better and I look upon sleeping as bonus healing time.

Jack is right about it all not being linear, you are always going to have good days and bad days. If it starts feeling tough just wind the activity back for few days and then start building up slowly again. Nothing too complex about it, I think we all just want to push the progress as quickly as possible and sometimes it's too far

Good Luck
Steve

 

[mrsgibbo]

Hi Mary Jane, I had my op a week before you and I have only just started to decrease my pain relief. I have started to take a smaller dose during the day but my usual dose at night. If I'm going to be out and about I also take the larger dose. I find sleeping at night the hardest thing about recovery. I hate having to sleep on my back and cant get back to sleep if I wake up. Most nights I end up having a hot drink and reading for an hour or two before managing to drop off again. Glad I dont need to be up early for work for another couple of months.
Cathy.

 

[Josephine]

~ yes, it's not wise to cut back so soon. Keep taking them by the clock. This enables you to increase your activity! Activity will almost always increase your pain to some degree. A lot of activity will increase it a lot if your body isn't ready for it so do it gently! Ultimately you will find yourself 'forgetting' to take certain doses during the day which is how it should happen. Don't try and make a schedule for it.

~ being unable to sleep is a common factor for any surgery although it will regularise itself over time. You can't rush it. Just make use of catnaps any time when you can

~ you don't say your surgeon has actually refused to give you a refill. But even if he does, all is not lost - see your GP. If he won't comply, go to a Pain Clinic. There are other ways.

~ you could try harmlessly increasing the 'oomph' of you Tramadol by taking 1,000mgs of Tylenol with it. I did that throughout my post-op period. Terrific combo! Eventually you could end up just taking the Tylenol when you could then add ibuprofen to give better cover.

 

[Jaycey]

Mary Jane, it's all about staying ahead of the pain right now. And it is a cycle. You get more active so you need your meds so you can get more active.

As Jo says, you will just start to forget doses.

Sure hope you don't have a problem getting more meds. But as Jo says, ask your GP if you need to.

Please let us know how you get on. All the best!

 

[Ruby Red]

Thank you all so much for your prompt responses. My doctor hasn't refused to give me more, it's that they only dispense it one Rx at a time and I have to ask for every one. I'm sure I will be able to get more, I just wonder if there comes a time when they say - we can't give you anymore - but hopefuly, that's not going to be the case. And you are right, there are other options which I hadn't though of.

I'm taking Aleve with the Tramadol, which seems to help tremendously. I was on Tylenol and the physical therapist suggested I try Aleve because I wasn't on any anti-inflammatories. It made a big difference almost immediately.

You are right about the mobility. I am overjoyed to be able to get around a little more easily than I have been able to for the past year. Though what I've been doing wouldn't be much for someone who hadn't just had major surgery, it's likely too much right now for me.

I'll go back on the scheduled doses and cut back on the moving around and call the dr(s) for more med's if I need them. :smile:

 

[Jamie]

Sounds like a good idea. There is no need to suffer needlessly in recovery. You'll be stronger and better able to reduce pain meds later.....there is plenty of time for that!

 

[TEXAS JACK]

Greetings From Texas

Newton Wellesley...very nice, has an excellent reputation. I assume therefore you live in the Bay State. Hope you haven't taken too much of a beating from the weather. The cold and damp can't be good for your body and mood. My kids all live up your way so I get fairly frequent weather updates i.e. Providence, Rehobeth and Buzzards Bay.

I learned my lesson about thinking I was more healed than I was. Over did it on the treadmill and got into a world of hurt. Now back to reality, but still thrilled over the easy recovery.

Hope every thing continues to go well for you.Use the pain meds as a maintenence and preventive tool. Much better to ward off the ache than try to beat it down. Are you taking any anti-inflamatories? Celebrex works very well for me. You might ask your Doc.

Keep posting and have a comfortable recovery

 

[Ruby Red]

Hi!

Yes, I live in Mass. Just south of Boston, in Milton. The weather has been just awful. If I was skiing this year, I'd be very happy, but obviously I can't take advantage this year!

Staying ahead of the pain is working out much better than trying to wean off the pain pills too soon. I'm much happier and able to move around a little more. I'm actually much happier than I've ever been on these particular pain meds (Tramadol), which concerns me a little bit . I hope coming off them isn't a problem, but I will deal with that when the time comes.

My PT is being very conservative and I'm following all her instructions. I asked today about using my stationary bike a little and she said there is still a lot of healing to be done and it would be best to concentrate on walking more than on the bike. So my husband to me to the mall this afternoon and I did a lap around the stores. It was nice to get out of the house.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn't told to take any anti-inflammatories when I left the hospital. The PT suggested I take Aleve a couple of weeks after the surgery and it helped a lot. I am still on less pain meds than I was before the surgery. The recovery is much easier than it was from my arthroscopic surgery in July, which I didn't really ever recover from. This is a breeze compared to that.

Sounds like you have a few kids up this way Jack. We have had more snow here this winter than we have had in all the years I've lived here, which is over 25 years. It's supposed to get into the 50's this week??!, so hopefully enough of it will melt so I can at least get around the block a couple of times.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

 

[TEXAS JACK]

Dear MaryJane,

Don't get hung up on the idea of getting "hooked" or becoming addicted. You don't get into your 50's without knowing if you have a prediliction for addictive behavior. We take our pain meds because we need to and regard them as integral to our recovery...not because we want to.

Theres a couple of Anterior vets who just checked in on the PreOp forum. Check them out and drop them a line.

We had a bad cold snap in Houston....all the hibiscus got wilted.