Guest viewing is limited

THR 12 days post-op & 1st post here.

Status
Not open for further replies.
and @ShellBell727 . ask away. or actually, maybe demand. I think it's another site where they say you must 'be your own advocate'. you're not going to be a junkie. you just need pain relief. if that doesn't work, try having your husband demand..imho
 
@ShellBell727 Welcome to Bone Smart. This is def. the place to be :) I too was told i had hip displasia that went undiagnosed at birth. I was feeling pain in groin around age of 46 but thought it was groin pull just annoying. This past August the pain in my hip got very discomforting and I had an xray. She rocked my world when she told me i needed a total TRHR and will eventually need other one done. I have found soo much comfort on BS and to read the inspiring stories on here help me in dealing with my upcoming surgery April 30th. I wish you continued success with your rehab and look forward to following your progess. Sue :flwrysmile:
 
@ShellBell727
OMG, I am stressing and dealing with the same thing since yesterday. The resident doctor who performed the surgery with my doctor only prescribed 70 pills of oxycodone last Monday. If taking the maximum, I would have finished them by Sunday. He refused to prescribe more. Now I have been playing phone tag with the pharmacy and the orthopedics department trying to get a refill. Without success.
Due to this, I am rationing my pills for night time and to do PT, and filling the in between with Tylenol. It is AWEFUL.. I went through this in october and no one seems to care. I feel like a junkie begging for their fix, and also as though they are holding my pain meds hostage. If I am not supposed to take them, why in heavens name do you not give us clear direction on how to cut down on them. If I am supposed to take them, why is it so damn hard to get a refill !!! ARRRRGGGG, I am so frustrated with this. On top of this, I have to have someone else on standby to go to the pharmacy to pick them up, as I cannot go myself. Why oh why in heavens name do they make things so difficult for sick people !?!?!?

After typing all this, I decided to call the hospital again. The man who answered said that my doctor should sign off on the renewal tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed this will happen !!!

FYI, for my surgery in October, I was off the narcotics at about 25 days. I slowly stretched the time between doses and eventually only took them at night. For example, instead of taking them every 4 hours, I would take them every 5, and keep expanding the time between doses as my pain diminished.

Shellbell, have you noticed any decrease in the level of pain? I hope so :)
 
Day 15 and my first day home alone. I was worried but it's going well so far. I called the doctor for a refill of pain meds but haven't heard back yet. I've been able to cut back the doses yesterday and today, which is good. We'll see what they say. I dreaded making the call but the nurse this time was very nice and didn't give me a hard time.

I wasn't give very many movement restrictions by my surgeon, because I had the anterior approach. One thing I was told was to avoid extending my operated leg behind me. The "golfer's reach" picture looks a lot like what I'm not supposed to do...? For now, I'm playing it safe and sticking with using my grabber.

I'm going to be careful what tasks I start to take on. I think once I take a job back, I'll be stuck with it and expected to continue doing it by myself! Although I had a little setback yesterday and it worked out OK. I have been able to get my own leg up onto the bed or recliner (lifting it with my hands) but last night walked too much and was really hurting. The rest of the night I needed my husband to pick my leg up for me. I can't wait until I have the strength and stamina to take a shower every day by myself. Having to wrap myself in plastic wrap and tape and get help transferring in and out is exhausting. That's not even including the reaching for things in the shower and actually getting myself cleaned up. I end up needing a nap to recover from my shower. Actually, I need a few cat naps every day. I'm still amazed how tired I am because my body is working so hard to heal.

I decided I'm grateful to the physical therapist for one thing at least! My incision goes up onto my abdomen so I wasn't sure what to do about underwear irritating the area where my leg meets my torso. She told me to get some men's boxer briefs in an extra large size. They are so comfortable! At my house we are calling them "man panties," ha ha. I cut the elastic band on the thigh of the right side so there's no restriction on my thigh. My leg is still swollen and so very sensitive to touch. A gentle brush against it feels like a sledgehammer! I'm normally a jeans girl but can't imagine wearing regular pants for a long time. The times when I've had to leave the house the only thing I can tolerate is baggy yoga pants or a soft, loose, stretchy dress. I wonder how long before I can comfortably wear regular pants or jeans again?

I am up to walking 5-10 minutes a few times each day now. Very slowly. It's icy outside here now so I'm doing laps around my home. My little dog follows me around the house on my laps. :) She has been amazing therapy for my pain and frustration.
 
@drahdrah I feel your pain. Over the counter stuff like Tylenol or ibuprofen does not do a damn thing for this kind of pain!! The people who abuse prescription pain meds have really made it difficult for those of us who are in genuine pain and need relief. I hate feeling like I have to beg for medication. I hate that I'm rationing myself and trying to decide which time of day I'd prefer to be in more pain. Like, OK, I'll take the max dose before my kids get home from school so I'm not crying, irritated, and mean mom from the pain right when they get home. And I'll let myself be in greater pain in the morning while they are at school so they don't see me cry and groan.

I believe that the pain should be the guide, as long as we follow the directions on the bottle. So if it says 1-3 tabs every 3 hours, then I'll take less when it hurts less and take more when it hurts more. I'm not in this to get high. In fact, I don't even get any pleasant side effects from the meds. All they do is relieve my very real pain because hello! someone sliced me up, used spreaders to hold the huge hole open for a couple of hours, sawed my bones up and shoved some new parts in there, then glued the huge hole closed!! Of course it freaking hurts!! :gaah:And when it hurts really bad, it stresses us out and stalls our healing process. Sometimes it hurts so bad I wonder if I could have a heart attack from the pain. If I'm hurting that bad, it's just WRONG that I can't have medication to decrease the pain. OK, I'm done ranting for now. I hope you get the refill and pain relief that you need. :)
 
@drahdrah and @ShellBell727 Wow they really put you through the ringer on getting refills for these
meds. It seems so wrong....
From reading your posts, it seems obvious that they are causing you more pain than you need just due to
stupid regulations. Do you have to get there 'in person' to pic up a refill script for something like oxy or can they call it in and you send someone to pick it up ? Just curious what to expect.....
Hang in there, you ladies are strong!
 
@ShellBell727 I am surprised at your level of pain. I am scheduled for a LTHR on the 21st with anterior approach and my doctor said to plan to be off work for 1 month (my job can be mostly sedentary if necessary). He said my husband only needs to take 1 week off of work to take care of me. I really hope that's the case. I have a 3 yr old daughter who must be taken care of an driven to preschool every day. I really hope I am one of those who recovers quickly. I worry about pain. My pain is bad now but I haven't been taking a narcotic except every once in a while a Vicodin to sleep at night. Doesn't help too much. Right now I am taking ibuprofen like crazy just to take the edge off the pain. I too will need my other hip replaced soon (my right hip is painful too). Hoping this goes well. I'm tired of feeling like a cripple at the age of 43. :boohoo: Keep us up to date on your progress.
 
@bamagirl my doctor said no driving until 6 weeks, because it's the gas/brake leg. I had high hopes of being one of these amazing fast recovery stories you hear about, where people are back at work in a couple of weeks. I think I got too much of my info from the internet. I thought being "young"- 40- would make me bounce back immediately... The reason those stories are news is because they are unusual. Most people are off work for at least 8 weeks, maybe 12. I also heard anterior meant "minimally invasive" but that was a lie! Nothing is minimal or UNinvasive about sawing off bones. And the incision ended up 8.5 inches when I had in mind it would be 3 to 6 inches.

I'm still happy I had the surgery. I just wish my expectations had been more realistic.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@charmed-life - unfortunately I am still "fighting" to get my renewal which is done by phone through the pharmacy and my doctor. No luck, and on top of being unsuccessful, I was even scolded yesterday when I was on the phone in tears explaining that I have been trying since Monday to get a refill. I am extremely frustrated about this situation.

@bamagirl - I hope that everything goes well for your upcoming surgery. Unfortunately no one can really predict how things will go, and it's different for each of us. I just had my second THR, and even with knowing what to expect, there are some surprises the second time around.

@ShellBell727 - Yup, once you take on a task by yourself, it becomes all yours (that has been my experience too). Don't push too hard. Very few things are priority at this point. You and your family need to eat, sleep and have clean clothes. If the house is a bit messy, that's not critical. You can catch up on everything "non-essential" once you are feeling stronger and have more energy. If you are anything like me, on top of recovering from surgery, your body is also recovering from a year or two of pushing harder than you should have to make it through life on a bad hip. Don't forget that you have been pushing yourself for a long time before the surgery. Your body is also recovering from that.
 
@drahdrah - are they saying "no" or just slow? It is frustrating that you have to wait - I had the same thing - once I learned it, I knew to call early - it can take 24-48 hours for them to get the doctor to sign the order. My doctor is in two different offices and evidently they have to wait till he is in MY office. And then someone has to pick up the written prescription when its Oxycodone at least - but that's laws not your doctor requiring it. Probably only frustrates those in pain, not those who abuse drugs.... I'm sure they have ways to get them. IF the renewal is for lower level narcotics (like Vicodin) they can call it in and no excuse for delaying!!
 
@charmed-life - they didn't say no, it just takes a long time and no one cares enough to realize that this should be a priority. The process for me is that the pharmacy has to fax a renewal request to the doctor's office, which then has to be signed by the doctor and faxed back to the pharmacy. The pharmacy did this on Monday. It has taken 3 days, 3 phone calls, and speaking to 3 different individuals at my doctor's office to finally get him to sign the renewal. (which I am happy to say I just got). On top of that, I need to get someone else to pick up my prescription as I cannot drive and don't feel well enough to venture out in the snow with a walker yet.

I tried very hard to prevent this exact situation from happening when I came home from the hospital last week (I lived this same exact situation TWICE last October after my first surgery). My requests fell on deaf ears.

We are patients, we are sick, we need things to be as easy as possible.
 
Yes, that's so wrong to take that long! I had the same thing - couldn't drive, had to collect the prescription ourselves from doctor's office (my husband was allowed to do it) - and one day he got there 1 minute after 5 after leaving work early and they had locked the door - had to ration those darn pills all weekend until we could get the prescription on Monday!! Happily, I'm past needing them now....
 
I finally got my refill with new directions to cut back drastically right away. At just over 2 weeks? OK, I was trying to take less if I could anyway. But I still think it should be up to my pain when I taper off. The worst part was the long, rude lecture I got from the nurse, or assistant who I talked to. She made me feel like &%$#. She lectured me on elevating and icing, she asked questions but then didn't listen to my answers and instead totally cut me off. She actually said, "Well you are going to have pain because you just had surgery in that area." No, really? I just had surgery? She asked what my pain level was and then cut me off and would not let me answer. She said in a rude, accusatory tone "You are asking for a refill every 6 days. How are you using the medicine?". Let's see...do the math. I followed the orders and actually used less than the maximum, and my surgery was January 21. Ive had to ask for a refill 2x in 15 days because of the number of pills i am given. So what am I doing wrong to get a lecture like this? (I only wish I had the guts to say that out loud but I didn't.)

In the end they gave me enough to take 16% of what I was allowed to take before. That feels pretty damn drastic of a change to me. And she told me to spend the entire day flat on my back in bed with 3 pillows under my leg and ice. Get up only to go to the bathroom! And stop walking 5-10 minutes 2x/day. Seriously? I elevate 90% of the day already, always have one of my 6 ice packs on, and have been slowly doing a little more walking as tolerated. I guess they aren't happy with that. I love my surgeon but I really hope Kaiser sends me a customer service survey like they sometimes do so I can complain about this awful woman. She also said, "You need to follow your discharge instructions! Do you still have them!". Yes, I do. And yes, I'm following them. What she's telling me is not matching up with what my discharge paperwork says!
 
Good grief that woman you are dealing with is a shrew!
What an awful experience to go through. That really is terribly drastic.
Hugs to you.....
 
Sounds worse than what I had to go through over the phone these past few days. I am sorry to hear that it has been so rough on you. I find that sometimes the people we are dealing with treat us as if we should know these things, or that we have been told. I imagine other than the instructions on your actual pill bottle, you have not had any further instructions until today.... geez, how in heavens name are you supposed to know that you were supposed to be cutting back already??? especially if the pain is persisting !!!

a 16% cut in your meds does sound drastic, but try to calculate how you can space them out to accomodate your current routine... it's roughly equal to cutting out one out of 6 doses... so if you were taking 1 dose every 4 hours, you can cut back to one every 5. It might be more doable than you think. (I am just trying to be optimistic here :).

Hang in there... it does get easier.
 
@charmed-life - I am so glad to have gotten this dealt with before the week-end. I am cutting back drastically (as the pain has subsided considerably), and am hoping not to need another refill. I will be so happy if that turns out to be the case.
 
You are a Trooper! Thank you for sharing your Story! I find a lot of TLC on this Site. It has sustained me through many a long Night:)

You are a very brave woman. I have had both Hips replaced, to date. I'm now 56. First one was diagnosed at 50. You have big Courage:)

I'm on EST in the U.S. if you need support! Peace, Love, and Healing to You,
Laura
 
@drahdrah oops, I mean tbat they cut my pain meds by 84%. Not 16%. Anyway, I think I have enough to make it until my first follow up visit with OS on February 10. Then I can talk directly to him about where to go from there. The "shrew" won't be in the room, hopefully. :)

I really can't wait to be able to sleep normal hours, in my own bed. I'm up half the night and sleep in the recliner. The bed is horrible on my hip and lower back. I am napping during the day so feel rested enough, I guess. I am having more blue moments because I want to do things but can't yet. I'm bored laying around watching TV and reading. Maybe I need a more exciting book. I'm also starting to worry about going back to work. Silly I know because I have weeks to go. I only have enough paid leave saved for 6 weeks off, and I know I will need more time than that. Anything after 6 weeks is unpaid, which will be rough because we have a pretty tight budget. I know it will all work out OK somehow but I'm natural worrier and it takes a lot of work for me to let go and trust.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

Total: 807 (members: 4, guests: 803)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom