THR 2 knees done, 1 hip done - comparison

Wife went to plop down next to me and landed right on my incision with some pretty good force
Aww, she loves you and wanted to sit by her hubby. :loveshwr: Thankfully it didn’t affect your incision.

Regarding RLS and cramps...consider looking into Magnesium.

Magnesium supports the following:
Bone health
Healthy blood sugar
Cardiovascular health
Muscle relaxation and nerves
Promotes healthy sleep (falling asleep and staying asleep)

An article on Magnesium -
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/magnesium-is-a-star.20301/

I've also heard of drinking 4-6 oz of Q-Tonic before bed which is a water that contains quinine.
Read the label as some of the waters do not contain quinine, but quinine flavoring instead.

You seem to be doing really well. Keep up the good work and enjoy the holiday weekend!
 
Sounds like you are doing really well and more adventuresome than I was. I stayed away from stores for a long while but it was also winter. Have a great day.
 
@Softtail oh your poor wife to be abused for her loving actions :rotfl: Good thing she didn't aim for the lap!

Cramps.... I had this "thing" that started with my first hip and has unfortunately persisted all these years. I call it a spasmodic stretch. I'd suddenly wake up with my whole body in a very tense full-out stretch. My hip HATED that, and paid me back all day. By the time #2 rolled around, I'd figured out how to control it to knly the upper body at will.

So-- here I am 4 weeks out from a "little" hernia repair, and last weekend that stretch woke me up. Yowie! My belly button area hurt for two days.

I don't know if any of that is related to my leg cramps, which are like yours but rubbing makes them worse. My mag labs are normal, I take a supplement, I used a spray-on rub-in magnesium foam for a year every night and morning, which only gave me a seemingly permanent weird sensation in my skin. I can keep the worst of the cramps to a minimum with daily walking, my frequent barre classes (continuous use of leg muscles, ramping up circulation by the second), and wearing mild compression tights or knee-highs 3 out of 5 days. I wonder if they are somehow driven by my spider veins...which increased exponentially immediately (same day) after my second hip. Those boots on the Hana table were not padded at all, it felt like, and they must clamp them extremely tightly!
 
Thanks for checking in everyone. I have tried all the ‘remedies ‘for my rls ie quinine magnesium and am lucky that for the most part it’s night time that I have to deal with the symptoms. They are making some headway in its research on RLS, pretty much nailing it to the brain sending motor signals to legs at an increased rate than on RLS patients. Now to figure out a way to calm those overactive symptoms down.. Unfortunately for interim it’s a small amount of methadone at night to calm the legs. If I continue to get the minor cramps ,I will revisit magnesium.
I found with a little limp I can walk around house, but I am in no hurry to make this permanent yet. Go out with walker , and have not tried to go for any significant walk withcane yet. I am able to get majority of weight on leg now with only minor discomfort, but will not try to overdo it.
 
@Softtail Still very early days. Don't be in a rush to abandon any walking aids. When you start leaving them behind that's the sign you can transition off.

Many new hippies use walking poles to help them maintain a balanced gait post op.
 
Thanks Jaycee and Layla . Home nurse came today to check on progress . She removed my bandage and I thought she would redress but she told me just to leave it exposed to air. She said it looked good and to just not let shower pound right on incision , otherwise leave undressed.
I have my walker nearby for longer walks, but found I can now comfortably walk around the house for short distances with cane.
Two other minor advances are one, sleeping further into night (slept 4.5hours straight before waking). , and along with that less frequent trips to urinate. Closer to what was pre surgery.
Look forward to a relaxing Fourth of July weekend and next Friday go back to see my surgeon. Wishing everyone a great Fourth of July weekend.
 
Congratulations on more sleep. Sleep in any lengthy amounts was always elusive for me. No bandages, another step in recovery done. Have a wonderful week end.
 
Congrats on no more bandages and managing to get some sleep! I kept my walker around for a good while, especially when out in public (kind of like a keep away sign :rotfl: ) and for night time trips to the bathroom.
 
Hope 4 th was memorable for everyone. Oddly enough this was the day wife and I decided to put in our new toilet. Like everything , not going right to plan. Old toilet flange was broken so about an hour later after using my grinder and chisel got the old flange removed and prepared to put in replacement flange which brings its own problems with it. Some additional parts needed so postponed this till Monday.. Fortunately we have another bathroom lol.
Like everyone says, not getting too far away from walker . Actually found out kind of fun in Lowe’s as mine is on wheels with seat , so was able to scoot all over. Hope hip continues to progress as it has cause so far pretty smooth sailing.
 
@Softtail as the female of the species, I rejoice with your wife that there's still a working toilet.... :rotfl:

I am also imagining you seated on that rollator-style walker, kicking yourself along yelling yeeee-haaaaawww. If your hip complains tomorrow or Tue, you will know why :wink:
 
@Softtail :wave:

Your recovery thread is full of good humour.. good for you!

But changing out a toilet in your first week post op? :flabber:
My husband wouldn't try that even on 2 good hips!
Seriously, though. glad you are doing so well. ?The RLS and spasms seem to love surprising up during the recovery.
I found magnesium supplements help me, too.
 
Last edited:
Old toilet flange was broken so about an hour later after using my grinder and chisel got the old flange removed and prepared to put in replacement flange which brings its own problems with it.

I YI YI! You’re a wild one. We need to put you on “Watch”. :heehee:
Wish there was such a thing...
 
Doing toilet does sound ambitious ,but for the most part I played supervisor, as I have an especially active wife who is pretty good at following instructions. Other than the grinding , which took me awhile to get in comfortable sitting position to achieve , she did pretty much everything else including hauling out the old toilet.
I don’t know why I seem to be ahead of the curve for just over a week, but nothing I have done so far seems to be setting me back. Skilled surgeon, exceptional genes ,lol, but hoping I can continue to push the healing curve in the positive direction. Walking a bit more with cane by end of day, and putting most all my weight on it with very little discomfort. Watching for any additional swelling or soreness, but so far icing 3 times a day and doing minor exercises seem to be working ok.
 
There's a very good saying here on the forum.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

It really is very early days for you and try not to reward your cooperative body with putting it in the ODIC. (overdid it club)
But seriously, you are doing very well and we would love for it to remain that way.
 
Pt just left and said I was their poster child for therapy 1 week plus. He gave me some standing exercises that I found to be interesting in that you think about movement as your goal but don’t focus your thoughts about simply standing still and balancing your body. This definitely pointed out work that needs to be done as I heal focusing as much on my balance as my mobility.
I actually recall this from my pt during knee replacement exercises and probably could have done more work on that during that recovery period, so better focus more on it this go around. Watched me walk and told me to focus on proper steps and remaining upright. I know some here on bonesmart from my previous go around with knee recovery , that Pt is not felt to be a mandatory necessity during recovery, but the jock that I am has always felt better doing exercises and keeping fit, so I tend to favor a bit more hands on approach. All I can do is feedback my progress, and hope my approach yields the results I hope for. If not , believe me I will caution everyone from taking the more aggressive route.
Either way I love this forum , and thank everyone that shares their experiences here. It has been invaluable to me thru both knee replacements and now my hip recovery , and I have picked up so much information from this site over past few years.
There were nights during recovery that bonesmart was my go to place to get me thru the night.
 
@Softtail you sound really well, happy to hear your wife did most of the heavy lifting and such with the toilet. It's great that you're feeling so good and smart enough to listen to your body and watch for signs of overdoing it. Everybody's recovery is different and it's great to learn what works for others.
 

BoneSmart #1 Best Blog

Staff online

  • Jaycey
    ADMINISTRATOR Staff member since February 2011

Forum statistics

Threads
65,167
Messages
1,596,863
BoneSmarties
39,356
Latest member
JanieMarie
Recent bookmarks
0
Back
Top Bottom