2 stage THR pain control question

[dav2stage]

I have had the first surgery on 8/3 where they removed my prosthesis and other metal on my pelvic bone due to infection. They had to shatter my femur when removing prosthesis due to the cement. They put in spacers. It is non weight bearing. After 1 week it showed spacers were coming lose. They are getting worse as time goes on. It has been a battle trying to get pain meds. They had me on percocet 10/325 every 4 hours. I am in severe pain and they are refusing to give me anymore pain meds. I don't have another follow up until 10/27. My question to others who have had the two stage surgery is what were you given to control the pain between surgeries? Also were yon weight bearing?

 

[alexthecat]

My gosh! You've really been through a lot and I hope you have smooth sailing from here on. I don't have any advice, but I do want to offer my support. @Josephine would be the best person to answer your questions.

 

[dav2stage]

TY

 

[Jaycey]

@dav2stage Can you go to your family doctor to get some pain medication? Spacers are typically painful - surely someone is able to prescribe more meds.

 

[dav2stage]

I am bedridden so anywhere I go has to be with gurney and have to have someone with me so it's not easy. My ortho surgeon referred me to pain management dr which I saw on Monday. He told he would not prescribe anything since I was going to go back in for surgery in a couple weeks. Instead he wrote a recommendation to the surgeon to change rx from every 4 hours to every six hours so I don't build up high tolerance. The surgeons office is at a county hospital and is awful. I called about 20 times over a 5 hour period yesterday and got no answer. I am going to try my p c p but I can't get there until nextweek Wednesday due to transportation. I was asking the original question just to get an idea of what other people may have been prescribed for pain during this downtime til next surgery. I had first thr at 15 due to ankylosing spondolitis and have had pelvic reconstruction 2 times since then so I have high tolerance but not enough to deal with this pain. Ty for your response

 

[Josephine]

They had to shatter my femur when removing prosthesis due to the cement.

That sounds awfully random and untechnical! What they actually do it so cut a log window down the bone to get into the bone because it's important that all the cement is removed because bugs might be hiding underneath.

After 1 week it showed spacers were coming lose.

The antibiotic cement spacers are not fixed in like the prosthesis. It's just a form which is placed into the area the implants came out of to a) leech antibiotics into the deep tissues and bone and b) keep all the soft tissues stretched out ready for the new hip. The forms look like this - as you can see there is no cup so it's not expected to work like the hip replacement. However, the surgeon might not have used these but just roughly fashioned something similar out of a mix of bone cement which would account for the pain.

I do believe that you don't have to wait until your next appointment but could ring the surgeon's office and ask for a refill. If you get no joy there, try contacting your PCP/GP and see if s/he will oblige.

As a temporary stop-gap, try taking Tylenol 1,000mg 4 times a day (6hrly). It might at least take the edge of it.