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THR Did it, tied right shoe lace!!

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I hope so. I can't cut my toe nails yet (8 months po) since I can't read my toes. I can barely reach my right ankle. . as you can see from the photo (it may not be that obvious) I am really streching HARD to reach my right inside ankle. I really really want to be able to reach my toes and cut them toe nails. And of course put on my own tennis shoes and tie them laces up.. . .and If I can do that I guess I'd be able to put a pair of nylons on by myself. That is my ultimate objective.
 
My mom took the pic so that hand on the bottom is mine. It is holding/pulling my pant leg so I could stretch down and reach my ankle.
 
The stairs thing will probably come faster. I was going up and down stairs normally around 4 months post op.
 
Ok ten days from surgery! My shoes are going on and no pain or limp! Really!


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Thank you. NO I didn't know about this foam roller. No one told me about that. Well, I will put it on my list to get. I will be starting a new job soon I just need to wait for the LiveScan and drug test and for HR to call me for those tests. Once I get those two done, I can get my work schedule. Then I can get this. I'd love to try something new.
 
I have been doing really good with recovery up to this point. I don't know what the heck happened. I could understand my hip stiffness and all - I'm not too concerned about that.

About 3 - 4 months ago (Dec 2013 or Jan 2014) I was sitting and if I sat for 30 mins my hip would be so tight and I'd start to limp again (after getting up from sitting in a chair). It seems that by March 2014 that feeling of being stiff after just 30 mins - that feeling just - vanished. I thought I hit a major milestone since I wasn't doing the "limp after sitting".

Then all of a sudden about 2 weeks ago (8 months post op) I notice my lower back is STIFF as a board after I sit for all of 1 hour. My lower back has never been stiff. When I get up to - stand up from a chair --- I can't stand up straight. I don't know what this is. It is as if my body feels like a robot and I have to move that slow since my body is that stiff.

I will be starting work in a few weeks and I know I will have to sit for at least 3-4 hours each 8 hour work day. Has anyone else experienced this back stiffness and have it show up out of the blue around 8 or 9 months post op?

I made an appointment with my GP and saw her last week since I needed a referral to go to my surgeon for my 1 year post op in August 2014. I also asked for a referral for 6 more sessions of PT since my back is so very stiff. I'm hoping that I get some good back exercises to help with this, but I never read anyone getting lower back stiffness almost a year post op.
 
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@sandee Just felt I had to respond to what seems to me a major over-reaction to a routine forum protocol which was not meant for you personally, but which you perceived as such. That's too bad -- you obviously derived a lot from participating here & your posts were probably helpful to others as well. You're shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak, over something that is really insignificant in the whole scheme of things -- in my opinion, of course. Sorry to lose you & hope all goes well for you. Just noticed, also, that @bottomshollow was acknowledging your REQUEST...
 
Sandee.....somehow you have misunderstood. The administrative staff on BoneSmart is the same now as it has been since you joined. And both Josephine and I have been associated with BoneSmart since before 2009. So you are not dealing with new people. The forum has grown dramatically each year and we have added ADDITIONAL staff members, but the admins are still Jo and me.

We do have specific rules for the operation of the forum. They are not arbitrarily put in place, but instead are there to make the forum experience a good one for both our members and guests (we have about 10 times as many guests online at any given time as we do members --- people that only read and never join in). We have members all over the world and must be sensitive to all the cultural differences and differences in medical systems in the various countries. Please know that any rule put in place is to make the forum work more smoothly....not to make things difficult for any member!

If at any time you have a questions about why something is the way it is, please don't hesitate to send Jo or me a private message and we'll talk with you about your concerns. We prefer to keep these types of discussion off the public forum for the most part because to much of that "shop talk" can take away from our primary role here which is to provide accurate and impartial information and support to our members and guests.

I checked back into our moderator logs and could find no instance where a post of yours was deleted. I saw one case where two recovery threads were merged into one, but that was it.

We have a standing policy that only admins and moderators are able to change thread titles. This is done because these titles are searchable tools used by many members and guests to read about specific information. If the Thread Tools block appeared to you at any time, it was a system glitch. It really is not necessary to change a recovery title every time you have a new question or concern. People see your new post when they click on the forum index (the thread title shows in bold if there are unread posts) or when they click on the NEW POST links. Both members and staff are checking new posts at all times when they are online, so it is rare that a member's questions go unanswered. And....if you specifically want a faster response, all you have to do is tag one or more of the members or staff and they will receive an alert that takes them directly to your post.

I hope this information helps you understand a bit more about how BoneSmart operates and why. If you feel you must leave, that is certainly your choice. And if that is what you choose, I wish you well in the years to come. We will be here if you decide you want to participate again.
 
@sandee - I had severe back pain prior to my THR, I thought it was because I had such a dreadful Trendelenberg gait pre surgery.. I had my THR and to my delight my back pain disappeared.... Fast forward 12 months and my back pain flares up if I overdo it. I sympathize with anyone with back pain, I hope you can get some relief.
 
Poppet, I think this is my psoas muscle acting up. Not sure 100%, but I know that muscle is near the spine and my spine hurts. I just took a nice 30 min walk and boy did it feel great. My hip is fine. I thought may be my hip was acting up. Nope. It is my back. I can't stand up and bend over and stretch toward my toes like I used to do a month ago. I wish I had a better understanding of our bodies as a whole - I know my hamstrings are tight since I stopped doing the hamstring stretches about 2 months ago.
I don't know what I'm going to do once I start working full-time. Stretch at work? I just read about the psoas muscle and it said do stretches at work once every HOUR if you work all day at a computer. This stiffness is utterly painful and just bad. I feel like peanut brittle - well, my body doesn't break like that does. But it is stiff- doesn't bend.
 
If I sit for only 20 minutes I find it hard to stand up straight. Going to ER this week since my surgeon is there at the hospital . . .usually in the ortho clinic on Wednesdays and he is there other days doing in patient visits around 9am. Can't go on weekends since my surgeon is not there on weekends. May be they can do an x--ray of my back but I doubt that would show what is up with my muscles in my back. I took a 600mg ibuprofen and it did nothing.
 
Well I didn't wait to go to the ER. I went Sunday night instead of waiting until Tuesday. I'm too busy on weekdays. I wanted an X-ray of my lumbar region of my spine but of course they didn't advise it if one is not injured. I was told that sitting the wrong way at a computer could be causing my lower back pain. Bingo. . .I need the correct chair for when I'm sitting at my computer since I'm on a simple dinner chair not a computer chair. When at work I will not need to worry about this.

So I told the PA about my hip replacement, about my lower back pain right near the spine and how the stiffness is worse than the pain. I also told her about the plantar fasciitis that I have in my left foot. She told me she would give me a "powerful" anti-inflammatory to which I said "more powerful than 600mg Ibuprofen? to which she said "YES". She said she'd give me a muscle relaxer and exercises for my PF.

After 1 hour of seeing the PA, I was given a shot of Tramadol in my hip. Simple pain meds. 1.5 hour later I was being discharged and sent home with none other than 600mg of Ibuprofen and Baclofen 10mg. I never had Baclofen 10mg before. I was also given a short list of exercises to do for my lower back pain and the PF. The print out is hard to read.

I forgot how the Tramadol makes me feel the morning after since I already had almost an entire bottle (still here) from 8 months ago. I took one at 6:30pm right before I left for the ER Sunday and one at 12AM when I got home. Bad choice for me! 8 months ago when I was taking the Tramadol 50mg, it didn't matter that I got a "weed hangover" feeling all day the next day. I wasn't looking for work 4 weeks post op. But - I'm working now. I can't stand that hangover feeling. So now I'm wondering if I should even take this muscle relaxer tonight since I do have to be somewhere at 9am.

Does anyone have any experience with taking Baclofen and causing a hangover effect the next day? I'm going to wait this one out since I really don't want to take it when I know I have something planned the next day. I think I'm going to wait to take it on Friday night. I'm not doing anything on Saturday.
 
I'm starting physical therapy all over again (9 months post op) since I can't reach my foot and my hip is very tight. I just saw a new PT today at a new physical therapy office. this particular PT has told me to be more careful with my hip just like my doctor: Do not flex my hip greater than 90 degrees until I am 1 yr post op - and after I get the x-rays back that say I'm okay to flex my hip past 90 degrees. that will not be until August.

My other PT never told me this, but I'm happy that this therapist will be helping me with my piriformis muscle. This is the muscle that allows us humans to sit like a dude - with one foot on the opposite knee. From 1997 to 2001 I had to wear nylons daily in bible college. I used to be able to put them on - no problem by myself those years (age 22 - 26). I did have arthritis at that time, but it wasn't as bad . . .the arthritis got bad once I hit my 30s.

Sometimes between 2001 - 2003 I lost my ability to put my R foot on left knee. Since it has been about ???? 12 years :scratch: since I've been "independent" with my shoes/socks, I'm hoping I can do this one simple activity again. Once that happens I'll be :cheers: celebrating my independence again.

I don't know if it sounds crazy to have a THR to be able to gain independence at the age of 38, but . . . .
I did get more than I bargained for since my arthritis pain is all gone. I used to walk down the street and if the sidewalk was uneven or If I would walk in grass or in uneven dirt - I would shiver in pain deep in my hip. The pain was horrible! Those days are long gone.
 
So glad that this is better for you!!! Slow and steady with your therapy and things should improve even more for you.
 
Jamie said:
So glad that this is better for you!!! Slow and steady with your therapy and things should improve even more for you.
Click to expand...

Since last Friday (May 2nd) was the initial visit with the PT . .. we didn't start doing the real "work" until today May 9th. I got something new. Never heard of this but it felt so freaking wonderful: MFR or Myofascial Release. My PT did that on me for about 5 -7 minutes on my buttocks and near my hip . . .they had me go on the exercise bike 1st for 10 mins.

I'm not very familiar with this MFR and I don't know why my other PT didn't do this on me.
Anyone can help me out here, that would be great!

Are some PT's trained in MFR and others are not?

Does anyone know if MFR is the same as deep tissue massage? It felt like it was "deep" to me, but from what I read, everything said that MFR is a "steady pace and light pressure". It surely didn't feel light to me. It was the "good" kind of pain. I must have that sciatica since when he pushed right in the middle of my right butt check, it didn't feel very good. But then again I was pretty much sensitive all over the place on my hip area.

Is that sensitivity common 9 months after a THR? Not sure if it matters with the posterior approach or not being they cut up all my precious muscles.
 
Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about Myofascial Release that will give you details of the procedure.

You know, you can have soft tissue problems any time...related to or not related to your THR. The point is to address the problem (as you're doing) and get it on the mend. While you are doing this, I suggest you watch your activity level and make sure you aren't doing things that will cause additional stress to the tender tissues. Some of these things can take quite a while to resolve.
 
Jamie said:
Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about Myofascial Release that will give you details of the procedure.

You know, you can have soft tissue problems any time...related to or not related to your THR. The point is to address the problem (as you're doing) and get it on the mend. .
Click to expand...

Ah thank you for the link. I remember watching a video on MFR on youtube. it didn't really say if it was a form of deep tissue or not. But once I find employment I'm planning on going to a massage therapist and informing them that I really like MFR. I can tell that the once a week therapy sessions are working! I had one eval and 4 sessions so far each Friday. I'm hoping that my PT will request that I get more therapy in, since I told him it is working. He also has me doing the exercise bike which he says is for stretching the muscle.

I have my one yr post op follow up on July 30th and I wonder what my surgeon will say. hoping he will give me more PT.

I walk 40-45 mins a day (5 days a week) and I was told that walking is better since it makes the muscles strong. I'm doing it to lose 40 pounds by Dec 1. So far lost 3 pounds (started walking around May 14th, it has been 2 weeks). Amazingly - I don't have hip pain anymore! Imagine that. slight back pain - sure. I'm 60 pounds overweight so I would expect lower back pain. The nice thing is - the back pain doesn't stay for long. The main thing now is getting some mole skin since I've developed a nice blister on the ball of my foot (surgery side) and boy does that hurt.

Another victory: I am now able to cross my right knee over the left knee - without having to shift all of my weight/side on my left hip. Meaning: I can sit straight up and cross left knee over right. I tired it tonight. I couldn't believe it.

I'm still not able to reach my shoe laces by bending over or bringing my R foot to L knee. I'm giving it until Aug 2014. When I'm able to reach my shoe laces I will log back in and shout it.
 
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