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THR Balancing Exercise & Hip Health Prior to Revision Surgery
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myglasshalffull
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A good day of rest in between some busier activity is the way to go.
I was also go go type of personality and the hip replacement taught me a life lesson…patience!
It’s all about accepting what we cannot change at the moment.
But you will get better, stronger each day.
And these last two 90 degree days here took away every ache and pain in my body!
Something to be said for the warmth of summer. 30 degree drop overnight, knew it wouldn’t last.
I was also go go type of personality and the hip replacement taught me a life lesson…patience!
It’s all about accepting what we cannot change at the moment.
But you will get better, stronger each day.
And these last two 90 degree days here took away every ache and pain in my body!
Something to be said for the warmth of summer. 30 degree drop overnight, knew it wouldn’t last.
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@myglasshalffull
Hi MGHF, I think your weather is coming here, but not quite yet!
I slept like 10 hours last night - needed it! My plan for today is to have an easy afternoon relaxing, and do my prescribed standing exercises later, plus a few low key ones of my own, say max 10 to 15 minutes - I did that last night, and it was a great boost for my confidence, without even mentioning the physical aspect.
Have a good day!
Hi MGHF, I think your weather is coming here, but not quite yet!
I slept like 10 hours last night - needed it! My plan for today is to have an easy afternoon relaxing, and do my prescribed standing exercises later, plus a few low key ones of my own, say max 10 to 15 minutes - I did that last night, and it was a great boost for my confidence, without even mentioning the physical aspect.
Have a good day!
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Just to say I bit the bullet, and climbed the 21 steps downstairs to a patio outside to read in the sun, and it was bliss - warmth, birdsong, fresh air. The 21 steps down and back up were fine, no issues. Plus, the 6-month-old revised left hip performed wonderfully as the anchor leg.
The 21 stair steps having been accomplished with no issues is a massive psychological boost, given how much of a hammering my self-confidence took on having to be carried up the 28 steps to my flat on coming home POD 2. Plus proof of concept that I can now actually leave my flat to go outdoors under my own steam. Also, stairs are great rehab in and of themselves.
Furthermore, before going outdoors, I managed to walk with no issues with one crutch only indoors say 25 steps.
Therefore, to sum things up, from thinking I was doing badly a few days ago, I think I am now doing OK at POD 8 following a hip revision. Also, I am already many weeks ahead of the left hip's early recovery, given how complex that was. Rest tonight, and to remember that I have had all these breakthroughs whilst fully respecting the physio's instructions that my number 1 imperative for first fortnight is to prioritize soft tissue healing. Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey
The 21 stair steps having been accomplished with no issues is a massive psychological boost, given how much of a hammering my self-confidence took on having to be carried up the 28 steps to my flat on coming home POD 2. Plus proof of concept that I can now actually leave my flat to go outdoors under my own steam. Also, stairs are great rehab in and of themselves.
Furthermore, before going outdoors, I managed to walk with no issues with one crutch only indoors say 25 steps.
Therefore, to sum things up, from thinking I was doing badly a few days ago, I think I am now doing OK at POD 8 following a hip revision. Also, I am already many weeks ahead of the left hip's early recovery, given how complex that was. Rest tonight, and to remember that I have had all these breakthroughs whilst fully respecting the physio's instructions that my number 1 imperative for first fortnight is to prioritize soft tissue healing. Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey
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Yes a very impactful day really, and beyond my wildest dreams even yesterday. Rest tonight, play it by ear very carefully, and rest tomorrow too, if today’s exploits leave behind a hint of afterburn.
Thank you Layla
Thank you Layla
myglasshalffull
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@myglasshalffull
Thank you MGHF. As to today, I will rein things in a bit, and let my body consolidate the gains of yesterday - it would be so easy to get carried away, and ramp up the activity daily, and pay for it later!
Thank you MGHF. As to today, I will rein things in a bit, and let my body consolidate the gains of yesterday - it would be so easy to get carried away, and ramp up the activity daily, and pay for it later!
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Happy Seven Month Anniversary!
Can you believe it's been seven months, to date, since your first revision?
Hopefully it went by fast for you and this recovery does also.
Have a great day, hipcycle!
Can you believe it's been seven months, to date, since your first revision?
Hopefully it went by fast for you and this recovery does also.
Have a great day, hipcycle!
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@Layla
Thank you Layla - that had escaped me to be honest, as the focus has shifted to the right hip so much!
I did have a slight bit of incremental exercise mission creep yesterday, if honest. The walking 25 steps one crutch felt good, so I did the 21 stair steps down and up to be in the sun. The stairs felt good, so I did some standing based exercises. These felt good, so I did 10 mins standing dumbbell exercises. All felt great at the time, and in isolation were perfectly appropriate, but when viewed in the round, as I did after (!), they were cumulatively relatively a lot. And my trochanter area and rhs lower back complained a bit overnight. Nothing catastrophic, nothing to derail recovery, just an useful reminder not to get too carried away in the moment, as the bill comes later!
Have to remember the Catchy Monkey bit, always
Thank you Layla - that had escaped me to be honest, as the focus has shifted to the right hip so much!
I did have a slight bit of incremental exercise mission creep yesterday, if honest. The walking 25 steps one crutch felt good, so I did the 21 stair steps down and up to be in the sun. The stairs felt good, so I did some standing based exercises. These felt good, so I did 10 mins standing dumbbell exercises. All felt great at the time, and in isolation were perfectly appropriate, but when viewed in the round, as I did after (!), they were cumulatively relatively a lot. And my trochanter area and rhs lower back complained a bit overnight. Nothing catastrophic, nothing to derail recovery, just an useful reminder not to get too carried away in the moment, as the bill comes later!
Have to remember the Catchy Monkey bit, always
myglasshalffull
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Morning @hipcycle
Hey you overdid it a little so now take it easy for a day or two and you will be as good as new.
I still manage to overdo after 4 years and when my body tells me about it I take a day off from the world. I’m fortunate to be retired and not have to worry about getting up to work, take care of kids or anything else. I feel for the younger crowd raising kids that go through this surgery and still have the day to day responsibilities to deal with all while trying to recover.
I wish you a happy day!
Hey you overdid it a little so now take it easy for a day or two and you will be as good as new.
I still manage to overdo after 4 years and when my body tells me about it I take a day off from the world. I’m fortunate to be retired and not have to worry about getting up to work, take care of kids or anything else. I feel for the younger crowd raising kids that go through this surgery and still have the day to day responsibilities to deal with all while trying to recover.
I wish you a happy day!
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@myglasshalffull
Absolutely - second easy day today. Also, since I was lucky to be able to be very active right up until the surgery, I hope i can afford to rely on pre-op fitness, and thus focus more on soft tissue recovery for the first fortnight say. A big boost will be having the dressing off (dissolvable sutures) when the District Nurse visits Thursday. In the meantime, I am sleeping ten hours plus overnight, and at least an hour or two during the day, well well more than normal, and accepting it gratefully, rather than fighting it!
Absolutely - second easy day today. Also, since I was lucky to be able to be very active right up until the surgery, I hope i can afford to rely on pre-op fitness, and thus focus more on soft tissue recovery for the first fortnight say. A big boost will be having the dressing off (dissolvable sutures) when the District Nurse visits Thursday. In the meantime, I am sleeping ten hours plus overnight, and at least an hour or two during the day, well well more than normal, and accepting it gratefully, rather than fighting it!
myglasshalffull
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@hipcycle good morning!
You are getting great sleep so your body is doing lots of cell regeneration and healing during those times. Sleep is very beneficial in the early days and many struggle to get a decent nights sleep.
I was in great physical condition prior to my fall and fracture. Walking 3-6 miles a day as well as working 3 days a week in a very fast paced restaurant. I volunteered several days a week at my local dog rescue. Some days walking at least 10 dogs!
Took me a good 3 months to really feel like my recovery was actually going to happen.
It was a good thing I had found this site early in my recovery cause I certainly would have thought my recovery was very unusual. But as it turns out I wasn’t much different than many that post here.
We all recover differently because we are all individuals but we all share similarities.
Here’s hoping your recovery goes as planned. But you are facing it very realistically and that’s a good thing.
Have an amazing day!
You are getting great sleep so your body is doing lots of cell regeneration and healing during those times. Sleep is very beneficial in the early days and many struggle to get a decent nights sleep.
I was in great physical condition prior to my fall and fracture. Walking 3-6 miles a day as well as working 3 days a week in a very fast paced restaurant. I volunteered several days a week at my local dog rescue. Some days walking at least 10 dogs!
Took me a good 3 months to really feel like my recovery was actually going to happen.
It was a good thing I had found this site early in my recovery cause I certainly would have thought my recovery was very unusual. But as it turns out I wasn’t much different than many that post here.
We all recover differently because we are all individuals but we all share similarities.
Here’s hoping your recovery goes as planned. But you are facing it very realistically and that’s a good thing.
Have an amazing day!
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@myglasshalffull
Thanks for that encouragement MGHF. Had my first walk outside today - 0.4 miles or so in 30 mins lol! Since my walking is to be capped at a mile a day max until i see my surgeon 4 weeks this Tuesday, that was ample for me. Then spent an hour sitting in the sun listening to an Audiobook.
Steady does it!
Thanks for that encouragement MGHF. Had my first walk outside today - 0.4 miles or so in 30 mins lol! Since my walking is to be capped at a mile a day max until i see my surgeon 4 weeks this Tuesday, that was ample for me. Then spent an hour sitting in the sun listening to an Audiobook.
Steady does it!
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@Layla
Hi Layla,
I had planned to post following the District Nurse’s visit last Thursday, POD 15. However, contrary to what I had expected, she did not remove the dressing, but rather replaced it with another Aquacel Surgical one, and instructed me to leave it on another week. This seemed extremely conservative to me, especially as the same nurse removed the exact same type of dressing off of the much more extensive left hip revision wound at POD 14 last November, and that healed very well. By yesterday, the right hip incision area was becoming increasingly itchy, building up over the previous week. This had seriously impacted my sleep. So, loath as I am to disregard medical advice, last night I removed the dressing. The incision itself looked fine, sealed and exudate free, but wet from what I assume was retained sweat etc. I should add that I would have left it well alone had there been any sign of the wound being unsealed or weeping — it was the clean and sealed state of it that gave me the confidence to proceed. That aforementioned itch rapidly ameliorated last night, and I had the best sleep, 6 hours, that I have had in over a week, plus the incision area is this morning utterly dry, and reassuringly unremarkable.
As to all else, I view myself as facing a series of separate mini-recoveries, coalescing to form one whole recovery arc.
Hi Layla,
I had planned to post following the District Nurse’s visit last Thursday, POD 15. However, contrary to what I had expected, she did not remove the dressing, but rather replaced it with another Aquacel Surgical one, and instructed me to leave it on another week. This seemed extremely conservative to me, especially as the same nurse removed the exact same type of dressing off of the much more extensive left hip revision wound at POD 14 last November, and that healed very well. By yesterday, the right hip incision area was becoming increasingly itchy, building up over the previous week. This had seriously impacted my sleep. So, loath as I am to disregard medical advice, last night I removed the dressing. The incision itself looked fine, sealed and exudate free, but wet from what I assume was retained sweat etc. I should add that I would have left it well alone had there been any sign of the wound being unsealed or weeping — it was the clean and sealed state of it that gave me the confidence to proceed. That aforementioned itch rapidly ameliorated last night, and I had the best sleep, 6 hours, that I have had in over a week, plus the incision area is this morning utterly dry, and reassuringly unremarkable.
As to all else, I view myself as facing a series of separate mini-recoveries, coalescing to form one whole recovery arc.
- Bone/Prosthesis Recovery: This is going well, engendered by a more straightforward revision surgery compared to the left hip one.
- Neural Mapping/Proprioception: Again, going well. There is much less neural mapping re the new prosthesis this time, since the femoral cortical canal re the Primary THR was pretty much unaltered.
- Inhibition/Guarding: Due to less traumatic surgery than the left, this is proceeding OK. I suspect some of the negative early experience of the left hip revision still lingers in my CNS’s threat assessment (Predictive Coding/Bayesian Priors etc.), but it improves as my CNS gains confidence in the new construct.
- Soft Tissue Recovery: This element caught me a bit by surprise. Even though the right hip revision was more straightforward and the incision wound much shorter, the fact still remains that muscles and tendons were interfered with in much the same way as per the left hip. Also, I now have real-life experience twice over that soft tissue recovery post-Revision surgery is slower and more protracted than post-Primary THR.
- Psychological Recovery: This has been tougher than I thought, in spite of my surgeon being so happy with the result, and in spite of how solid the right hip already feels. I suspect two factors are at play here. Firstly, this is my second major revision surgery in 7 months ie my psychological reserves were already perhaps a tad low pre the right hip revision. Secondly, having the left hip revised was a massive relief, as it had suffered a periprosthetic fracture. However, the right hip, although in retrospect massively compromised, was functionally perfect going into surgery. The consequent inevitable temporary post-op loss of function and pain has therefore been harder to accept and assimilate, but I am getting there!
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myglasshalffull
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Good morning @hipcycle .
Good update!
I think your incision itching is a good sign of it healing? And if you removed the bandage and all looks fine then just keep an eye on it.
Once my staples were removed at 2 weeks post op I didn’t have any covering on my incision. And sure felt nice to get those staples removed.
This is a mental recovery as well as physical. You already have the experience but our minds still will play tricks on us with all the “what ifs”. It’s human nature.
Good update!
I think your incision itching is a good sign of it healing? And if you removed the bandage and all looks fine then just keep an eye on it.
Once my staples were removed at 2 weeks post op I didn’t have any covering on my incision. And sure felt nice to get those staples removed.
This is a mental recovery as well as physical. You already have the experience but our minds still will play tricks on us with all the “what ifs”. It’s human nature.
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@myglasshalffull
Thanks for the kind reply MGHF. In this case, I suspect the itching was due to sweating under the heavy duty Aquacel surgical dressing, allied with whatever the dressing’s adhesives do to the skin. Regardless, removing it was akin to a little foretaste of paradise.
I have stuck to the same 0.4 mile over the local bridge and back walk for the last week, the main headline being that the time to do it has dropped from 45 to under 20 minutes ie from glacial to slow motion - progress!
Next step cycling on Zwift as of tomorrow - easy 15 minutes to start with. I”ll catch that monkey eventually!
Thanks for the kind reply MGHF. In this case, I suspect the itching was due to sweating under the heavy duty Aquacel surgical dressing, allied with whatever the dressing’s adhesives do to the skin. Regardless, removing it was akin to a little foretaste of paradise.
I have stuck to the same 0.4 mile over the local bridge and back walk for the last week, the main headline being that the time to do it has dropped from 45 to under 20 minutes ie from glacial to slow motion - progress!
Next step cycling on Zwift as of tomorrow - easy 15 minutes to start with. I”ll catch that monkey eventually!
