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THR Better late than never

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BarbaraR, my OS said until I come back for 6 week follow-up and that's not until March 27th. However, my PT said he doesn't understand why I have that restriction because it won't work with the physical therapy program. My OS seemed pleased with my x-rays and certainly didn't mention anything out of the ordinary. It turns out that my PT used to be the general manager of OS's physical therapy clinic. He said he may give OS a call to find out why I am on TD weight bearing only. I don't want to jeopardize any of the great work that's been done but I am walking (with walker) quite well. I just shift the weight to the walker and walk heel to toe. I noticed I had started limping like I had been before my surgery as long as I was only using the ball of my foot to touch the ground. My OS happens to be a man of few words so it would be helpful if my PT is able to get some information. At the time of my last appointment I didn't realize the impact that restriction would have on my progress otherwise I would have questioned him about it. In the meantime, I am experiencing some pain in my knee when I walk but I think that's normal. Did they stretch your hip out when you went to physical therapy? My PT stretched out mine and I couldn't believe the difference it made.
 
Weezi, I hope your PT can get some answers. Maybe if he tells the surgeon how well you're doing, you'll be able to increase your weight bearing a little at a time. Yes, my PT does stretch my hip and it feels really good. She also was working out a huge muscle knot that I have in my thigh. All these secondary consequences... I guess we have to have faith that as the experienced people on the forum say, the hips have a way of working themselves out.
 
I wonder why all the os's have different rules, I suppose its because every surgery and person is different but still. I can do full weight but it feels very weird when i try to so i am still using a walker. But because of the walker I feel your pain with sore hands. I hope you get some answers from your oc and pt to when you can pit your full weight on your leg.
 
Thanks momof3, I assume you had same type surgery as me. I believe it's called Anterior approach with the incision just behind the hip or just on the edge of the glutes. I think my incision is about 5 to 6 inches. I am also on the 90 degree rule. I'm currently using the walker 100% of the time. Oh and I meant to tell you what I am using on my walker to carry items. My husband tied our BBQ apron to the front of my walker. It's a long, bib style with two deep pockets at the waist. He folded the apron in half so that the big pockets line up with the bar that runs along the front of the walker. I can carry my cell phone, pens, medication and even my favorite diet drink. He also tied the strapes behind that front bar and I was able to carry that extended gripper that came in the hip kit.
 
Hey all,
I promised myself that I would post regular updates and today was the second PT visit. Oh dear, it was a tough one today. I was actually in tears today but I'm hoping I hid it well. I was laying on my back doing leg lifts (3 sets of 30) thats when the tears appeared out of the blue. The muscle in my groin is so weak on the right that I barely got through the reps. That muscle had turned to jelly as far as I was concerned. When I got home I tried working on my walking. There are several things I need to remember, keep my feet from turning inward, put operated leg down heel to toe, don't lean to the left, and always stand up straight. Once I felt like I got it all down I started walking when I reallzed my right leg is a tad longer than the left. I hope that it's because I have not been using my right foot and all the weight has been on my left foot. I am going to try and stay optimistic until somebody tells me I have a problem with leg length. Ok, time to go ice the hippo. I hope you all
have a great week!
 
Weezi, sorry PT was so hard yesterday. Your right leg probably really isn't longer, it just feels that way because arthritis draws the leg up into the hip socket, and then you adjust your back and your gait to compensate. That's true for me as well, but the PT measured and assured me that they're really the same length, so now the muscles just have to readjust. Once you can be more weight bearing, it will come faster (and if you're like me, other parts like your back will get achy as they're adjusting). Also, if your incision is over the glutes, you had the posterior approach. (Posterior means back and anterior means front. My incision is in the front of my thigh.). I hope today is a good day for you.
 
Hi Weezi sorry you are going through a rough patch. Is your OS an older doc? It is a long time to have no weight bearing. Perhaps he has a reason, who knows. I already had a LLD before my surgery due to a bad lower leg fracture on the opposite leg. OS assured me that it would not get worse. I wear a 1/2" heel lift to compensate. The funny thing now is that for the time being it feels like the operated leg is shorter.

My PT now consists of walking and a series of exercises, I do these many times a day. I'm not sure OS will be sending me to outpatient PT. I seem to be doing fine on my own. It does sometimes seem like 2 steps forward and 1 step back.p
 
Hugs, Weezi. Sorry about your painful PT. I understand your frustration and pain. After mopping my house the other day, I woke up the next morning with my groin feeling like I'd been riding an elephant doing the Harlem Shake. Not fun! You keep at it, girl. To paraphrase Mick Jagger, "T-i-i-i-ime is on your side. Yes it is!"
 
Weezi, I am just catching up with you....I hope everything gets better for you but I know what you are feeling with the rough PT. I had about the same experience today with mine. It's hard and then you're moving the leg that just had major surgery. I feel like I was ran over by a train right now but I hope it all starts to get stretched out soon and stops being so painful. All shows that we needed the surgery and that we let it go too long.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement! I think I was having a "Debbie Downer" day and it doesn't help that my hormones are wreaking havoc on me. I have seriously thought about pulling my hair out lately.:hairpulling: Fortunately, I haven't followed through with that as it would only add to my problems. It does help to know that you all understand what I'm going through.

designergirl my OS isn't much older than I am, I'd guess he's around 50. He is a man of VERY few words. I did find out some interesting news yesterday. Apparently, the assistant of OS's assistant finally called my PT regarding my touch down weight bearing prescription. The assistant's assistant told him that my OS wants me on TDWB until the end of the month because of the type of implant he used. It goes without saying that I need to be more assertive when it comes to asking questions. However, I certainly would have appreciated knowing that little nugget of information. We received a copy of my x-rays, a prescription for an antibiotic in the event that I have a root canal or an upper GI in the immediate future and the instructions for my PT. What type of implant or anything relevant to that wasn't mentioned. The only thing on the instructions for PT was a check mark by Hip Plan. I am generally very compliant when it comes to instructions and especially doctors orders. It's no wonder I was experiencing pain and soreness Monday evening. I wanted to ask you if you are able to put the lift in any shoes or do you have to special order shoes to have the lift put in?

hiphiphorray , I know we aren't supposed to compare ourselves to one another so I am not doing that but I can't believe your are able to mop! We had the same surgery, posterior approach, just a day apart and I am amazed by all the things you are able to do! That's incredible! I know he is being overly cautious due to the hip implant. I certainly hope he isn't using me as a guinea pig to try out the latest implant. Or maybe he's concerned that its my right hip. Or maybe I may never know.... Anywhoo, thanks, you got me to giggle over the riding an elephant while doing the harlem shake. It's a hilarious visual.

sandybeach , So glad to hear from you! I rescheduled PT for today because my lower back pain has gotten worse so I am taking a day to give it a rest. Your so right, we did put the surgery off too long. But we made it over and we are doing ok. We just have to keep on truckin' :bicycle1:


:thankyou:
Weezi
 
Just read post #106 on your thread, Weezi. Good grief! Three sets of 30 leg lifts? no wonder you were in tears. What is that supposed to accomplish? At about 5 weeks post-op?

The farther I get in my recovery (really complete at 5 months) and the more I read on this forum, the more I agree with Josephine that hips work themselves out just fine without all the PT (pain and torture.)
 
I agree, that many leg lifts so soon out seem way too much. I was NWB for six weeks so my operated leg was very weak...No Pt for me at that time but I done my exercises at home and was advised to do just ten leg lifts so thirty seems very excessive. You should not be brought to tears when doing PT. if it hurts too much don't do it weezy. No point in taking any chances by totally overdoing it early on.

I think the thing is because the PT is telling us to do certain things then we think they are the experts so it must be right but many of them seem to have a standard exercise programme for THR and as we know we are all different so that should not be the case.

Hope things continue to go smoothly...if your Os is overcautious then try not to worry about that, we all get there in the end :)

Take care

Ann
 
Weezi I know I have a 1/2" LLD in my non-operated leg. I used to have a 3/8" heel lift prescribed by an osteopath. For whatever reason, I stopped using it many years ago. I decided it would be best if I started wearing it again. I just ordered a 12mm lift which is pretty close to 1/2". The ones I ordered are pretty much the same as I used to have. I bought several to place in many shoes (what woman doesn't have many shoes. They double stick tape in. They may not work with all my shoes right now, the back needs to be high to accommodate the depth.
 
Weezi said:
today was the second PT visit. Oh dear, it was a tough one today. I was actually in tears today but I'm hoping I hid it well. I was laying on my back doing leg lifts (3 sets of 30) thats when the tears appeared out of the blue.
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No, no , no, no! Never ever do things so much that you hurt! This is the very first part of the Mantra, remember? That's far too much of anything to be doing at 5 weeks out. You really do have to be assertive and say "NO, it hurts and I'm not going to do it"!
Weezi said:
The muscle in my groin is so weak on the right that I barely got through the reps. That muscle had turned to jelly as far as I was concerned.
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Actually the muscles aren't just weak they are injured. Imagine if you had a broken ankle - would you expect to be able to walk on it to make it heal? Of course not! Injured muscles need rest and time to heal.
Weezi said:
When I got home I tried working on my walking.
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After that session of PT, all you should have done was to hit the settee and stay there the rest of the evening! Hips really don't need all this therapy. They actually do very well on their own.
Weezi said:
I reallzed my right leg is a tad longer than the left.
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It's mostly an illusion - read this Leg length differential - LLD.
Weezi said:
my OS wants me on TDWB until the end of the month because of the type of implant he used.
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You obviously had an uncemented hip and I think it's a shame when surgeons do that to their patients. Surgeons I know that use uncemented devices don't require non-weight bearing at all. There is a good reason for this which I will explain if you want me to but later!
Weezi said:
I wanted to ask you if you are able to put the lift in any shoes or do you have to special order shoes to have the lift put in?
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Best not to as you need to learn not to notice the LLD.

I also looked through all of this thread and is seems no-one gave you the recovery articles to read. Maybe you had them on the pre-op side but here they are again anyway! :wink:
Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery
Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key
Activity progression for THRs
Home physio (PT)
Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
 
momof3 said:
I wonder why all the os's have different rules, I suppose its because every surgery and person is different but still.
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This question is asked so often, I really have to do an article so I can just post the link! Nothing to do with the patient or the surgery, it's all to do with the surgeon! Every surgeon is different: had a different training, different experiences, different ideas and the most important bit, has a different mind! So they each come up with their own individual method of doing things. Weezy's surgeon decided that he prefers his patients to be non-weight bearing after an uncemented hip while lots of others believe it's more effective if the patient is fully weight bearing. Which is best? Neither, actually! Both have around the same outcomes - just one set of patients can get back to normal living immediately.

It's the same with the 90 degree restrictions - many surgeons stick to them like glue but and equal number don't believe in them at all. Which has the higher rate of dislocations? Neither actually! They're both about the same!

What's that old saying? "Different strokes for different folks"!!
 
As a point of difference, I have an uncemented hip and my OS said full weight bearing as tolerated. I tolerated it pretty much in 1 week, with a cane for stability of course. I still have the 90 degree restrictions for a month.
 
Weezi Sorry you are in so much pain. I know from bitter experience how painful it is to do straight leg lifts with a sore hip I was trying to do them until the pain was just too much and to attempt 30 seems ridiculous There must be another exercise you can do at a lower level instead I am mindful of the mantra that if it hurts don't do it.It is so true that we think the physios are the experts and to follow their instructions even if it doesnt make sense I did the same thing after my last op and some of the exercises caused me a lot of pain.Try and get some much needed rest and don't let them bully you again into doing ex exercises that hurt.Hope you are feeling better very soon x
 
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