Well, here you are with a shiny new hip! Congratulations, especially since it's been a long and winding road for you.
Hopefully the surgical team gave you some medications and a schedule to follow for any pain and discomfort? Ice will be your new best friend. I followed the advice given on this forum and applied the packs for 40 minutes of each hour. Just be sure to have a thin layer of cloth between your skin and the ice pack. No freeze burns allowed.
Here are our guidelines to read over. Pretty much everything that you may think of is covered in them. As for home exercises, scroll down and read the next to the last paragraph, called BIG TIP--- pause then read it again.
HIP RECOVERY GUIDELINES
1.
Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary.
If you want to use something to assist with healing and scar management, BoneSmart recommends hypochlorous solution. Members in the US can purchase
ACTIVE Antimicrobial Hydrogel through BoneSmart at a discount. Similar products should be available in the UK and other countries.
2.
Control discomfort:
rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these
BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this
Activity progression for THRs
The recovery articles
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
Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?
BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people
don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then
not to excess.
We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.
While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.