THR Donnybasbl THR Recovery

donnybasbl

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Surgery was today at 9:30am EDT. No side effects from anesthesia and I felt entirely lucid within about 20 minutes of waking up.

My wife was there at noon for a quick hi and bye (they only allow 15 minute visits in the PACU every 2 hours). Both of our girls have activities and sports today and tonight (plus we have a puppy), so she headed home and will be back tomorrow to pick me up.

Took a relatively lengthy walk around the PACU at 1:45. The PT said that most people don’t get to that distance even by the second day, so I’m feeling pretty good about that.

I’m on 1000mg Tylenol every 6 hours and 1000 mg Tramadol every 6 hours. I do not tolerate opioids well, so this seems to be a good plan because the Tramadol did not have any adverse side effects.

The entire leg aches, but nothing that isn’t tolerable. I have an extremely high tolerance to pain (unless it’s dental related), but we’ll see how it goes.

I know there will be lots of ups and downs, but so far so good.
 
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Welcome to Recovery! :welome:
Congrats on your new hip. Here are the Recovery Guidelines that will answer many questions as you move forward. Stay in touch, we'd love to offer support and encouragemt as you heal.

Hip Recovery: The 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
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
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

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. @donnybasbl
 
@donnybasbl sounds like you're off to a good start! Though I hope you have an extra 0 on the tramadol dosage... Keep us all posted, I know I've gotten great input and advice from this forum (plus it's a good distraction while resting, haha).
 
@donnybasbl sounds like you're off to a good start! Though I hope you have an extra 0 on the tramadol dosage... Keep us all posted, I know I've gotten great input and advice from this forum (plus it's a good distraction while resting, haha).

Oops....yup.....100mg
 
You made it--hurray! All going to be steady progress forward now, despite some probable bumps along the way. Congrats on making to the other side.
 
Thanks Barbara.

Had my second doses of Tylenol and Tramadol. Was given a shot of Toradol and an antibiotic in the IV.

I would say pain is averaging a 3-4, but was closer to a 1 after the Toradol.

Two trips to the restroom with the nurses help without incident.

I’ve had 3 nurses since I’ve been here and they’re all awesome. The night nurse just told me that I’m the youngest person in the replacement ward here by 8 years, so they are referring to me as “the baby” at the nurses station. He said they’re all jealous that he ended up with the “young” guy with no medical problems.

That being said, my heart rate was 90 at the most recent check of my vitals. I typically have a resting heart rate in the 60’s, so he was a little concerned. I feel fine, but they are going to keep an eye on it.
 
Welcome to recovery! Hope they let you go home soon so the puppy can keep you cheerful.
 
Good luck in recovery. This place is a great resource! Looking forward to following your progress.
 
@donnybasbl Torodol always worked wonders for me. I was first given the drug while having babies, but it gave relief without feeling loopy. I asked for one last dose righ before they pulled the IV....you might see if they will do that for you. Also, might ask for a stool softener too. Often they wait until you have a problem....instead of preventing the problem. There is so much swelling in that zone, anything you can do to make #2 easier is good. Rest up!
 
Woo-hoo!:egypdance:New hippy in the house.
Hope BP stabilizes and you are on track for going home soon.
Healing hugs:yes:
 
Didn’t get too much sleep. Maybe 2 hours. It had nothing to do with pain. I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep last night. Once I did, I was woken up every 30 minutes, it seems, for vitals or meds.

I’ve had 2 more doses of Toradol (3 all together) and another dose of antibiotics, one more dose of tramadol (I skipped my 1:30am dose because my pain levels are at 1-2 at rest). I’m going to ask for the tramadol with breakfast so that I’ll be ready for PT this morning. I’ve had my normal Tylenol dose every 6 hours.

According to the doctor I just saw, I walked 300 feet, 3 hours post op, while most normally do about 20-25 feet. So they feel I’m likely on track to go home after 1 PT session this morning.

I’m anxious to get home because I’m at a hospital in NYC, while we live on Long Island and there is massive gridlock in the city, this week, because the President is here. I know my wife is stressed because it’s a long ride each way, and we need to get the girls to and from activities (my older daughter has soccer game at 4:30) and we have a 10 month old pup who we just picked up from a 2 week training boot camp on Sunday. Her stress level will go way down once I’m home.

She is going to stay home tomorrow, as well, and then my 23 year old son is coming to stay with me for the first half of the day on Thursday and Friday until he has to go to work. The girls should be home from school by then, so I won’t be alone in the house this week.

We’ll see how the day goes.
 
Lots easier to get comfy at home.
Good for you on your walking...show off eh?:heehee:

Hope they get you out of there soon.:tada:
 
@donnybasbl good luck breaking out of there today. I was lucky the hospital was 15 minutes from my house, but if I were you I'd ask for another shot of the good stuff right before discharge - don't want then pain to spike stuck in traffic.

When I had my sinuses roto-rootered (thats the technical term obviously) I had about a 2.5 hour ride to get home from LA, including significant elevation changes - not great for sinuses. I'd left the strong stuff in my bag in my wife's trunk, thinking I should make it home... We had to pull over pretty early on, haha.
 
Thanks Joe. I told them about my long ride, so i’m going to take the tramadol and Tylenol about an hour before I leave. I’m not going on the stronger opioids unless the pain gets out of control.

I passed my PT evaluation with flying colors and they cleared me, but my discharge is delayed because my white cell count is double the high end of the acceptable range. I need to be cleared by the medical staff now and that’s going to take a little extra time.

Oh yeah and by the way, why the hell is my white cell count 22,000? I guess they’ll try to figure that out.
 
Weird... I'm certainly no doctor, but my layman's guess would be that your immune system is confused and just cranking those white blood cells out to be safe, haha. Hopefully they can get it worked out today.
 
My immune system probably wants to punch me in the face. Tooth extraction and bone graft 3 weeks ago and now this.
 
One of the things that'll get the white blood cell factory cranking on overtime is tissue damage, so there's that. It does seem like a 24 hour doubling of the white cell population is pretty fast, though. Maybe your lab tech has double vision.

Edit - just noted your previous bone grafts n' stuff. Cancel the eye exam for the lab tech: I think we have a plausible solution to the white blood cell count!

Congrats on making it out today, too. Hospitals are sucky places to recover, and it sounds like you need warm puppy breath therapy, stat! (Unless the puppy is a terrier, in which case it'll probably bite your nose off.)
 
So I was discharged around noon, stopped by the pharmacy and picked up my meds and now i'm home.

They didn't have an explanation for the elevated white cell count, but said it's not that uncommon after joint replacement surgery.

I'm just going to take it easy today. I'm on a cane. No walker. I'm getting around very well. I've been up and down the stairs a couple of times already. I won't do too much more today. I don't want to push my luck.

Tomorrow i'll probably start some short walks to the end of the block and back (walking with my wife when she walks Loki) to get my steps in.

My pain level is about a 1 at rest and a 3 when walking, right now. More of an ache than anything. Obviously, it's painful when I stand up, but after 2 or 3 steps, the pain goes away. My gait is pretty good with the cane. A very slight limp is what my wife is telling me. Again, I think my age and my general physical condition is a real benefit to me here.

Tomorrow I take the dressing off the incision and then I can shower, which will be nice.

I have to say that although I would rather be home than spending a night in the hospital, it wasn't an extremely unpleasant experience, other than the lack of sleep. The nursing staff was spectacular. I had a nurse in the PACU who was great and then 2 nurses after I was admitted who were both awesome.

I'll continue to provide updates. Thank you for the well wishes.
 
Easy does it with the walking @donnybasbl ! Take a look at the articles Layla left you on activity progression. No heroics the first couple of weeks. Plenty of time to build strength when that hip is healed.
 

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