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THR Dorothy's 2nd hip recovery, June 22, 2012

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"I give advice to others on here about "take it easy--the hip is in charge..." all the time. I must be in denial that that statement applies to me too! lol"

You've got that right! You give "us" SO much encouragement... time to focus on YOU. :) Sheesh, two THRs in six months? I think there should be an Olympic Gold Medal awarded to you!

"I think a lot of my problems and current fragility are because I was in such bad shape by the time my hip arthritis was finally diagnosed, my body had just gone down the tubes ... "

Right there with you, girl! Me too! Sheesh, the last two years... just a gradual deterioration, and I had no idea what was going on until the MRI which was only this last April (Blue Cross denied the need for it in February, and I and my OS had to appeal the denial.... took two months!).

Percoset; as you know, I couldn't take any of this "well"..... and wow, the Percoset for me - wow, how to describe? Fuzzy, Fuzzy Head, nausea (with all pain meds they tried on me), droopy eyes, dry mouth.... just couldn't handle it. But, we are all different, so I'm sure you know what meds work for you.

Your dogs and the McDonald's... too funny! And, I have to agree: dogs are woman's best friend!

Oh, Mangoes. TONS here, did I mention that before? Although I think we are now at the tail end of the season by the look of the tree outside of my dog shop; next year, I'll send some out to you and VThereandNow in trade for Blueberries!

Have a great weekend!

Alicia
 
Was wondering about the update on the injections, and you just posted!

Sounds like it went well.... GOOD!

I love my OS too.... I do have lots of questions for him (less now), so he takes a bit more time with me, and I don't feel guilty now in keeping him a bit longer to get some answers. Thank God he is so technically good at his work and a compassionate person (he does 15 "charity" joint replacements/year.... SO cool).

Hugs,

Alicia
 
Yes, Dorothy, we are definitely on for Monday at 1:00. Can't wait to meet you. Hoping the injections work. I'll email you before Mon. Take care, and get some nice rest this weekend.
 
Dorothy,
Sorry to hear about the tweaks and bumps:( Hopefully these are just temporary. Try not to get too anxious about work. It's tough going back but it DOESgetbetter! Maybe you could do a shortened schedule at the beginning
Dee
 
I couldn't help noticing how many of you keep saying that you love your OS. When I went to see mine last week, he told me that I will hate his guts for at least another 4 months. I wonder how he knows?
 
Thanks everyone! You really give me so much support and after reading your posts I really do feel better and more hopeful. Actually when I read about some of the other situations, I feel a bit silly whining about things not being perfect (or close to perfect) by only 6 weeks from surgery. Some people are struggling a WHOLE lot more than I am. I guess I just had such an easy time with the first recovery. This surgery went well, and I was so hopeful for an even easier recovery. I felt great up until the PT got involved. So I'm working off a lot of anger that my potentially 2nd easy recovery (relative, because we all know no THR recovery is easy) was messed up. I still can't believe how great I felt and how easily I got out of bed and walked in the hall at least 50 feet without much trouble at all less than 24 hours after my surgery. And then I went to afternoon PT at the "gym" and it all went downhill after I started pushing through the exercises despite the pain.

**PLEASE**--anyone who is reading this. PT right after a hip replacement can be and usually is somewhat painful and uncomfortable, but if you are asked to do something that causes a lot of pain and feels extremely difficult, it is too much for you to do at that point and JUST SAY NO! Don't force things. You can start small and build up as the time goes by and you will be just fine. My leg literally felt like it was being torn off my hip when I did several of the first post-op day exercises and for whatever reason (drugs clouding my judgment, wanting to be a "good" patient????) I pushed myself through and put myself over the edge. Don't do it! You have the right to refuse anything while you are in the hospital.

I decided to take more ibuprofen yesterday after I got back home because the long car ride, and sitting on the hard, wooden restaurant chairs made me extra stiff and sore. I had been told by my surgeon's PA to take ibuprofen only sporadically when I called the office a week and a half ago to inquire about adding it--"bleeding concerns," to which I go, huh??? At this late stage post op???? I know that there is some questionable research out there that states that anti-inflammatories may inhibit bone growth with fractures, so therefore, maybe it may work against bone growth into the prosthesis. But, I doubt it's going to cause my incision and the inner "carving" they did to start bleeding this far out ... maybe we just weren't understanding each other. Regardless, I had been limiting it to sporadic use because I knew I knew I would be meeting with my surgeon on Monday next week--he's the one who will give me the straight scoop and the best advice. But ...with feeling extra stiff and sore yesterday, I took 800 mg right after I got home and again before I went to bed. I also took more this morning. I feel SO much better when I take ibuprofen, I think it works better on my pain than oxycodone. Most of my pain now is just stiffness and inflammation of all those messed up muscles/tendons/ligaments remaining. I think an anti-inflammatory is what I need. I talk with Dr. C on Monday and if he gives it his blessing I'll resume taking it on a regular basis and back off on the oxycodone. I've never had a problem with stomach problems and I always take it with food. I think the oxycodone makes me a little more emotional too, which I certainly don't need. I've taken a ton of different drugs over the past few years since the arthritis started, and ibuprofen and naprosyn are the best over the counter drugs for me.

Alicia, your comment about the gold medal for having both hips done made tears come to my eyes. That was really sweet of you. I do think 3 surgeries in a year and a half (hysterectomy and two hips) is it for me--I've maxxed out my surgery tolerance quota. No more for a long time unless some emergency happens.

Dee, so good to hear from you again. I hope all is going well for you. I'll look for an update on your thread ...

Nancy, thank you for your kind words of support.

Lynne, Your situation seems pretty complex and difficult than many of us with general hip arthritis. So, maybe your situation was extra complex and your surgeon knew it was going to be a difficult recovery??? I didn't have any problems with my hips other than arthritis, so I think both of my surgeries were pretty straight forward. My surgeon is on the top of my list of "best people I've ever met." He diagnosed me when many physicians had no clue or didn't care enough to check things out and best of all, made my horrible arthritis pain go away! So he's the King! I think that's where many of us are coming from. I hope your recovery comes along more easily and you can soon say you love your surgeon too. :)

Diane, talk to you soon!

Dorothy
 
Good luck on Monday Dorothy and give my Sis, dianemarie; a big hug from me..

Hang in there, you will recover, time and patience hon xx
 
Dorothy, Thank you for the kind words. If my doctor knew that my surgery was going to be a difficult recovery, I wish he would have told me. I would have stayed home that day and put it off for a few more years.
 
Hello my Olympic Gold Medalist friend! (Didn't know about the hysterectomy.... SHEESH! I'm with you... no more surgery!) :)

Isn't it interesting what OTC "drugs" work for one and not the other? Once my Sciatica was cured through stimulated accupuncture (May 2011), then I could feel the bone-on-bone in my hip. Holy Cow! Advil/Ibuprofen didn't make a dent in my pain, but Aleve did. And wow. When I was told by OS to go off of the OTC two weeks prior to surgery.... I could not believe the pain. I know I lost a couple of clients in that period... they just didn't get it.

Looking forward to your continued updates!

Hugs,

Alicia
 
Hey there Dorothy,

I am really glad that youa re goign to see your OS on Monday and get some answers. Don;t forget to write all your questions down. I find even at follow-ups, I have a whole list of things to ask and get so excited seeing my OS (oh, dear, I think he has reached crush status...flutter, flutter!) that I forget what I want to know.

Very good that the ibuphrofin seems to be helpful for you and yes, write that down on your list!

Your advice to others to NEVER push is so important. Yes, I don;t know why we have this thing to please our PTs etc. But the idea in hip surgery that MORE is better is NOT true at all.

You mentioned a hard wooden seat. I find that chairs still are not comforatble at 100% and this trip I have been going all over the plass with a cushion in a cloth bag. It has really helped in taxis, subways, restaurants. I don't care that is a bit of a hassle or looks weird. The extra height just feels right. Try that.

Hugs and hugs to lovely dianemarie;

You must take EXTRA gentle care because you have had three operations in a very short time. That is so much on a body. They were all thee in your 2nd chakra area, so confined to one particular area of your body whihc needs your love and attention.

Elle
 
Hi! Dorothy,

You and I both posted to Franny, a new member, who was asking for advice. Yours regarding hospital PT was right on! I just wanted to let you know that it also applies to knees. Aggressive PT with knees can cause swelling beyond what surgery causes and make the knees very tight and painful and impossible to completely straighten or bend. So your advice is good for both hips and knees. Those first three to four weeks need to be mostly resting and allowing healing to go on with very gentle exercise and/or PT.

I always enjoy your posts and have learned a lot about the difficulties some hippies have. My hip replacement was text book, except for LLD, which I manage very well with lifts on all my left shoes.
 
I think my second hip would have been even easier than the first if the PT had been more reasonable and hadn't messed me up starting with post op day 1 afternoon. First morning after surgery, I got out of bed with very little assistance and had no trouble walking at least 50 feet with my walker the morning after surgery. I felt fine. Then ... I went to afternoon PT at their "gym" where they did the exercises, and by the time I got through the first 10 minutes or so, I felt like my leg was going to fall off as I dragged it through some of the tougher exercises. I would literally have to kind of yank and throw the leg using my pelvis and upper body to move the it during the exercises where they had me lie on a padded table and to do the exercise where I had to move the leg up and down, and then out to the side and back. They put a towel on top of a skinny, slippery wood slide type board and I could hardly control the leg--it felt like it weighed 100 pounds and it was next to impossible to make it do what I wanted it to do. Then the foot would slide off the board and then I'd have to yank and lift it back on and resume the torture. I hated those "lying down" exercises. I could do the standing and sitting ones fine, but the lying down ones felt like I was working against gravity a lot more, the leg felt much weaker, and had a lot less control of the it. I kept thinking "when does this torture stop!!!?????" There were so many exercises and it took forever to get through them all--it was like circuit training where I would go from one station to the next. It was probably at least 5 times the intensity and the volume of exercises that I had after the first hip. I wish I could let it go, but I just get so angry that my pleas to them about the severity of my pain while doing some of the exercises went in one ear and out the other. And, I didn't feel emotionally strong enough to stand up for myself better and just outright refuse to do them. I feel the hospital staff let me down and did a huge disservice to me.

I've been doing some research and I've been reading some things about problems with pain in the area I'm having and it is sounding more and more like I tore a tendon or a muscle near the pubic bone in the groin. My pain seems to begin at what feels like the big tendon just to the right of the pubic bone, and then it spreads out from there. If that's the case, I will be extremely PO'd, because I keep reading that many times that requires surgical repair.

It's been 6 weeks and the hip itself feels fine; it's the soft tissue pain way down in the groin that is causing my limitations. I think the hip itself is fine, which I believed will be confirmed tomorrow at the surgeon visit. I walk fairly decently with a cane, but I have to go slowly and cannot walk more than 200-300 feet without stopping to rest or I get VERY sore. I can't even walk around a small grocery store for 10 minutes to do some simple shopping without it stopping me in my tracks for the rest of the day and even the next couple of days. It's not getting better; it's getting worse. Decreasing my activity doesn't even have much effect on it. It's still there the next time I attempt to do anything.

There--I needed to vent a bit!

I'm trying to remain calm. I'll know more tomorrow after I meet with my surgeon. But, right now, I'm just pretty upset about the whole thing. I went into the surgery knowing there were the usual hip surgery risks, but the last thing I expected was that my body was going to be torn apart by the hospital physical therapy! What were they trying to prove by working me so hard???????

Dorothy
 
Hi Dorothy,

I sure hope that your OS can give you some solid answers about your pain when you see him tomorrow. We'll all be here waiting to hear what you find out.

I will share that over the year that I've been dealing with my hip I have found that my SI joint/low back has a direct impact on some of the issues I have with my adductors. In other words, sometimes when I feel my low back is out of alignment or stressed, or whatever it's doing, I will have tightness and aches/pains in my groin area where the adductor tendons are connecting into the pelvis. Some of this is related to the change in the alignment that the new hardware has caused for my entire hip/pelvis/leg and the accompanying muscles, some is related to the added length in the femur my OS gave me.

I have my fingers crossed in hope that you don't have anything that is torn or in need of further invasive work. I am sorry that the hospital PT people put you through the grinder as they did, I can't imagine how that was supposed to be either therapeutic or helpful.

Hugs, :console2:
Cardie
 
Thanks Cardie,

I've already asked my spine people to address my SI joint because I do believe I have a problem with that too, pre-existing, and also aggravated by the surgery procedure, walking weird afterwards, and the rough PT (I won't put all of the blame on the PT for this one--there are other factors involved). They just wanted to do my regular injections first and then do more with the SI if the regular spine injections don't relieve the pain in my leg. The never really checked it out, though---they just went on what I said. I'm going to ask my surgeon to check the SI today. I'm pretty sure I'll be released off hip restrictions today and maybe the PT can give me some ideas. I know I really need to start working in my piriformis stretches too that I haven't been able to do since surgery.

I've calmed down considerably since my vent of last evening :-) I guess things had just gotten to me! All I could think of is that my functioning is about the same as it was before I had my first hip replacement! I'm in less day to day pain, since the pain I have now is less horrible than the arthritis was (that first hip arthritis pain was a nightmare!!!)

Mike came to visit yesterday, and before he left I asked him to run to the store to get milk, peanut butter, and bananas. Those were the only things I needed to get, but I knew if I did it I would hurt. To me, that's ridiculous! At this point I should be getting my life back on track ... not backing up to where I used to be!

I'll report in when I get back from my surgeon appointment later.

I also get to meet our own dianemarie today!!!

Dorothy
 
Today I had my 6 week follow up appointment with my surgeon AND had lunch with and met dianemarie!! We had a lovely time chatting up a storm and enjoying Chinese food. We both arrived early and had to keep track of the time because we had so much to talk about that we would lose track--that's when you know you are having a good time. :-) I didn't want to be late for my appointment. I really enjoyed our visit and I know we will be getting together again. She's a very kind, sweet person.

My follow up appointment. Lots of x-rays--they are fine and everything looks great. Exam with lots of moving the leg around, watching me walk, sometimes crunching me up into a pretzel. He is quite certain I don't have a severe tear or injury to the soft tissue, but he does believe I have some hip flexor tearing. The good news is that he thinks this will heal without any further surgical intervention, but the bad news is that he doesn't think it's going to heal quickly--he thinks it could be as much as 6 months before I'm feeling OK.

I'm released from the hip restrictions, which he thinks will help me a lot because then I'll be able to move more and stretch out some muscles that haven't been able to be stretched in 6 weeks, especially my back problems. I need to go to physical therapy for 6 weeks, do my home exercises, walk on level ground short distances--whatever I can tolerate, add ibuprofen to my drug list 800 mg 3 times a day, back off on the oxycodone to as needed (although he is so great about pain medications--I still have quite a bit, but he said to call him if I run out and need more and he will write another prescription). He said the next 6 weeks may make a big difference in how I'm feeling and the period between 6 and 12 weeks often results in a lot of changes for the better in situations like mine.

I don't feel that I can return to work, so I'm out of work for another 6 weeks, which will be OK if my short term disability insurance keeps paying. If they don't ... I may have to go back and see how things go; I'm hoping that won't happen because I want to be in control of my activities. I explained how awful and picky this insurance company can be and he said he will try to phrase things in such a way that they will not question another 6 weeks and will just extend it out without asking for updates every couple of weeks and my being left hanging wondering if they will continue to approve the payments. I return to him in 6 weeks for a recheck.

So, kind of good news--no more surgery, but bad news that it's not an quick fix. This will be my "patience test," which I'm not good at ... But, I had a wonderful time with Dianemarie, so it was a good day!!

Dorothy
 
Ditto for me! Dorothy is a lovely person and we had a great time! :SUNsmile: Think we could have talked for at least another 5 hours LOL. :rotfl:

Sorry to hear about the hip flexor but good news that he thinks it will heal. Tears take a long time so I'm glad he seemed to give you a reasonable length of time that you may be looking at (the 6 mo.) and great that he thinks you will have some favorable healing the next 6 weeks. We have to try and stay focused on what we can do and take the small achievements each day as they come.

Take care and have a good evening.
 
Dorothy

My Short Term Disability was only available for 11 weeks, but my Long Term kicked in immediately, with no break in coverage. Maybe that is an option for you?

No more surgery is great news. And at least you now know what is wrong and that it takes 6 months or so to resolve. For me, knowing is always preferable...

Your lunch with dianemarie sounded like great fun, two compatible souls! Hope you can both find time to do that again!

All the best,
Suki
 
Is the hip flexor visible on xrays? I am SO naive with this "stuff."

How great to meet someone from Bonesmart; sounds like you ladies had a grand old time!

I am glad for your overall positive meeting with your OS, Dorothy. Sounds like he was very thorough.

Hey, here's a question: are there female OS out there? It seems to me we are all referring to male OS.

Hugs,

Alicia
 
Alicia.....in answer to your questions....

Soft tissue does not show up well on xrays. CT scans and MRIs are used to identify problems with soft tissue.

There are a few female orthopedic surgeons out there, but not many. That's why we usually refer to any surgeon as a "he."


Dorothy.....good report, even though there are some things that have yet to be resolved for you. I am impressed with the caring and professional approach taken by your surgeon. You have a real "keeper" there!!! Hang in there. I know it must seem like a long time ahead for things to work themselves out, but you'll get there.
 
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