919THR
new member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2018
- Messages
- 16
- Age
- 51
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
Hello fellow bonesmarties. I have been wearing out the search function of this site in my recovery so now it is time for me to finally post. The site has been a great resource of info in my recovery. I had a left anterior THR on 10/2/18 due to osteoarthritis. I'm a 46 year old male, 5'11" 245lbs pretty active up until a year before surgery when arthritis continued to slow me down.
So post surgery I was off work for two weeks with sick leave then worked from home for two weeks, desk job doing computer work. First four weeks of recovery went well. Stayed overnight at the hospital after surgery. Got around fine the day after surgery with a walker. Operated left leg muscles very sore after surgery. So much so that I couldn't really appreciate the lack of pain where I used to have it in my hip. I had in home PT for two weeks. Four very light excercises, two sets of 15 for each. Took naps every day first two weeks, lots of laying down and relaxing. A nurse in the hospital said I would feel about 3% better each day and that is about how I would describe my improvement. Each morning I had a little less soreness in muscles and I could support more weight. Within two weeks after surgery I was walking with no aids. I was walking about 15 minutes a day outside and by the end of my walks I would feel it a little bit. I would return home and take it easy. I had stopped taking narcotic pain meds during day probably around day 5, only taking them at night to sleep. By day 10 I was sleeping on my non operated side as I am side sleeper. 2 week follow up with my OS had an xray that showed everything looking good.
I started doing outpatient PT at 21 days after surgery. There I did some clamshell exercises, rear leg extensions. Some side to side stepping with elastic bands at my ankle. It did challenge myself from a strength point at the PT sessions, but they were relatively brief and I did not feel to bad the day after PT. I tried to purposely take a walks daily during week 4 after surgery to be sure I go exercise. I didn't desire to overdo it realizing it was going to be a while before I could do any "real" activity so I was in no rush.
Around day 23 or 24 after my surgery I took my longest walk probably 30 minutes and in hindsight I walked through pain for 10 minutes. At this point I was going up and down my stairs at home one leg at a time comfortably. Then on day 25 day after my surgery I thought I was moving around well enough that I could drive from Raleigh to Charlotte (two hour drive, I had driven alot around town sometimes for an hour at a time so sitting in a car was not new) to take my daughter to a 2 day lacrosse tournament. I knew I would have to walk some but not a lot more than the walks I had been taking and I was progressing so well I assumed I was up for it and did not feel I was pushing myself. I would get to sit down during games (albeit in those not so supportive nylon fold up chairs). No fast walking needed. I made it through the first day well I thought. But I do remember not sleeping well due to leg pain and not having my tempurpedic mattress from home. Day 2 of the lacrosse tournament I was definitely more sore. It started to hurt to bear weight on the operated leg and I was getting stiff sitting down so I would have to get up and walk. Made the two hour drive home in the car and by the end of the night day 26 I laid down in my bed, pain level at 8 that kept me up just laying there and required an oxycotin.
The next day Monday 10/29/18, 27 days after my surgery I needed to go back to the office for work. I woke up that morning and could barely bare weight on my leg and need to go back to using my cane. I would say I went from feeling 60% back mobility wise with very little pain prior to this weekends activity to 30% mobility with significant pain. So from day 28 on I had to start taking acetominophen 4,000mg a day from nothing before. Narcotic pain medicine at night to sleep. The frustrating thing is that it has been one week since my recovery set back and I have had no improvement since then. Each morning I wake up and have an inability to bear much weight on the leg and have to use my cane and some mornings my walker. I make it through my desk job and each time I stand up I have the stiffness and inability to bear weight. I can bear more weight as the leg warms up most times. I have pain all round my thigh randomly particularly at the top of my thigh. For the first few days after the pain started flaring up I tried to not use the cane in an effort to make my muscles work a little, but unlike the first 25 days of my recovery I saw no day to day improvement from making the muscles work and resorted to just always using the cane to see if complete rest and walking aid reliance would result in some diminishing pain.
So that has been my saga for the first 35 days/5 weeks of my recovery. 25 days of linear great recovery going from bed ridden to comfortably walking around; a two day weekend trip with a 2 hr road trip each day with only slightly more activity than I was doing prior; 8 days of inability to bear weight on operated leg without walking aids can random flare ups of 5-8 rated pain in top of thigh. That I have had no improvement in pain or my ability to walk comfortably since my recovery setback it has made me wonder if I had an infection or an implant issue. But I have been back to my OS and got blood work done that indicated no infections. I don't think its an implant issue because there are times that there is no pain while I'm being still and I can even walk for a short time with no pain. My guess is that sitting in the car for two hours straight, 50% more walking than I was used to, walking with some pain for while on day 2 of the tourney, and increased PT prior to the tourney created a flare up of all kinds of muscle pain that is taking me quite a while to recover from. I quit the PT and will stay away from it for now. I just keep icing and taking the acetominophen and look forward to the day when my recovery starts to show improvement again.
Matt
So post surgery I was off work for two weeks with sick leave then worked from home for two weeks, desk job doing computer work. First four weeks of recovery went well. Stayed overnight at the hospital after surgery. Got around fine the day after surgery with a walker. Operated left leg muscles very sore after surgery. So much so that I couldn't really appreciate the lack of pain where I used to have it in my hip. I had in home PT for two weeks. Four very light excercises, two sets of 15 for each. Took naps every day first two weeks, lots of laying down and relaxing. A nurse in the hospital said I would feel about 3% better each day and that is about how I would describe my improvement. Each morning I had a little less soreness in muscles and I could support more weight. Within two weeks after surgery I was walking with no aids. I was walking about 15 minutes a day outside and by the end of my walks I would feel it a little bit. I would return home and take it easy. I had stopped taking narcotic pain meds during day probably around day 5, only taking them at night to sleep. By day 10 I was sleeping on my non operated side as I am side sleeper. 2 week follow up with my OS had an xray that showed everything looking good.
I started doing outpatient PT at 21 days after surgery. There I did some clamshell exercises, rear leg extensions. Some side to side stepping with elastic bands at my ankle. It did challenge myself from a strength point at the PT sessions, but they were relatively brief and I did not feel to bad the day after PT. I tried to purposely take a walks daily during week 4 after surgery to be sure I go exercise. I didn't desire to overdo it realizing it was going to be a while before I could do any "real" activity so I was in no rush.
Around day 23 or 24 after my surgery I took my longest walk probably 30 minutes and in hindsight I walked through pain for 10 minutes. At this point I was going up and down my stairs at home one leg at a time comfortably. Then on day 25 day after my surgery I thought I was moving around well enough that I could drive from Raleigh to Charlotte (two hour drive, I had driven alot around town sometimes for an hour at a time so sitting in a car was not new) to take my daughter to a 2 day lacrosse tournament. I knew I would have to walk some but not a lot more than the walks I had been taking and I was progressing so well I assumed I was up for it and did not feel I was pushing myself. I would get to sit down during games (albeit in those not so supportive nylon fold up chairs). No fast walking needed. I made it through the first day well I thought. But I do remember not sleeping well due to leg pain and not having my tempurpedic mattress from home. Day 2 of the lacrosse tournament I was definitely more sore. It started to hurt to bear weight on the operated leg and I was getting stiff sitting down so I would have to get up and walk. Made the two hour drive home in the car and by the end of the night day 26 I laid down in my bed, pain level at 8 that kept me up just laying there and required an oxycotin.
The next day Monday 10/29/18, 27 days after my surgery I needed to go back to the office for work. I woke up that morning and could barely bare weight on my leg and need to go back to using my cane. I would say I went from feeling 60% back mobility wise with very little pain prior to this weekends activity to 30% mobility with significant pain. So from day 28 on I had to start taking acetominophen 4,000mg a day from nothing before. Narcotic pain medicine at night to sleep. The frustrating thing is that it has been one week since my recovery set back and I have had no improvement since then. Each morning I wake up and have an inability to bear much weight on the leg and have to use my cane and some mornings my walker. I make it through my desk job and each time I stand up I have the stiffness and inability to bear weight. I can bear more weight as the leg warms up most times. I have pain all round my thigh randomly particularly at the top of my thigh. For the first few days after the pain started flaring up I tried to not use the cane in an effort to make my muscles work a little, but unlike the first 25 days of my recovery I saw no day to day improvement from making the muscles work and resorted to just always using the cane to see if complete rest and walking aid reliance would result in some diminishing pain.
So that has been my saga for the first 35 days/5 weeks of my recovery. 25 days of linear great recovery going from bed ridden to comfortably walking around; a two day weekend trip with a 2 hr road trip each day with only slightly more activity than I was doing prior; 8 days of inability to bear weight on operated leg without walking aids can random flare ups of 5-8 rated pain in top of thigh. That I have had no improvement in pain or my ability to walk comfortably since my recovery setback it has made me wonder if I had an infection or an implant issue. But I have been back to my OS and got blood work done that indicated no infections. I don't think its an implant issue because there are times that there is no pain while I'm being still and I can even walk for a short time with no pain. My guess is that sitting in the car for two hours straight, 50% more walking than I was used to, walking with some pain for while on day 2 of the tourney, and increased PT prior to the tourney created a flare up of all kinds of muscle pain that is taking me quite a while to recover from. I quit the PT and will stay away from it for now. I just keep icing and taking the acetominophen and look forward to the day when my recovery starts to show improvement again.
Matt