THR Heel Lift for Sandals?

MountainLover

new member
Joined
Sep 4, 2020
Messages
11
Age
70
Country
United States United States
Gender
Female
Hi August Hot Shots. I'm on Day 12 of recovery and feel good about getting off the hard drugs and am only using Tylenol now. I had a low grade fever for 8 days and it really tired me out. After talking to my niece, a trauma nurse, she advised that I step up the breathing exercises which I did aggressively and my fever broke. Yay! I have a question about a popping noise. Last night I tried to use my own muscles to finish lifting my leg from the floor when in a sitting position to a laying position on the sofa. I was so shocked to hear a popping noise. I don't feel like it came from the implant but suspect it might have been a tendon, ligament or muscle. I didn't feel debilitating pain just a bit of pain and swelling. Any ideas?
 
Hi @MountainLover - and :welome:

You will see that I have moved your post from the August Hotshots thread and started your own recovery thread for you.

The team threads are primarily to allow you to see who has had surgery the same month as you. Discussion of issues, comments, and questions regarding recovery must be kept in your individual recovery thread.

Please post any updates or questions about your recovery in this thread. We will see them here, as someone checks all the new posts every day.
If you need an urgent response to a question, just tag a member of staff.
How to tag another member; how to answer when someone tags you

If you prefer a different thread title, just post what you want and we'll get it changed for you.

Just in case you couldn't find your thread, here are the instructions on finding your thread,
How can I find my threads and posts . Many members bookmark their thread, so they can find it when they log on.
 
Last edited:
Now, to answer your question:
I'm pretty sure you won't have done any damage to your implant - those things are tough. You may have over-strained some of your soft tissues, which were also wounded during your surgery.

Just take things easy, spending lots of time resting, icing and elevating, and taking your medications on a regular schedule.

Here are our recovery guidelines, to help you:

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
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

6. Access these pages on the website


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 the 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 the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.
 
Hello and welcome to bonesmart. Congratulations on your shiny new hip. The new hip is strong but all our soft tissues went through a lot of manipulation with the surgery and they tend to be sensitive to new motions as they adjust to the new hip. Ice, elevate and rest and give it some time before you try that move again. Give it a try in a week and see what the hip says about it. Have a peaceful day. :flwrysmile:
 
Thanks for your encouragement about the popping noise! I think I learned my lesson about that particular move and now I plan to make sure I'm in a more supported position if I try to add moves.

By the way, my procedure was Right Anterior Total Hip Replacement. How do I add that at the bottom of my posts?
 
:hi:Welcome! Thanks for joining us. It sounds like you had a bit of a rough start, but doing better now. Will look forward to following your healing journey. I hope you have a nice holiday weekend! :SUNsmile:
@MountainLover
 
I need to find a good heel lift that works for sandals. It turns out my new leg is now 1/2 inch longer. The surgeon recommended Adjusta-Lift for regular shoes, but what do people use for sandals? I'm thinking there might be something that peels and sticks? Most of my sandals are Clarks and I can adjust the instep strap.
 
Hi @MountainLover

It's still a bit soon to be looking for a heel lift. Many people feel that one leg is longer than the other after a THR, but for most people it's a perceived leg length discrepancy that goes away as their body adjusts to a new stance and gait during recovery. This could happen to you as well.
This article explains: Leg length differential - LLD


You'll notice that I have merged your two threads together as we prefer that members in recovery only have one thread.

This is for three reasons:
1. if you keep starting new threads, you miss the posts others have left you in the old threads
2. it often ends up that information is unnecessarily repeated
3. it's best if we can keep all your recovery story in one place so it's easily accessed if we need to advise you.

Please keep all your questions and updates on this thread. Don't worry that we won't see your new question as, between us, the staff read all new posts each day.
If you need an urgent response to a question, just tag a member of staff.
Tagging other members and answering tags

If you prefer a different thread title, just post what you want and we'll get it changed for you.

Here are the instructions on finding your thread, How can I find my threads and posts?Many members bookmark their thread, so they can find it when they log on. Please will you do that?
 
I agree with what others have said, my doctor even attempted to make my right leg longer during the THR but said it was still a milometer shorter than the left one, however I could swear it felt longer than my left leg and still kind of does. I think you should give it sometime to adjust if your doctor hasn't specifically told you to get a lift yet. I'm not sure about sandals but prior to my surgery when I was using an ortho lift in my right shoe, I found a pair of crocs that I could easily insert the lift into, but never a pair of sandals, I guess you could have a custom sandal made with the lift under it.
 
My right leg really is longer. It shows up in the x-ray as a pelvic tilt to the left and the surgeon confirmed it. It seemed like he was okay with me starting a heel lift right away because he recommended one and didn't preface it with waiting. My concern is that with the lift I have no limp, but it's impossible to walk without obvious tilting if I don't use the life. I don't want to start getting into bad habits with my gait.

The surgeon explained that with my anatomy, the head of the femur comes in with a more pronounced angle than normal (coxa-vara) and that it gave him less room to adjust the length or I would have ended up with a replacement that was prone to dislocation.

The article is encouraging and I hope I do develop a new stance. This was just coming down on me today and I was grieving the loss of ever wearing sandals again. With all the hard things people are facing, that seems like such a minor thing, but it definitely was the bummer of my day.
 
My concern is that if you start using a heel lift now you may slow down your body's adjustment and correction of the pelvic tilt. With a heel lift, you will be maintaining that pelvic tilt.

Don't expect fast results - you won't correct that pelvic tilt straight away. After all, it took quite a while for you to develop that unevenness of your pelvis, as your body tried to protect your sore hip.
 
I appreciate this advice so much and I will take it to heart. I'll admit that before surgery I walked with my bad leg closer to my center line and the good leg further out. I'll try to consciously let my new leg walk with a little wider stance and it does lessen the peg leg effect.

Today was my first meltdown and I was seriously grieving never getting to wear sandals again. Such a little thing, I know.

I appreciate this forum.
 
Mountainlover I'm going through basically the exact symptoms you're having. I had a LLD of about half an inch and a pelvic tilt. My doctor told me that walking with out the lift would cause my pelvis to readjust. I think most people on here have been told something similar. I wouldn't stress about the sandals thing, you can wear them again, its easy enough to have a custom sandal that has the lift on the bottom of the sandal. I myself prefer crocs because you can pull the lift out and put it in a different shoe.
 
@MountainLover take a look at Keens sandals. I had LLD post LTHR and used a lift in my Keens for years. My surgeon corrected the LLD during my RTHR.

But I do agree with Celle - this may sort itself out with a bit of time. Many of us have a slight LLD and it has no impact. Your pelvis will try and balance over time. Give it 3-4 months before doing anything.
 
Today was my first meltdown and I was seriously grieving never getting to wear sandals again. Such a little thing, I know.
I think almost all of us have had at least one meltdown during recovery, so we do understand. :console2:

Given time, there's every chance that you will be able to wear sandals again.
 
I'm in a much better place emotionally today and will skip the heel lift for at least 3-4 months as suggested. I don't think my walk is as smooth, but I'd much rather be able to walk barefoot in my home if there's any way I can, even if it takes a while. Thanks for the advice. I can be stubborn, but usually eventually listen to reason. :)

Here's another question: I'm currently transitioning from walker to cane (Day 18) with the encouragement of my surgeon. He is quite adamant that I use a cane and not crutches. I didn't ask him to explain why. Does anyone here know why it's such a big deal? By the way, his philosophy matches this site in terms of listen to your body, no PT for THR during the first 6 weeks but lots of walking without overdoing.

Thanks for filling in the gaps of my knowledge. Even though I write down questions for the surgeon I never think of everything.
 
MountainLover,
Many professionals have a timeline they like everyone to follow.
Listen to what your body is telling you, if you limp you need more support be it a walker, crutches, or a cane. Often people transition from two crutches, to one crutch, then to a cane.
 
Yay!! I'm using a cane now and at Day 23 I keep catching myself carrying it around without using it. I felt like I was on the walker for such a long time (19 Days) that I thought the cane work would take just as long but maybe concentrating on correct form while using the walker paid off. I think I'll be ready for road walks pretty soon. I also appreciate getting to carry my own cup of coffee.

My only disappointment remains the leg length differential, but I'm trying hard to let soft tissues and pelvic bones do some settling for the 3 - 4 months as advised. I saw one of my tutoring clients today and her mom told me of a local shoe repair place that puts soles on shoe/sandal heels instead of using a heel lift. They only charge $20 per shoe so I'll have options next summer if needed. Next week is Week 5 for me and I'll be transitioning to 8 hours of tutoring a week.

I'm grateful to be in no pain. I stopped the oxycodone after Day 6 and I might reduce the Tylenol down to 1 pill a day, then maybe nothing. I damaged my kidneys from taking Aleve every day for 6 years for hip pain, so the idea of not taking any pain meds at all is pretty mind boggling.

Week 4 is so much better than Week 1.
 
So glad to see things are getting better and better.
Hope Today is a Good Day.:tada:
 
Great update. I really do think using the walker longer and walking properly with it helps more than going to a cane quickly and limping. Have a great day.
 

BoneSmart #1 Best Blog

Staff online

  • Jaycey
    ADMINISTRATOR Staff member since February 2011

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
65,167
Messages
1,596,864
BoneSmarties
39,356
Latest member
JanieMarie
Recent bookmarks
0
Back
Top Bottom