Hi I'm new here but I brought brownies!

[sandybeach]

I am just putting in my two cents about the compression socks verses blood thinners. I wore compression socks for 10 days after my first hip replacement to prevent clots. I also had to take a baby aspirin daily. I checked before my surgery to make sure my insurance covered them and I was lucky to find out they did. Any procedure I had I made sure my insurance covered it, including where I chose to have my PT. I didn't want any surprises later. So my advice, keep in contact with your insurance company and get all referrals that they require so you don't pay for something later on that could have been avoided.
Also the brownies sound awesome:iagree:

 

[Elosarabrab]

I had 30 days of blood thinning injections and 6 weeks of compression stockings for good measure.
Luckily at no cost thanks to NHS

 

[Kim22]

I avoided the stockings but having 30 days of Clexane injections Only 12 more shots to go I will be so glad when they are finished

 

[zauberflöte]

Thanks everybody! I have found out I am to take the blood thinner Xarelta, which sounds pretty expensive to me. Will have to call insurance re that and the Celebrex. Don't know whether I'll get stockings too... Hubby's $600 compression devices were the kind that inflate and deflate like a blood pressure cuff on your lower leg, and I guess they're one-owner deals. He didn't wear them an hour, I'll bet. Wish i could charge that much per hour!!

 

[octopus]

octopus Last time I visited Alexandria was 10 summers ago, the most recent "17-yr cicada cycle" hatch in that locale. Driving on the freeway was a true adventure. The tires made a totally different song as they ran over a carpet of cicadas... and talk about LOUD!!!!!!

We lived there during one of those 17 year cycles! I have a photo somewhere of me picking them up with a spade.

 

[C Mac]

Hi Chris,

I wrote a little thread about the Activecare unit that I got to wear after my surgery. Is this like what your husband used in hospital? Looked like this

My OS ordered them and so they were covered by insurance. After my time wearing them I sent them back to the company, only the sleeves that were on my legs and the tubing to the machine were a one time user item. I also did the enteric coated aspirin and no injections or blood thinning prescription medications.

octopus & Chris funny that you both remember the cicada season and were here for that delight, we are getting ready for another round with Brood II this spring. I am in "Northern Virginia" still... grew up here and just managed to move outside of the Beltway (large circular highway filled with many, many cars especially during rush hour). Alexandria is a lovely area, well some parts of it are.

Take care,
Cardie

 

[zauberflöte]

C Mac Cardie, no, whatever hubby wore the nurse took them off right after they sent me to his recovery room-- so I didn't notice. $600--that will bother me till I get some hospital bill for a tylenol... LOL
SO glad you got outside the beltway, whew! The only place in Va worse than that is, of course, Norfolk, which you must go through a tunnel to get to unless you sailed in LOL
I looked up a map of Brood II-- it hasn't been 17 years (and I remember the one before that in Richmond, too) so was the one 10 yrs ago Brood I? I grew up with cicadas, missed them when I did not live in Virginia. Cicadas and katydids. We don't have katydids here on teh coast They peter out about Williamsburg. That is my favorite night time sound... ch-ch-ch-ch! ch-ch-ch-ch!
octopus you lucky girl, shoveling cicadas...... You know, my cats love to catch them, bring them flailing and buzzing inside the house, and crunch away. ICK.

 

[octopus]

ICK, alright!

 

[C Mac]

Well, there is also Brood X. I'm not sure what we are getting, just know there seems to be a lot of alarmist talk about cicadas and mention that they "won't harm you or your family members..." I'm sure there will be an increase in car accidents as people panic and veer out of their lanes when a bug flies into their car window! My kids enjoyed them the last time they were here because they were not bug-phobes, now they are teens so it may be a bit different! I have a picture of them standing in the front yard holding them as little kids and I will make them re-create this scene once we get a good crop of bugs flying around

Take care,
Cardie

 

[Mamarey]

Me leg does the same thing. I cannot stand with my two legs side by side. My left (bad) leg is longer and my hip is very tilted. It feels like my femur is barely attached to my hip bone. This is the part that I want to talk to my surgeon about. It scares me that I will never look and be aligned again. I cannot stand on my bad leg. My cane, Joseph and my other cane, Josephine are my saving grace

 

[zauberflöte]

C Mac why do they ahve to have alarmist talking about something that happens every single blessed summer here in Va?????? Sheesh. That picture you posted is a small variety-- my cats like the great big ones. In China (or someplace where the kids still know how to play) they harness a cicada on a piece of thread and fly it around in circles.... I have numerous shells that my kids collected for me over the years-- the bigger the better !!
Mamarey yeah, I think it's funny, given what I've read here about the bad leg usually being the shorter one pre-op, that mine seems longer. I'm absolutely certain it has to do with pelvic tilt, but I haven't figured out exactly how to check that-- mark my hip bones with a marker and what, use a carpenter's level while I stand in front of a mirror? Actually that might work....heh heh....I'm sure they will align you very well, and anyway who CARES, it's not going to HURT any more

 

[Kim22]

zauberflöte My bad leg was the longer one before I had my op and still appears to be now I have a physio coming out at 6 weeks to measure leg lengths as there is a special way of measuring them as well asa load of other ways of doing them which people still use and are no good

 

[zauberflöte]

Kim22 ok, so I'm remembering wrong about the leg length thing, oops!
Yeah, I've read something about correct and incorrect methods of measuring. When I was having PT before Christmas, he would measure them by having me do a move to prep, then lay my legs out flat on the table. "Aha, right one shorter/longer!" (I forget which). He would then manipulate me in such a way that my pubic symphesis joint (right in the middle of the hip bone deep in the pelvis) re-aligned itself, (*pop!*) and they'd "be the same length", and I would have great relief walking immediately. He taught me how to do it myself, I'm thinking it's time again. LOL. But that was not the 'real" way to measure the actual bone length, it was just a balance issue. chris

 

[TeeEm]

zauberflöte . What are katydids ? The cicadas sound fun. Wish we had them here !

Funny isnt it though. I think my 'bad' leg is much shorter than my other one and I lean over to that side quite a lot. OS says there is hardly any difference in the lengths when he measured them, but Im not convinced.

 

[tankeryanker]

My surgeon said my bad leg will be 5 centimeters longer when he gets done. I'm not famiular with the metric system. Just hope I'm not going around in circles when I walk.

 

[zauberflöte]

TeeEm here's a youtube of just ONE of them-- we'd have hundreds in the surrounding yards. Pretty little brilliant green insects. I miss them.... :(

 

[C Mac]

tankeryanker TeeEm Kim22 Mamarey & Chris,

I hope that leg length measuring works out for everyone. There is a great deal of variability that comes in to play though with the pelvis and the spine. True difference in leg length, i.e. the actual length of the femur bone is pretty rare, with the exception of those of us that have had previous surgeries as children for CDH/dysplasia.

If you are not averse to having more x-rays you can ask for standing x-ray that will include the pelvis and some of the spine as well as the femur bones. This gives everyone a better idea of where the LLD may be. You may see a difference in how your legs line up when you are sitting, standing and lying down and if you shift your pelvis around in all those positions you may see that you can line things up "properly." Good to know where you stand (ACK, no pun intended) before surgery so you have a frame of reference afterwards!

Take care,
Cardie

 

[zauberflöte]

C Mac Cardie-- my OS did take that standing xray, several poses, before he saw me. The tech mentioned that one of its purposes was to check leg length. But I had my shoes on-- I would have thought they'd make me take them off! Ah well....

 

[octopus]

Found those pics of me collecting the 17yr cicadas. About 40years ago!

 

[Vida]

octopus Gosh Diane, what a little cutie you were!