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Revision THR hip replacement gone bad<

I know it will, it is! I just like to hear you say it @Layla. And how I love it when you do. :happydance:

In fact, the weather did clear and became warm enough to be quite comfy outside so my husband brought my fancy walker down into the back yard and I brought my cane and my new toys and went at those weeds with an attitude for about an hour. Sat on my fancy seat and whacked away. Dug up a bunch of my wild garlic @Jackie222, a bunch of those devils. Trying to think of something to do with them. The only result was a bit of an ache in the groin and at the joint site both of which got iced for over an hour. Lovely.

Then I cooked Chicken Marsala for dinner and we are having the remains tonight so no cooking. Yeah! My whining was just that, whining; I am wishing things would go more quickly in the recovery department but I did notice yesterday and today that I am able to walk more unassisted without getting tired. My gait isn't perfect. I try hard with the heel/toe thing and sometimes it actually works but I'm often all over the place and end up waddling about. Which is when I quit for the day. I may be passing another plateau. I can only hope.

I found out Monday with the PA too that what I thought was a hematoma, silly me, is actually a bit of a blood blister the size of a generous man's thumb nail which has sprung up because of those clipping ends from the interior stitching. Apparently they are irritating my "tender" skin (he means "old" skin but he's nice) as they haven't dissolved or whatever they are supposed to do. It's nasty a looking thing, like a boil sort of and about 2 or 3 of those ends break through the surface and I can pull the darn things out. So I am on another antibiotic. @Descant if you are out there I'll bet that's what is/was wrong with your redness around your incision too. That irritated redness all along the incision is now going away except around this boil/blister thing. I am cleaning it 2 or 3 times a day as per instructions with alcohol and it is now beginning to dry up but the little white ends keep coming.

Oh Layla it would so be my pleasure to help your Mom. I wish I could meet her. I just wonder if I have anything to say to a woman who has already been through this once, Yes? My experiences have never been the same after each surgery. The results were so different each time. Not knowing how long ago she had the first surgery, I'd just like to say that the surgeries at my age never bothered me but I'm sure it could someone else. It is a daunting thing. I guess I was encouraged by the last one because it was a spinal and I had had one before when my son was born and look what I got for that! But anyone our age who continues to live the best they can is a brave soul. So many give up on life and I think that is very sad. Your mom sounds real tough, as my daughter refers to me, Ma, you're not old you're an old broad. So I have a feeling your Mom, knowing what she did as a tourist agent and a traveler, shares the same characterization. Good luck to her and to you as her caring daughter. You both are lucky ducks. Call on me any time; I hope I can return the many favors you have granted me. XXOO

And so @MamaT, you are mighty quiet about your recovery. I will have to check back to see if I have missed any news on you and @SaraK as well. And @clodaghcov, how goes it with you. I am remiss; I have a nice group to read up on here. I look forward to that.

And there's @Mojo333 getting ready for good things to happen in the spring. What's it like down there in Georgia right now? A lot warmer than here I'll bet. Lordy I remember those spring storms though. They were fierce. Hope all is well, Mojo. I will know all about you all before dinner time. Love you guys.:loveshwr::loveshwr::loveshwr::loveshwr:
 
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Well done on attacking the wild garlic. The weather and my energy levels (had an awful cough and cold) have been against me. But I do think I’m finally starting to win the battle with it. Much less has come up this year and what is up looks very weak.

Those little white ends are quite freaky when you first see them. Couldn’t bring myself to pull the one out so snipped it very close to the skin and luckily it disappeared. :flwrysmile:

Sounds like your walking is going great
 
We do have some thunderboomers...but the dogwoods and azaleas are beginning to bloom...everything is covered with yellow pine pollen, and the robins are a-hopping.
We are still having some cool nights and anything under 60 degrees is cold to me.
So glad you got to play outside with not too much distress.
I love the smell of fresh dug dirt.
Hope your evening is as lovely as you are, Zin.
 
I’m quiet @zinnia because recovery is pretty quiet! Walking improving, pain very significantly reduced, mainly stiffness. Tooth abscess had me sidelined for few days. On the whole happy with where I am at 5 weeks.

That stitch thing sounds strange but I have read about that with others. I guess they are mostly dissolvable. Glad you know what it is and are treating it appropriately.

A bit jealous your weather is good enough to start attacking weeds. Hopefully when our weather gets to that point, my hip will be there too!

It is so good to hear your walking continues to show progress. Your patience is paying off!
 
Just stopping by to say Hi!
Happy to hear your new gardening seat is working for you.
How satisfying whacking those ugly old weeds down :yes!:
Great news on the little improvements you are noticing in walking unassisted.
Slow and easy as you're doing and you'll get there. You're doing great and your patience
is impressive.
I hope your week is going well so far. I'm sure you've been busy.
We're sunny and 42 F today. Hey, I'll take it, it's a start.
Love and Hugs to you! :loveshwr::friends:
@zinnia
 
Another journal entry more than anything. The "cyst" like thing on my incision which the PA said was my body's response to those clipped ends of some inner stitches toward the end of the skin layers, etc. has been a real annoyance. I'm pulling those stupid ends out of this thing every day and they just dissolve in my fingers mostly. Which begs the question, why don't they dissolve in there?

Well the last thing I do in PT is ride the NuStep for 15 mins. When I got up my tech asked if I had sat in water and I realized that the whole right side of my pants was soaking wet and so was that side of the seat. Neither of us could explain this until. . .suddenly :idea: I realized the cyst must have burst. I didn't think it was going to do that and start pouring out my bodily fluids. So my errands took a back seat to this and I fly home to check this out. Naturally my husband was having lunch with friends but I called and told him the news. He's a bit concerned so he comes home loaded with bandaging goodies but no tape only "gentle" tape with sticks to itself. All well and good for an arm or even a leg but a bit difficult for a hip. Did the best I could but I ended up looking like a scarecrow. . .I mean I didn't know I had so much bodily fluid; it was literally pouring out of my hip which was somewhat disconcerting. The scarecrow part. . .no matter what I did I couldn't keep this stuff from leaking out from under the bandage. I ended up patching together the parts with some light adhesive pads I had on hand over and around the wrapped surgical pad of about 5 x 7 and still it came leaking down my leg. I was in tears by this time. . .WHAT TO DO. So sometimes when I travel, I take along some larger pads in case there is no where to potty in this particular city in Greece or on the plains of Africa or wherever. So I pressed one of those on there and my hip had by this time grown 2 to 3" and I couldn't get my pants up by this time. :idea: my pajama pants are baggy and on they came after grabbing off the others and grabbing on the baggy. So now I am exhausted but my pedometer is telling me to get up and exercise. I have it programmed that every 30 mins I get up and walk about or go for a bike ride, etc. But instead I took to my bed with my enormous hip and watched a movie. Anyone ever had one of those boil like growths on their incision? And have it burst? What a nightmare. Longer end of the story is that it leaked through all that over night and the next day (yesterday) I had to go through the whole nonsense again but by this morning it had stopped :spin::dancy: and now it has a 3 by 5 bandaid on it and doing fine.

Now I am going out to my garden and trim back some ivy and general maintenance work. :yes!: :flwrysmile::flwrysmile:Talk to you all later.
 
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That would have scared me to death @zinnia ! Especially swelling after it burst - I would have expected it to shrink once the fluids started to drain. I'm glad it's stopped draining and you feel well enough to go out and do some gardening. :flwrysmile:
 
I misled you @SaraK; the "swelling" part was because of the huge bandage work I had to put on it to get control of the leaking. And it did scare me. The only good thing about it was that the fluid was like water only sticky and slightly yellowish but no odor at all so I was pretty sure it wasn't infected. I had been taking anti-biotics for about 10 days and just stopped too. But it was the quality of it that made the leakage possible. I still don't know what it looks like under there. It will take awhile for it to scab over. It's been interesting.
 
So glad I was wrong in my assumption. You might check with OS or PCP and see if they want you to continue antibiotics until it does heal. And go back to precautions of not getting it wet?

Hopefully this will be the end of that. You do wonder why those stitches didn't want to completly dissolve, though. It's always interesting how something so small can cause so many .problems.
 
Yes I am still out here @zinnia but not so often. What a nuisance to have this wound problem and yes mine still doesnt look quite right especially one end of it. It goes quite red especially at night . The consultant said that I should realise that it is major surgery and 3 half months is still early days because all the tissue and stitches under the scar still have a lot of healing to do. He wants to see it again in 6 weeks. I agree with @SaraK just to check in and tell them what has happened. Walking sounds great. You are making really good progress.
 
Oh my word....it sounds like a lot of fluid for some little old stitches.
I also think I'd check with the doc explaining the incident as well as the consistency and feel
of the fluid, I'm sure it's okay but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
SaraK may be right and they may want you to continue the antibiotics while it's open and draining.
Other than that pesky little thing...you sound good! @zinnia

Hope you had fun in the garden today. :flwrysmile:
Wishing you a wonderful week! :loveshwr:
 
I'm guessing some relief was also felt physically....oh my stars.
Hope you are doing well and planning to follow up with this.
:friends:hope you have a Good night.
 
I'm not worried about it; everything looks normal. I have an already set appt with the PA to check back on it next Tuesday. So a week away. I don't think it's an open wound through the incision, although I can't see. I bathe it 2 or 3 times a day, as advised, with alcohol and nothing stings. So the incision is closed. It's just this cyst like thing, pretty large that built up over time. @Descant and I discussed our inflamed areas along the incision site and this is what mine turned into. The inflammation, by the way, has disappeared; no redness now.

Thank you for all the advise, you all, but I'm sure it's okay. The draining is greatly reduced today although it has taken awhile to even get it to a trickle. I stained my recliner last night watching a movie.

Waiting for the new house cleaner to appear. Then a walk about the neighborhood. :flwrysmile:
 
Oh. My. Goodness @zinnia ! I have a little bit 'teepee' shaped bump at the top end of my incision. I chatted with a friend about it over the weekend. She is an RN and had a THR in January. She mentioned the sutures taking 3-6 months to completely 'dissolve'. After reading your recent trials, I quickly looked at my hip. I will be interested in what your doctor &/or PA have to say. You sound like you are doing well, except for the great fluid leak! I will think of you as I plant some vegetable and other plant starts this week. Hugs!:flwrysmile:
 
How I yearn to go back to Hawaii @AgilityDog. Are you on Hawaii itself? That's my favorite.

Is the area around the "bump" inflamed at all? Is the bump itself hard or does it push inward if you touch it? Mine was not hard but more like a balloon type of a thing, not like a boil or a cyst and completely symmetrical. And dark in color which made me think at first it was a hematoma/blood blister type. But true to what the PA said, it began to spring those white clippings to the surface of the silly thing and I could pluck most of them out. Some just dissolved in my fingers. It is just barely leaking now but I still bandage it every evening with a surgical pad. . .thick. . .and it has filled by the next late day. I don't know when it is going to stop. I'll let you know what the PA says on Tuesday about the great fluid leak.

I envy those vegetables. Our last freeze date is April 15th here. Pansies are in the stores now. My collards are seeding out but the Kale is going strong. Enough for the two of us. Enjoy your garden. Would love to see it.
 
I am on Oahu. Windward side. I have not yet visited any other island. Yet. @zinnia It seems more like a volcano shape. I can push it back in/down. I have had those spitting sutures. They have been along the incision site. I think the bump might be receding. I am icing:ice: I am sitting on 1 cool pack. I have a beach towel holding 3 more on the side and top of my thigh. :rotfl: My corresponding knee isn't happy and my other hip is very much to jealous. PT is hurting on the non-titanium hip. :chinstroke: I don't like jealousy. What else could it be?:shrug:
 
You need to teach that other hip the perspective my younger son has @AgilityDog . My older son got to be an only child for 6 years. My younger one said he gets to be an only child now (because my older son no longer lives at home) while he's old enough to enjoy it. The second hip may have to put up with the other one going first, but it will have a stronger hip to help it recover when its time comes.
 
That was actually a partial post. I take pictures so I can see the changes from day to day. I learned to take photos to document changes, when I had cancer on my nose. The doctor told me that it could not be cancer, because cancer does not grow that fast. Happily, some spots resolve themselves. I do however, avoid selfies. Selfies always have someone else's picture in them. Someone much older than I​
 
Having fun reading your entries @AgilityDog. I got caught in Shark's Cove trying to come in from snorkeling about 7 or 8 years ago when I was "young"er. The rocks there were murder when the waves were up. Beautiful in that water.
Has your OS or PA seen this "bump"? No spitting sutures coming from it? I don't know. Send us a picture.
My opposite knee is pretty angry about the whole deal. I get X-rays on it next week. Maybe another surgery in my future. Now an MRI on my spine, C section. I wasn't expecting all this; it's what I exercised to avoid all those punishing hours. But here it is. Have been taking the Prolia (sp?) shots and they want to see if it is doing any good for the bones. No wonder your other hip is jealous. :umm:
 
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