Calgal
graduate
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2019
- Messages
- 647
- Age
- 67
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Gender
- Female
Hello hipsters (and hipbros). I'm 6 weeks out from posterior THR and doing well. I've been hovering around this forum, reading and responding to others, but felt my story wasn't particularly eventful or interesting enough to start my own thread. The admin's and moderators finally convinced me that yes, there is a place on forums for recoveries like mine (what I call 'boring'). Everyone's recovery is different. Please don't compare mine to yours, this is just FYI. But don't worry - I'm no superstar, not running marathons at 3 weeks or anything like that - just following my relatively conservative OS's instructions day by day, step by step. On the other hand, it's no walk in the park and there are definitely ups and downs, and I've got a long way to go for full recovery, but compared to the excruciating pain I was in before my op, this is truly HIPTOPIA!
This first post is where I'm at today. I'll 'reverse post' my weekly journey in posts following this one.
PAIN: My hospital and OS was VERY big on keeping pain under control at all times, and I can truly say I have not been in true pain since my op - but have diligently taken ALL the pain meds they prescribed for me at EXACTLY the right times. I think that might be one reason why I've had an uneventful recovery - I've always stayed ahead of the pain curve. Once back home I was on codeine (and paracetamol) for the 1st 10 days and after that just paracetamol 1000 mg x 4 a day. Just in the past day or 2 I've tapered off the paracetamol too - only took 1000 mg yesterday in the morning. But I have also been icing my wound/scar area every night while watching TV, and that has been helping a lot. Although I'm really happy with my scar, my incision area is the only place that has been and still is tender and somewhat uncomfortable, especially when I sit for very long. It sort of feels 'swollen' and feels like it's getting pushed out a bit. (well, with my butt anything would get pushed out when that is sitting on it!) So ICING REALLY HELPS. I didn't do much icing at the beginning, but did do a lot of elevating. So it's never to late to ice, ice baby!
ACHIEVEMENTS: I was discharged with 2 arm crutches, but have been using 1 crutch since last week. I have had to do stairs since day one, but still do them toddler style. I'm concentrating on my gait and posture, standing straight and walking heel/toe without turning my foot out.
OTHER ACTIVITY / PT: My OS has cleared me to drive (which I haven't tried yet but hope to this week), to sleep on my side with a knee pillow (thank God for Amazon - coming tomorrow) and to swim (which I haven't tried yet, but hubby is setting up a new hot tub which I hope to try tomorrow). I am still on 90 degree precautions for a few more weeks (as I said, my OS is really conservative, which is fine with me). I have had 2 external PT sessions and due for another in 2 weeks. I've done stellar, although I really haven't done much of their exercises - ha ha! I very gradually did heel slides in bed early on, maybe at 2 weeks, to get my tight front thigh muscle stretched out, and that worked a treat. But I didn't push anything. My PT is also very conservative, mostly looking at my gait and ROM. I now have some specific stretches to do because I can't open my legs ala clam very well (but haven't been able to do that for YEARS!), and I'm going to slowly try to improve that flexibility. Husband will probably look forward to that! I went on an exercise bike last week at PT (no resistance) and did fine. However, our exercise bike here at home, purchased for hubby's TKR 2 years ago, has a TERRIBLY uncomfortable seat so although I can do it, I'm going to have to pad that seat out before I spend more than 2 minutes on the thing!
So that's were I am and I'm happy with that. I hope you are all keeping your pain under control, icing, slowly moving as your body sees fit, and on your own happy roads to hiptopia.
This first post is where I'm at today. I'll 'reverse post' my weekly journey in posts following this one.
PAIN: My hospital and OS was VERY big on keeping pain under control at all times, and I can truly say I have not been in true pain since my op - but have diligently taken ALL the pain meds they prescribed for me at EXACTLY the right times. I think that might be one reason why I've had an uneventful recovery - I've always stayed ahead of the pain curve. Once back home I was on codeine (and paracetamol) for the 1st 10 days and after that just paracetamol 1000 mg x 4 a day. Just in the past day or 2 I've tapered off the paracetamol too - only took 1000 mg yesterday in the morning. But I have also been icing my wound/scar area every night while watching TV, and that has been helping a lot. Although I'm really happy with my scar, my incision area is the only place that has been and still is tender and somewhat uncomfortable, especially when I sit for very long. It sort of feels 'swollen' and feels like it's getting pushed out a bit. (well, with my butt anything would get pushed out when that is sitting on it!) So ICING REALLY HELPS. I didn't do much icing at the beginning, but did do a lot of elevating. So it's never to late to ice, ice baby!
ACHIEVEMENTS: I was discharged with 2 arm crutches, but have been using 1 crutch since last week. I have had to do stairs since day one, but still do them toddler style. I'm concentrating on my gait and posture, standing straight and walking heel/toe without turning my foot out.
OTHER ACTIVITY / PT: My OS has cleared me to drive (which I haven't tried yet but hope to this week), to sleep on my side with a knee pillow (thank God for Amazon - coming tomorrow) and to swim (which I haven't tried yet, but hubby is setting up a new hot tub which I hope to try tomorrow). I am still on 90 degree precautions for a few more weeks (as I said, my OS is really conservative, which is fine with me). I have had 2 external PT sessions and due for another in 2 weeks. I've done stellar, although I really haven't done much of their exercises - ha ha! I very gradually did heel slides in bed early on, maybe at 2 weeks, to get my tight front thigh muscle stretched out, and that worked a treat. But I didn't push anything. My PT is also very conservative, mostly looking at my gait and ROM. I now have some specific stretches to do because I can't open my legs ala clam very well (but haven't been able to do that for YEARS!), and I'm going to slowly try to improve that flexibility. Husband will probably look forward to that! I went on an exercise bike last week at PT (no resistance) and did fine. However, our exercise bike here at home, purchased for hubby's TKR 2 years ago, has a TERRIBLY uncomfortable seat so although I can do it, I'm going to have to pad that seat out before I spend more than 2 minutes on the thing!
So that's were I am and I'm happy with that. I hope you are all keeping your pain under control, icing, slowly moving as your body sees fit, and on your own happy roads to hiptopia.