THR I am titanium!

[calikat]

Thanks Jaycey. My appointment is not until this afternoon. It is my first post op appointment so I have a lot of questions. My new hip is now two weeks old!

 

[Josephine]

Congrats on your two weeks milestone! As for that stinging sensation, it's the freshly healing incision being put under stress of being pulled here and there as you become more active. Have you never had a cut finger and tried to keep the cut closed? And didn't it sting and hurt as the healing cut got pulled when you flexed your finger? Funny how we take things like that in our stride yet when it's something like this, we think all kinds of horrific consequences!

 

[calikat]

Josephine the voice of reason. You are absolutely right Jo. The OS said as much. He said it was my scar stretching with activity. It makes sense since the stinging was located right at the crease of my hip where the leg bends for sitting, knee raises etc. He said my incision looks fine...still a little swollen but fine. I told him I can see the value of drains (I had them for a previous cancer surgery in 2006). He agreed and said "But then you have the possibility of introducing bacteria. It is an age old debate among surgeons." I did make a mistake in taking my bandage off. I was supposed to leave it on until I saw him. I said I was not given any information with my discharge instructions, and that when I called his office on Monday with questions, no one got back to me until Thursday. So I am mad at myself for this mistake, but he said I was okay because it was glued. My previous surgeries were glued also, and I had no bandages after so I guess I was going by that. He said they use the bandages as an extra precaution. Oh well...time to let it go. But I will never hesitate to ask questions of a doctor again.

I walked 4 blocks today with the fluffy girl (our dog). She was so happy! She is so funny when the Pt comes. She won't leave my side and tries to interfere with all of my exercises. I discovered I am using my low back muscles too much for walking. I need to engage those glutes! No wonder I have low back spasming. I found it difficult to isolate my my glutes from my back. My back muscles kept firing whenever I tried to engage my glutes. Oh well...one more thing to work on. So far I am a little bit better each morning. That is the biggest difference from before the surgery. Before surgery I was a little worse each day...very demoralizing. :(

Oh and one more thing....no more white hose and no more blood thinners I just have to take aspirin for two more weeks.

Unfortunately I did not get to see any X-rays. He will take those in about 3 weeks on my next visit when things have settled a bit more. I am anxious to see. I asked about my leg feeling longer. He said they had to build up my hip socket and put everything back where it was supposed to be (I guess things had kind of collapsed), and he is not surprised that my leg feels longer. He said I should be pretty even, but it is difficult to be perfect.

 

[Jaycey]

Please don't worry about the leg length difference right now. Most new hippies have this feeling. The good news is in about 3-4 months the feeling disappears. Just keep up the walking and muscle strengthening. Things will settle.

 

[Poppet]

Congrats on your two week milestone.. It is a strange sensation with the LLD but as Jaycey mentioned it settles as you pre surgery pelvic tilt straightens your spine. I actually found it less obvious walking barefooted around the house in the early days, this seemed to help me a lot

 

[calikat]

I walk barefoot around the house too. . I am not really worried about it. It is what it is. As long as my hip continues to improve. I am a happy camper.

 

[sunsetbiking]

I asked about my leg feeling longer.

I wasn't able to walk on my new hip for 4 weeks, and when I went to my 4 week post-op visit was the first time I got to walk on my new hip and the feeling I has was I was walking on a stilt. That is the only way I can explain the feeling. It was also the first time I had shoes on in a couple of weeks.

The more walking I do, I noticed the less I notice the feeling of having a longer leg.

Sounds like your recovery is going great, and Hey you got to walk the dog!!!

 

[inthebeginning]

Hey calikat! Just caught up on your thread. I'm having trouble keeping up with all the September Sapphires

Sounds like you're hitting your stride now. Great news! A quick recap...I was on Xarelto and a baby aspirin daily after surgery. I had to wear those sexy white hose also! I had a heart attack 10 years ago, so I was actually taking Plavix (anit-clotting agent) and a BIG 325mg. aspirin daily, up to 7 days before surgery. I went back to my normal regimen at the two week mark. For pain, I was on oxycodone every 4 hours and Tylenol every 6. I dumped the Oxy after 5 days, I didn't like the non-movement side effects!

Now, I take a couple of Tylenol as needed. Usually before PT.

As far as Medacta goes. So far a great product. All 4 of my new parts are from them. Ti stem and cup with a plastic liner and ceramic head. My doc is one of their US based certified surgeons. He's been using their products and the AMIS approach for years. He can average 16 or so THR's a week!

Everyone above has dispensed awesome advice as usual. Recovery happens to you, you are not in the driver's seat. Don't push it, your body will let you know when to stop.

Keep up the awesome work!

 

[calikat]

inthebeginning

I dumped the Oxy after 5 days, I didn't like the non-movement side effects!

Not quite ready to give up the pain meds yet. I have been taking ultracet (tramadol/tylenol) every 6 hours as recommended by Jo, and it has proven to be quite helpful. I don't really feel any side effects like I did with the Norco. I am alert, able to drive, etc.

 

[calikat]

inthebeginning Wow! I just looked at your age! That is so young for a heart attack! 37????? I hope things are currently well in that area of your health!?

 

[inthebeginning]

calikat, other than the handful of pills everyday, that heart attack is a closed chapter! Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart®

 

[Jaycey]

calikat, you are doing very well with this recovery. Don't be tempted to compare your recovery to any other recovery. We are all different and started at different places in our journeys.

 

[calikat]

Josephine if I had hip tendonitis before my surgery, what do you think my best course of action would be? It developed about 5 weeks after my hip arthroscopy back in May. I was hoping this surgery would help, but I still feel a lot of the same symptoms. I am trying to avoid hip flexor activities, but unfortunately that also includes walking. Any insights/suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Josephine]

To start with, can you tell the the exact location of your pain using this chart?



Each square needs the number for the row (horizontal) and for the column (vertical) to identify it.



When you've done that, I'll come back and talk with you some more.

 

[calikat]

Josephine It would be in the area of CR1F, CR2F, DR3F, ER3F, FR3F, GR3F, HR3F. The pain goes along my hip flexor area...where my thigh bends...deep into my inside groin area...where the inside of my thigh attaches to my pubic (?) bone and radiates down my inner thigh sometimes all the way to the instep of my foot. I also have pain down the front of my thigh in these regions: ER2F, FR2F, GR2F, HR2F. These were symptoms I had prior to surgery. Upon waking in recovery, the pain was excruciating in these areas. It has improved, but without pain medication, I would be pretty non functional. I am being very slow and careful in my recovery. I also have acing calf pain too, both on the inside front and outside of my calf. My whole right leg is just a pain...BOO.

 

[Peaches]

Hi, calikat ... I've caught up with your thread. I'm so happy to hear things are starting to look up for you. You had a rougher time than I did pre-op and a rougher time after. A lot to deal with. But I didn't find it all lollipops and roses right after the surgery, either. I kept some notes of day-to-day milestones, pain, etc., and referred back to it the other day to answer a question someone else posed. in rereading it I saw that I had a lot of pain when standing on the op leg (as a PT had advised, for some exercise). I was alarmed by it and never thought that would improve. But it did. Like you, I had issues with Norco. I'm glad you have been able to coherently describe your pain with Josephine's grid so she can advise you.

I could relate to what you said earlier in your thread:

I guess I bought into all of the hype about the ease of recovery.

I did that, too. Even though i kept reading on BoneSmart about how everyone's recovery is different. I also didn't pay enough attention to something that is said here (and could be said more loudly, I guess): You don't get to dictate to your hips how fast they will recover. Recovery happens to you. The hips call the shots. Or something like that. I guess I bought into the sports mentality ... I thought if I was a good little soldier and said "how high and how often?" every time a PT told me to jump, I'd be ahead of the game. That it was that simple. But it isn't. And there are other things going on with some of us, too, as you mentioned in my thread: the back, the other hip, other pathologies.

Having said that, you seem on a good path. Hang in there and keep coming to BoneSmart for support and questions. Take care.

 

[calikat]

Thank you for the kind words Peaches. I am having a good morning. I have not had to use my crutch or cane, I've done a little laundry and made the bed. My dear husband is still doing all the cooking with a little help from the boy. I feel a little stronger each morning, although my nights unfortunately are still bad, but not as bad as a week ago. So far my recovery has been slow and steady...slow and steady wins the race! ;). My body has no problem letting me know when I have done too much. :D

ETA. Bonesmart has been a huge source of help through all this. I am sorry I did not discover it pre surgery.

 

[calikat]

As an aside...I am lucky that my DH is a PT. he believes that less is more at this stage of the game. So I pretty much ice, elevate, rest, walk a little, do a few exercise, then rest, ice and repeat. This has pretty much been my schedule since I came home from the hospital two weeks ago.

 

[Josephine]

So is this roughly where you pain is?

You said you'd had this pain before surgery which makes it a bit difficult for me to suggest anything. Only that it would appear to be nerve related. Has no pattern similar to anything I have observed before. So sorry.

 

[calikat]

Yes that's it. Oh well. Thanks for your help.