Become an Insider

THR JoeKnows Recovery

Haha you're all too funny. My wife would kill me if she knew I shared a picture without cleaning up in the background. For instance, I've been sleeping in the playroom for snoring and mattress reasons, and here's what that looks like.

[Bonesmart.org] JoeKnows Recovery
 
As for the meeting... Very interesting. I'm basically the subject of a professional custody battle. One option offers stability, the other is high risk / high potential reward. Lucky for me, that's not even a question with two little kids to support - if I wanted risk I'd be a plaintiff's lawyer.

Also, the place we met had the least comfortable chairs in the world... Ice and new recliner!
 
Love love love the recliner.
Love mine still.
You deserve it...now stay in it!
Hope today is a Good Good day!:ice:
 
Happy Three Week Anniversary!

Ooooh so nice! I like the recliner. It looks comfy, Joe.
Now we have a visual of where you misbehave daily.
@lovesstars it is a cute pink sippy and did you notice they serve fresh baked pies daily? :yes:
Now I can imagine you watching littlest little when I see all the toys. I'll bet you park it on that bed
and let her play away, you aren't fooling us :heehee:
Hope you have a great day!
@JoeKnows
 
@JoeKnows
No wonder you are finding it hard to leave the recliner, it's lovely. I could just sink into that myself.
I hope the wine, in the wine bar, didn't cloud your business judgement :-)
 
Can't believe it's been three weeks... Still doing well, though I'm feeling a new ache high up on the outside of my hip - almost my waist. Just feels like a sore muscles, so I'm not concerned. Kicked in after I rode the stationary bike this morning so... Duh. I'll skip tomorrow.

At this point, I'm back in the office part time. Intending to go back full time Monday, though I'll ask my partner to cover long travel or depositions. I can walk about a mile with the cane, though I'm pretty tight and tired after. Been doing the stationary bike, lowest resistance, for 20-25 minutes on days I don't walk. Getting into and out of the truck mostly without using my hand to lift the leg. I can do a marching motion a little more than halfway to 90 degrees before what I think is a tendon toward the front inside (not write the groin) says no. The groin pain I had earlier is more or less gone. I can walk without the cane, but not without a limp (slowly improving, I try a little every day). Starting to be able to balance on the left leg, but I still have to lean to the left more than I normally would.

As for ADLs, the only thing I truly can't do is bathe the kids. Everything else I can do, albeit slowly and carefully. Standing up from a chair uses mostly my right leg - the left quad is still sore.

So yeah, things are going well. Trying to remain patient, it's just hard because I feel like I'm RIGHT THERE. I frequently think, "if I could juuuust get X to feel better, I'd be good to go."

The plan is to do some form of exercise every other day instead of every day like I have been since Sunday. It feels good to exercise, and my ROM improved immediately, but progress has stalled - I'm interpreting that as my body asking me to back off some.

Going to have some friends over for dinner tonight. I've decided I won't mess with the charcoal grill, I'll just use the gas grill since it requires no attention. Doing a tri tip, so I can basically set it and forget it for an hour before I reverse sear in a cast iron pan / bacon or sausage grease. That's the best way I've found to do it, and with the local grass fed beef we can get here in the central valley, it's fantastic (I prefer Harris Ranch or Santa Carrota if you can find it).

Sorry, got distracted there for a minute, getting hungry already...
 
JoeKnows said:
feeling a new ache high up on the outside of my hip - almost my waist. Just feels like a sore muscles, so I'm not concerned. Kicked in after I rode the stationary bike this morning
Click to expand...

Be careful my friend. That very well could be Bursitis on the Trochanter starting. THAT is what's happened to many of us and it will halt your progress in healing. Not to mention cause pain all down your leg when trying to sleep on side. Ice it like crazy and do as you've said, cut back on exercise.

Keep on keeping on!
 
wow didn't know you can have "log leg" after a THR also. I definitely have it with the spacer..have to literally lift my leg to get into a car or a bed. I'm assuming it gets better more quickly with the THR. Hope you're doing better now!
 
@Bchbum4evr - Pretty confident it isn't that... it's about 4-5 inches above the trochanter, and massaging it gives me that "oh yeah, that's the spot" feeling (which is why I'm 99% sure the muscles just mad I actually used it, haha). Definitely keeping an eye on it though, and backing off until it goes away.

@Layla - I'll take it slow in relative terms, haha... as always, I appreciate the concern and won't be bitter if you use me as a case study if I cause myself a setback!
 
Whoknew said:
wow didn't know you can have "log leg" after a THR also. I definitely have it with the spacer..have to literally lift my leg to get into a car or a bed. I'm assuming it gets better more quickly with the THR. Hope you're doing better now!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think it's that uncommon... my quad I think refused to cooperate for just a few days. The other muscle (I'm calling it the front hip flexor - the muscle for the marching motion) lasted a bit longer. It is definitely better now, or at least different. It's not that my muscle is refusing to listen to the brain anymore, now it just hurts when I get to a certain point. The pain is like a pulled muscle feeling, which makes a lot of sense consider it literally was pulled by another human being, haha.
 
JoeKnows said:
The plan is to do some form of exercise every other day instead of every day like I have been since Sunday. It feels good to exercise, and my ROM improved immediately, but progress has stalled - I'm interpreting that as my body asking me to back off some.
Click to expand...
Hey, you really are a smart guy....I knew it!
All that throw "caution to the wind" ...really a pragmatist at heart, aint you Joe.

In reality, it is hard after getting rid of that crunching hip pain, and wanting to just come on and get on with it...what can I do to get this show on the road feeling will show you where the lines are...and IF, as you are, you are respectful of those lines...they widen and expand until you forget they are even there.:yes:
 
@Mojo333 Exactly... I don't want to cross the line, just kinda poke it a little and see what happens.

On this whole theme, it's not like I was in great shape coming into it (though almost certainly better than most hip replacement patients if only due to my age). But I used to be, and at that point I thought I might be a doctor, so I researched everything and paid attention to every little thing going on in my body. Long distance runners have a LOT of weird little problems. I leaned whatever I could about how to train, how to deal with injuries, nutrition, etc etc. That was a long time ago of course, but I feel like I haven't lost two things: 1. The ability to tell the difference between something I can work through and something that I'll make worse, and 2. Staying super hydrated all the time, haha.

Of course these might be famous last words. If my leg falls off tomorrow, please cast it in bronze and send it as a trophy to whomever is the current ODIC president....
 
JoeKnows said:
@Mojo333 Exactly... I don't want to cross the line, just kinda poke it a little and see what happens...

...Of course these might be famous last words. If my leg falls off tomorrow, please cast it in bronze and send it as a trophy to whomever is the current ODIC president....
Click to expand...

As I appear to be your extreme counterpart (a Lady on the Lounging Languid Rest Cure) we will see how it pans out for both of us six months along; if my own leg becomes paralyzed by my lack of Applied Exercising, then it too can be cast in bronze and set up in the THR Museum. The two of them would make interesting bookends.
 
Looks like such a comfy recliner @JoeKnows! I am jealous. We have a small recliner but it doesn’t fully extend and nowhere near as plushy and soft as yours! I predict it will get a lot of use! Enjoy!
 
Looks like such a comfy recliner @JoeKnows! I am jealous. We have a small recliner but it doesn’t fully extend and nowhere near as plushy and soft as yours! I predict it will get a lot of use! Enjoy!
 
What a night... 6 adults, 5 kids, 2 tri tips, 1 awesome football game. It's a good thing these are close friends, because I changed out of my grown up clothes and into gym clothes after about 20 minutes so I could ice while we ate, haha. I cleaned up the backyard a bit before they came over - mostly just making sure my father in law killed all the black widows that like to visit this time of year. I didn't even attempt to get into the playhouse though, just stuck my head in the window and determined it was good enough.

I was mildly concerned about a spot on my incision where a steri strip just fell off, but between my wife's fairly recent elective surgery and a friend who had a C-section they've assured me it's normal (I'll post a picture in a bit).

After cutting the tri tips (I nailed it, by the way), I spent most of my time in the recliner trying to join the conversation over my shoulder in the kitchen. I think I'm mostly just worn down from the prep work, and I'm sure the beers didn't help.

Oh, and one of the kids asked to see my incision. With his mom's permission I showed him - think it might have freaked him out a little, but apparently they read a story about surgery / scars at his school so she wanted him to see a real incision, haha. This kid is so awesome - he's a giant (his dad is 6'7") but the most sensitive soul. Totally off topic, but I remember this jerk kid pushed my older daughter down one time and this little dude basically backed down a kid twice his age before a grown-up could even get to them (they were around 3 at the time, and the mean kid was 5 - but the nice younger boy was still bigger). It was funny because he didn't know what to do, he just stood there trying to look tough.

Anyway, physically much better than this morning (and that was true even before the beer). I have zero desire to do anything physical tomorrow, so I'll probably watch the Ryder Cup in the morning and work a bit in the afternoon. By the way, to any English / European golf fans on here - you're going down!
 
Here's the incision at three weeks. The spot between steri strips at the bottom looked kind of red when the steri strip first fell off, but not so much now. Let me know if anyone thinks there's cause for concern.
[Bonesmart.org] JoeKnows Recovery
 
Looks okay to me. I had a few places like that..poked up through internal stitches?? Do keep an eye for any changes, though.

Curious, did you have a drain tube at the very bottom..looks like small unconnected mark.
I did for abut five hours after returning from recovery. I did not have much bruising, so I attributed to that.
My incision did have some lumpy bumpy spots but at about 5 months...pretty much smooth.
 

Attachments

  • [Bonesmart.org] JoeKnows Recovery
    rps20171021_132121.jpg
    14.9 KB · Views: 160
@Mojo333 no drain tube, not sure what that dots about.

Well, as far as I know anyway - maybe I was still out when they removed it? They did put me under general anesthesia (I didn't get a choice,)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Corganics CBD

Members online

Total: 1,124 (members: 1, guests: 1,123)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom