Bilateral THR Just had bilateral THR

[2hip2quit]

Hi everyone. I tried to join this group leading up to my bilateral simultaneous total hip arthroplasty, but I read every Thea’s that discusses the peril and recovery phases. On 7/14/22 I finally had my surgery.

I am 43 years old and work as a registered nurse director over a very busy trauma center Emergency Department and a Burn Center. You can imagine how many steps I get in during the day at work. I found that I was limping on my left hip progressively worse over the last 5 years. I sucked it up as I always do, but the pain became unbearable to me over time. I went into my primary doctor and she referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. I did an X-ray and an MRI on the left hip and he did additional X-rays of my right hip in his office. When he walked in the room he asked me if I was in pain. I of course said I was, but it has been manageable. My spouse corrected me and said..”he can’t even put on his own shoes.” He did a quick assessment of my hips and said…”well, you definitely have the worst 43yo hips I have seen”. I was immediately nervous. He pulled my X-rays and informed me that both of my hips had severe osteoarthritis and that I would need to have both of them replaced.

So on 7/14, I had the surgery. After the surgery, the PA and my surgeon showed me why I was limping and so much I’m pain. I had an enormous bone spur on my femur head on my left hip (it literally looked like a horn sticking out). I am now I am discharged home and I am working with home health PT. I am gradually gaining strength and trying to prevent too much edema in my hips.

The reason for this post is to let everyone to know that it was great to be able to see that I was not alone and all of the recommendations from everyone. For that I am grateful and I would like to continue to support others that are going through this surgery.

If anyone would like to see my post surgery X-ray or my femur head that was removed, I have pics… haha

Sending all of you my positive energy as I continue on my journey of healing and recovery.

 

[djklaugh]

@2hip2quit Welcome to Bonesmart!! There are quite a few of us BTHR folks around ... mine are 10.5 years old now and doing great. I am glad you got a chance to read some pf what is available here ... and as a nurse you may already know most .... but I will give you the BoneSmart way to manage after surgery.

Hip Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary.

2. Control discomfort:

rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
3. Do what you want to do BUT

a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

Activity progression for THRs
6. Access these pages on the website

Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications
Wound Care In Hospital

The Recovery articles:

Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery

Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then not to excess.

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.

 

[Mojo333]

@2hip2quit
Congratulations on your new shiny hips.
I am a still grateful double hippy too.
Slow and steady definitely wins this race so take the time...when you get back to real life it will be full steam ahead and No Hip Pain!

 

[Shenick]

Congratulations @2hip2quit !

I am also a double hippy almost 8 weeks into recovery. Best of luck over the coming months and hope you find this forum as helpful as I did!

 

[Ocean]

Congratulations on your new hips @2hip2quit, it’s all getting better from now on.

 

[Zoebichon]

Waving hand: Another bilateral THR 9 weeks out today! I’m walking 2 miles every morning with a couple of hills and back to bi-weekly line dancing.

I also had spurs (osteophytes) on both hips. My progression to surgery was much slower than yours. I first felt hip pains in my late 40’s, after working years in a large hospital as an X-ray tech. Terrible to admire this, but one painful evening shift, when it was actually quiet for a bit, I xrayed myself! I pulled in the portable machine, positioned myself on the plate on the regular imaging table , after having lined up the X-ray tube over the plate, and took an AP exposure. That was in 2006.

I saw the arthritis and saw an OS who ordered X-rays and the radiologist report said mild osteoarthritis. In 2015, I again went to the OS, and now the report was moderate OA with osteophytes. I was sent to PT which I did at home for 7 years religiously, until finally I went back to the OS last December, who declared me ready for bilateral hip,replacement surgery.

Due to Covid, I had to wait until May 19th, which gave me lots of time to prepare and read here! Keep reading here and you won’t feel alone at all!

 

[cold_brew]

Good luck - I am now 10 days out from my bilateral THR, and while the first week was tough I’m 100% sure I made the right choice.

Hope things go equally well for you.

 

[Zoebichon]

@2hip2quit

Now that you have made it past the first two difficult weeks, how are you getting on?

I was also a double, and I know I needed my walker for the first three weeks, and longer for middle of the night runs to the bathroom! Then I used my 2 hiking poles for a few days, then pretty much no assistive devices, except for those really stiff mornings and evenings.

I hope you don’t have to worry about returning to your busy nursing job too soon.

 

[2hip2quit]

I’m doing really well. The first week was the most challenging, but I stuck to the rest, walk, ice, elevate routine. My edema was the most in the first week, but was much better in week 2. I stuck to the exercises in bed on week one, and used my walker to get around and took my pain meds before I let my pain get out of control. I have a two story home and slept on the bottom bedroom initially and would use the recliner to help elevate my legs.

Week 2 was so much better. I graduated to standing exercises that my home PT instructed me to do and did them 3x a day. I saw my surgeon on post op day number 13 and he was very pleased with my progress. They removed my sutures and applied steri-strips. Incision looks great. He instructed me to walk …walk…walk…I asked if I could do stairs and he told me to do what I can tolerate. I came home that afternoon and made it up 19 stairs and back down 19 stairs. I have a kitchen counter and my PT had me walk around the counter without my walker with my hand on the counter…and I could do it! I still use my walker to ensure I don’t limp and find it valuable when I am tired.

Now today, I am on post op day 17 and I am able to walk mostly without my walker. I was also able to do stairs up and down with much more ease.

 

[djklaugh]

@2hip2quit Excellent update! It sounds like you are doing wonderfully well with your new hips. Congratulations on making it up and down your stairs!

 

[NightQuilter]

Well, @2hip2quit , you can see you are in good company as a bilateral. I so appreciated being able to have it over and done with at once and just a single recovery to embrace. It sounds like you are following the important protocols for recovery and making excellent progress - especially as a young hipster! Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your progress please.

 

[skigirl]

I am so jealous, the docs here reused to do two hips at once so I had to have two surgeries!!! Two rehabs!! What a waste of time!!!!

 

[Layla]

Look at you go! That's a whole lot of stairs! I like the risers, is that wallpaper?
It seems your recovery approach is working well and your moving right along. Keep up the good work and stay in touch. Hope you have a great end to the week!
@2hip2quit

 

[2hip2quit]

Look at you go! That's a whole lot of stairs! I like the risers, is that wallpaper?
It seems your recovery approach is working well and your moving right along. Keep up the good work and stay in touch. Hope you have a great end to the week!
@2hip2quit

Thanks for the encouragement. The risers are tiles…lol

 

[2hip2quit]

Hi Everyone,

First off, thank you to everyone for your encouragement and advice as I navigated having my Simultaneous BTHR. It really helped tremendously and I was able to stay focused on my short term goals with mobility while keeping my long term goals on the horizon. It has almost been 4 weeks now and I have been without my walker for about two weeks. I continue to do my exercises and was released today to be able to go back to work as tolerated as long as I keep walking and don’t lift anything greater than 20 lbs. I have been working from home since week two, but I wanted to get back to normality and my surgeon agreed that I am ready. I can navigate stairs, drive without any problems, but I still follow the precautions that they provided me.

Thanks again for the support and I hope to help support someone else going through this in the future as needed. I will keep you posted along the way.

 

[Mojo333]

Well Done, Double Hippy.

Plan on lots of resting when you get home from work (I went back at one month too) and try not to overdo....
Lots of improvement still to come.

 

[Shenick]

Well done and good luck with your return to work. Take lots of rest though , I found returning harder than expected at first and people forget that you are still in recovery!

 

[2hip2quit]

Ok….so first day back to work went great. I took it easy today, but managed to get 1.6 miles in and was able to take 2 flights of stairs over the course of the day. I feel totally accomplished with that as a starting point. I was so happy to hear from the team that I work with that I no longer have a limp. That was the best feeling ever..and the person that told me is a fellow coworker that is a physical therapist in the burn unit. I look forward to what the rest of the week brings. One thing to note that is odd, but I am proud of….I was able to put on my socks today without as much trouble or pain. Small win, but I’ll take it.

Items I noticed today…still not as strong as I was before…but I now understand that the exercises that were prescribed prior are now focused exercises for me. The muscles right above my knees (quadriceps) feel a bit weaker and I will focus on strengthening them this week.

 

[myglasshalffull]

Wow, back to work already! That's amazing, great news.

 

[Zoebichon]

Back to work at less than 5 weeks! And you’re a bilateral! Truthfully I cannot imagine that and I count my blessings that I retired! Take it easy!