THR LaKarune's Journey Back to the Dance Floor - Recovery Thread

[LaKarune]

Hello my friends. I am officially titanium-reinforced. My surgery was a "mini-posterior" approach, MAKO assisted, with a dual mobility prosthesis. I chose spinal anesthesia with sedation (details about the way I decided that in my PreOp Thread).

Surgery was at 7am. My pre-surgical anxiety lasted right up until the Valium kicked in & the anesthesia team got the spinal done & then told me to turn somewhere, breathe into a soft inflatable mask, and I was OUT.

Writing from my hospital room -- transferred from Recovery around 11:30am. I'll post more details about the surgery itself when I have the surgeon's report, but for now I have his word that there were no complications and everything went as expected. And what is this strange feeling I have -- an emotion I haven't felt in a while -- is it RELIEF? Relief not so much for my pain (yet), but that the surgery is done and I don't have to worry about it anymore. This is a bigger feeling of relief than I would have imagined. Surgery anxiety was really emotionally and energetically debilitating, turns out.

I'm surprisingly comfortable, have an appetite, and have done a couple of walker-assisted walks through the hallway. Pain is controlled, I suspect in large part by the internal analgesic (Exparel), but I'm definitely aware of a throbbing sensation in the operative hip. No trouble peeing , which is I guess one of the metrics they use for releasing us from the hospital, so good on that front, at least. I'm slamming all the protein and veggies they can give me, and the hospital food is really pretty good -- super salty but I think I need the sodium TBH.

Overall pretty boring first recovery post, which is probably a good thing! I'll reach out again soon, particularly as the dreaded Day 3-5 inevitably get their teeth around me. Taking all the pain meds in the meantime.

Linking my pre op thread here for easy reference in case it helps anyone who's researching/on their own journey:
LaKarune's PreOp Thread

Talk to you all soon!

 

[tanvat]

LaKarune, welcome to recovery! I hope you have smooth sailing. If there are bumps in the road, they’ll smooth out. Best wishes.

 

[djklaugh]

@LaKarune Congratulations on your new hip and welcome to the recovery side! Yup, Relief is the word for it ... relief it's over, relief that recovery can start, relief that relatively soon the "no hip pain" next phase of your life will be starting. And to further that ..... here's your very own set of post op articles and helpful suggestions:

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.

 

[AllieBucks]

Congratulations!
You are going to do so well. Can’t wait to get your dance updates along the way. I did a jete tonite to the fridge and thought of you

 

[LaKarune]

Congratulations!
You are going to do so well. Can’t wait to get your dance updates along the way. I did a jete tonite to the fridge and thought of you

Oh I cannot wait to join you in kitchen jeté’s!!
Right now my left leg just seems to want to flop into a pigeon toed position across the midline like a naughty girl who doesn’t think anyone should tell her what to do. So we have a bit of time ahead of us before everyone’s listening and coordinating choreo together… lol.

 

[MissFanny]

So glad you got this behind you and it sounds like it went well! Let the healing—and dancing—commence! Congratulations on getting to the other side of this.

 

[Ocean]

Congratulations on your new hip x

 

[myglasshalffull]

Welcome and congratulations on the new hip!
Keep us posted.

 

[thepuckhead]

So glad to hear everything went well and you feel the relief of having made the right decision for yourself! Your story will undoubtedly help others down the road, so thank you for sharing your journey and looking forward to reading your next chapter.

 

[Caison113]

Congratulations @LaKarune!! What a huge achievement. I also had mini-posterior approaches. You are on day 1 of a great trip to being pain free. Now, the first 10 days or so kind of suck (to varying degrees), but do not despair - things will improve! So happy for you that you made it through. Ice, rest, walk and stay on your pain regimen. Look forward to the progress notes.

 

[LaKarune]

Saturday... I got my surgery on Thursday, so does this count as Day 2 or Day 3? It's been 50+ hours.

Anyway, been feeling ok, icing a ton (too much said the home health nurse who visited today), taking my pain meds religiously, getting up a zillion times to pee. I can walk without a walker or cane, but the nurses and PTs keep telling me not to. They are worried I might suddenly get dizzy?? Haven't felt dizzy at all, which has surprised me, bc my blood pressure tends to be low and medical things tend to make me queasy/dizzy. For some reason, none of this has happened yet, and I'm not sure why there would be a sneak attack of dizziness, but trying to be good and listen to the people.

I was unbelievably tired yesterday. Feeling a little better rested today but still just sleeping in about 3.5 hour blocks, either due to medication alarms or (mostly) general discomfort and needing to change positions. I'm sure my sleeping blocks will lengthen over time.

The home health nurse told me I need to elevate more than I'm already doing. Any tips for getting the ankles above the knees above the hips, other than 1000 pillows?

 

[lanstan]

You can put bricks or blocks under the foot end of your bed and it slightly inclines you without you even noticing it. Also I would like to know what she meant by icing too much. Most of us here iced a lot. It is a wonderful pain/swelling reducer and I cant think of a downside unless you dont put a cloth between it and your leg and get a freezer burn.

 

[LaKarune]

You can put bricks or blocks under the foot end of your bed and it slightly inclines you without you even noticing it. Also I would like to know what she meant by icing too much. Most of us here iced a lot. It is a wonderful pain/swelling reducer and I cant think of a downside unless you dont put a cloth between it and your leg and get a freezer burn.

I think she thought I was getting a bit of freezer burn on my skin. Taking a little break from icing now but will get back on it in a few minutes.

I think the mattress I have is too heavy to stick blocks underneath the foot area, but that's an interesting idea. Will look into it. Has anyone used those lopsided pyramid-shaped wedge pillows for elevation? I'm really tall, so not sure one wedge would do the trick for me.

 

[LaKarune]

Just looked at the elevation tips @djklaugh posted for me and will be shopping for the Lounge Doctor today!

 

[MissFanny]

Sounds like you are doing well! Just the usual yucky stuff you have to deal with with surgery. Great you are tolerating the meds and procedure so well generally!

 

[RoosterRick]

You’re doing great 2 days post surgery! I couldn’t have walked 10’ without a walker if my life depended on it Keep on doing what you’re doing and good luck!

 

[HollyNY]

Glad to see you on the healing side.

The energy drain is real as the hip heals.

 

[LaKarune]

You’re doing great 2 days post surgery! I couldn’t have walked 10’ without a walker if my life depended on it Keep on doing what you’re doing and good luck!

So am I Day 2 or Day 3 today? Is surgery day Day 1 or Day 0?

 

[tanvat]

I second the reality of energy drain. During the first seven days, I probably slept about 12-14 hours a day. Now, a week and half in, I’m still napping twice a day - go with it!

 

[Eman85]

I don't think you can ice too much, I kept an icing machine on me constantly when I was sitting or lying down. Yes, you do have to keep the ice off of your skin but there's no time limit. I never elevated any more than sitting in a recliner, never had any need to. The trips to pee were plenty of exercise for me in the first couple of days, they really pump us full of fluids.