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

[MissFanny]

I didn’t even know there are deeper stitches! I thought the staples I could see is what there was. I really kept myself willfully ignorant about this surgery. To this day, when I see post that goes into gruesome detail, I stop reading. I barely know what happened to me. Lol! I think it’s for the best for now. Maybe forever.

Anyway, don’t mean to hijack your thread, @LaKarune! I hope you have a great day today. And that the painful stitches resolve!

 

[Layla]

Good Morning and Happy Monday!
Regarding the warmth, there is increased blood flow to the area to aid in the healing process. This can cause increased warmth for several months.This is NOT to be confused with an incision that is HOT to the touch, accompanied by fever, unusual or increased pain, bleeding or discharge. Those symptoms would be reasons to check in with your surgeon’s office.

Spitting a stitch: Sometimes instead of a suture dissolving the body will push it out and it's called spitting a stitch. It may feel like a tiny bump, can be a little red and the top may open and produce a little discharge looking like pus. Sometimes you can even see the stitch which resembles fishing line.

I believe you’ll likely receive reassurance through your post op visit on Thursday and hear all looks as it should and that you’re right where you’re supposed to be at this point of the healing process. Hang on to good thoughts, you’re on your way back to all that you love and have been missing out on.
A great week to you!
@LaKarune

 

[LaKarune]

I didn’t even know there are deeper stitches! I thought the staples I could see is what there was. I really kept myself willfully ignorant about this surgery. To this day, when I see post that goes into gruesome detail, I stop reading. I barely know what happened to me. Lol! I think it’s for the best for now. Maybe forever.

Anyway, don’t mean to hijack your thread, @LaKarune! I hope you have a great day today. And that the painful stitches resolve!

I don’t have staples, so it could be that the deeper stitches I have were replaced by staples for you—? Not sure.

It’s funny to me how opposite we are — I read every detail of my post op surgical report and Asked Jeeves about all the words I didn’t know, so I know all the different stitches they used on each layer of my tissue repair, down to the brand names. I am surprised by the level of detail I can tolerate bc I consider myself to be generally more like you. I have a terrible time in hospitals and have ended up fainting every time I’ve had to bring my hubs in for something.

It could be that my surgeon put all the details in bc he knew I would comb through every line of his report (he was surprised in our PreOp meeting that I knew the brand names of his robot and all the implants - part of why I felt comfortable with him is that he went with my curiosity and explained everything to me in that meeting). But I bet yours is detailed too, and you could read all about it if you wanted to and figure out if you have stitches down there somewhere. It sounds like you may be horrified by the read though, which I totally understand bc I have a morbid fear of everything bloody. For me, for some reason, having the details helped get me on board for the surgery and now the recovery. My curiosity ended up being a superpower this time around, and even though they wouldn’t let me keep my femoral head bone, I’m really glad I know about Vicryl and Quill surgical threads. Lolol. And now “stitch spitting”… yeesh!!

 

[LaKarune]

Regarding the warmth, there is increased blood flow to the area to aid in the healing process. This can cause increased warmth for several months.This is NOT to be confused with an incision that is HOT to the touch, accompanied by fever, unusual or increased pain, bleeding or discharge. Those symptoms would be reasons to check in with your surgeon’s office.

Thanks Layla. Yeah, I figured this must be normal since I don’t have any signs of infection, other than that super warm area under and adjacent to my incision bandage. The area adjacent also feels a little thick and chunky, which I assume must be the muscles he moved around and subsequently repaired to access my joint. Maybe some facia scar tissue developing? Dunno. It’s not freaking me out, but wanted to ask since I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

 

[Layla]

You’re welcome!
I am glad that what you described isn’t freaking you out because more often than not, these questionable symptoms are nothing serious, but a normal part of the healing process. Possibly what you’re describing is simply inflammation?
I believe Thursday will bring you peace of mind and put a smile on your face. Please share an update afterward.
@LaKarune

 

[MissFanny]

@LaKarune, you’re amazing! I admire your quest for knowledge and the time and effort you put into finding the best procedure for you. This is honestly probably the first time I have stuck my head so deeply in the sand about anything. But it seems to be working out okay. My conversation with my surgeon went something like:

Me: Was it bad?
Surgeon: Yeah, it was terrible. We had to remove bone spurs and . . .
Me: Okay, I’m good. Just need to know what kind of pain to plan for as far as recovery.

 

[LaKarune]

@LaKarune, you’re amazing! I admire your quest for knowledge and the time and effort you put into finding the best procedure for you. This is honestly probably the first time I have stuck my head so deeply in the sand about anything. But it seems to be working out okay. My conversation with my surgeon went something like:

Me: Was it bad?
Surgeon: Yeah, it was terrible. We had to remove bone spurs and . . .
Me: Okay, I’m good. Just need to know what kind of pain to plan for as far as recovery.

I learned the word “osteophyte” from my surgical report. Turns out I had a bone spur too. I was way too high to ask questions after my surgery so when my surgeon visited me the only thing I had brain power for was “were there any complications?” and he said, “No complications; everything went as expected.” lol I assume he saw the bone spur on my CT scan prior to the surgery, bc no one mentioned it to me. Learned about it in that report. Hearing that you had some too has me assuming this is common with very advanced osteoarthritis (“full thickness articular loss”, aka bone on bone).

Unrelated - saw your post about your smoothie. I just ate a piece of pie. We are at different stages of recovery even though only one week apart.

 

[Layla]

Unrelated - saw your post about your smoothie. I just ate a piece of pie. We are at different stages of recovery even though only one week apart.

Unrelated also, in my time here, I’ve never read of any particular food mentioned as often in recovery as ICE CREAM! Use the SEARCH option, next time you’re bored,
and see for yourself. Twenty Five pages of posts mentioning ice cream.

 

[myglasshalffull]

Yes, ice cream, I ate soooo much ice cream after I came home, I think it took me out of my depression! But then once I gained 15 pounds had to stop eating goodies for awhile and get back to moving around.
At first it was only about 8 pounds but the rest creeped up on me w/o even realizing it.
You can thank elastic waist pants for that.

 

[LaKarune]

Unrelated - saw your post about your smoothie. I just ate a piece of pie. We are at different stages of recovery even though only one week apart.

Unrelated also, in my time here, I’ve never read of any particular food mentioned as often in recovery as ICE CREAM! Use the SEARCH option, next time you’re bored,
and see for yourself. Twenty Five pages of posts mentioning ice cream.

I ate ice cream almost immediately in the hospital. This makes sense.

 

[LaKarune]

Yes, ice cream, I ate soooo much ice cream after I came home, I think it took me out of my depression! But then once I gained 15 pounds had to stop eating goodies for awhile and get back to moving around.
At first it was only about 8 pounds but the rest creeped up on me w/o even realizing it.
You can thank elastic waist pants for that.

I love that ice cream legit cured your depression. @Layla who do we talk to about getting an ice cream emoji added to the options? It’s clearly the people’s will.

 

[Layla]

who do we talk to about getting an ice cream emoji added to the options? It’s clearly the people’s will.

I know! Right?!!
I want a wine emoji also. The best we have is TWO of these -> and it’s not my choice….ever, lol.

 

[Caison113]

@LaKarune - so happy to see the progress you are making, albeit with some hiccups along the way. Unfortunately, your analytical mind is working overtime to make sense of each curveball that is thrown your way. The first two weeks are full of surprises — not all fun — and it’s hard sometimes to just let go and try to remind yourself that it’s all a matter of time. I know I had my moments of frustration and worry for sure as certain pains that developed I wasn’t sure would go away. And I had my prior surgery to compare too and well, the second one seemed to take a bit longer than the first to resolve. It all weighs on you.

But the way I look at it is your body knows what it is doing even if your brain can’t fully grasp it. Do we really know how planes fly? I mean sure, we get the general idea, but very few of us can explain the exact physics of it all. So, I put my faith in the designers and pilots to handle that sort of thing. Doesn’t mean you don’t worry about each bump and jolt during the trip. But ultimately, you will get to your destination! That is what matters.

Hope things continue to progress and you feel better every day.

 

[MissFanny]

Yes, ice cream, I ate soooo much ice cream after I came home, I think it took me out of my depression! But then once I gained 15 pounds had to stop eating goodies for awhile and get back to moving around.
At first it was only about 8 pounds but the rest creeped up on me w/o even realizing it.
You can thank elastic waist pants for that.

Yes! Living in elastic waist joggers and hubby in charge of groceries and meal prep are gonna do me in.

After I went to my blind friend’s house this morning, I stopped by a fabulous grocery store near him and stocked myself up on all sorts of colorful produce. I even splurged on 3 containers of pre-cut fruit, which I don’t usually buy. But full disclosure, I also bought two containers of Halo Top ice cream. I am obsessed!

 

[LaKarune]

who do we talk to about getting an ice cream emoji added to the options? It’s clearly the people’s will.

I know! Right?!!
I want a wine emoji also. The best we have is TWO of these -> and it’s not my choice….ever, lol.

Wine and ice cream emojis are very necessary. There must be a way to add them… :determined:

 

[LaKarune]

Day 11. Feeling much sunnier. My home PT just left and said I'm doing great. She gave me more gentle exercises that I can now do standing, which will be a nice change of pace. My incision tells me often that it's tired of being sat on, so I've been doing a lot more tummy time in the last couple of days and look forward to adding more "normal" standing exercises to my mini program.

I also asked her about the heat around the incision. She felt it and said "oh that's nothing" and then, charitably, explained that sometimes PEOPLE have too much time on their hands and start noticing every tiny detail and over-focusing on them...

She also cleared me for longer walks as long as I'm not overdoing it. I'm right next to some cute canals so will head out soon to find some ducks. Pain meds still on schedule... I will take them until the bitter end if they help my body focus on healing!

Oh, also experimented last night with using a heating pad on my quads and inner thigh/groin while icing my posterior incision area. I've been having trouble getting to sleep because I've been so cold, and this combo worked well. Knock on wood that it continues to work... even if it's just placebo effect, if it helps me sleep, I'm down to do it. Got about 6-7 hours combined sleep (excluding the 5:30am wakeup to pee and take another pain pill with yogurt and chamomile tea and pie and write messages on the board ). Probably contributing to overall better outlook today. Not sure if it was the heating pad, but my grippy quad muscles feel a bit less stressed today, even though I took some longer walks yesterday.

Progress....

 

[MissFanny]

I think there’s something magical about getting past day 10—at least there has been for me with both surgeries. Glad you found a way to improve sleep and that you’re able to get out more! You’re doing amazing!

 

[LaKarune]

Day 12 update. Definitely feel like healing continues to improve. @MissFanny your observation about getting past Day 10 is feeling true for me so far. The swelling is down considerably and I just overall feel a bit more comfortable, same as yesterday. It has been lovely to get outside and walk. My walks seem to be around 15 min each, approx 1/3 of a mile (or 1/2 a kilometer), and I've been doing two a day. Smarties, do you think I can increase that number at this point? Would love your feedback and will ask my PT tomorrow too. I'm liking the additional PT exercises she gave me yesterday, though I'm tempted to push the range of motion beyond my acute post-surgical restrictions, so I have to try to stay very mentally present when I'm doing them. If not, my body kind of defaults to looking for end range movement. That's muscle memory of years of pushing myself to go a little deeper into movements and it just switches on if I'm not totally gathered in my frontal cortex. There will be time to test the limits of my ROM but that time is not now.

Psychologically I'm feeling...not so much blues, but kind of isolated, disconnected, withdrawn. It's this weird in-between, where I just know that people who have not experienced this kind of surgery would expect me to be back to normal, and I don't have the energy to manage anyone's expectations outside of my immediate family and closest friends. The idea of going back to work and parenting full-time is utterly exhausting even to consider at the moment, even though my body looks and sometimes moves like it could be just fine. So yeah maybe that's it - a cognitive dissonance that's very uncomfortable to live within.

Looking forward to my Thursday post op visit, as I'm extremely curious about what's underneath my bandage. But happy to have the next couple days for it to continue healing before the big reveal.

Oh, and I'm still starving. I'm so flipping hungry all the damned time. I like the energy drain chart you guys drop into people's threads bc it helps make sense of why I could be this hungry and be doing practically no movement (and likely not regaining any appreciable muscle). Craving proteins in particular but I'm also trying to get through two lovely fruit pies that were gifted...my Mom (staying with me) doesn't eat gluten, so I feel like I'm climbing a mountain of pie this week. lol it turns out there is a limit to the amount of pie a single person can stomach in one sitting! Who knew.

 

[Layla]

Good Evening
As far as the walks go, I loosely followed the Activity Progression because I feared the dreaded ODIC.
You'll be starting your third week in 3 days and the guidelines for that week suggest the following

Week 3
Lengthen the walks to about 15-20 minutes once a day, maybe twice a day if it doesn't cause your hip to be painful.

Many people count houses / driveways or mailboxes, you get the idea, and extend their walk by one each day depending upon the distance between. You be the judge. Basically add time and distance slowly, allowing your body to be your guide.

As far as the way you're feeling emotionally, give it another couple weeks. I know we're all different, but one month post op was a game changer for me. I was finally feeling confident that THR was the right choice and I was getting my life back. A suggestion for anyone thoughtless enough to suggest you're lagging behind is to mention that your surgeon and PT feel you are progressing normally and that's the only opinion that matters to you.

I think you're doing great! I hope you sleep well tonight!
@LaKarune

 

[CricketHip]

I ate constantly while healing! It was ridiculous. But I will admit that when I look back to my recovery stage, i feel (mostly) happy memories.
So, the eating must have helped.
Cognitive dissonance, what a great description. It's a strange feeling and I also remember that feeling very well.
It was so frustrating, I'd want to do something productive but my brain and spirit wouldn't live up to my expectations. All I can tell you is, it will soon become a distant memory.
I think your Thursday appointment will give you an good mental boost.

Hang in there, each day you are a bit closer to the "recovery finish line."
One more thing...... I loved using heat on other areas while I iced my surgical sore spots. Oh how cozy that was!!
I am typing this while watching the Phillies play the Dodgers.. doesn't look that warm there.