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THR Lerwick8 Begins the Road to Recovery

Since I usually catch up with BS in the mornings with my coffee I usually get my first laugh of the day
in someone's comments. I'm talking a laugh out loud......all by myself, kind of laugh.
@gwenc wins today's honor, haha!
It struck me as funny when she said "Then I woke up on day 3 and felt almost normal. Rolled over, got up out of bed and walked around and said to myself I'M CURED." Sorry Gwen, upon imagining it, I found it funny but also endearing.
I love your husbands analogy also in asking you repeatedly if you'd be doing such and such if you'd just been hit by a car.....

I couldn't ever bring myself to watch a video of a hip replacement. However, my husband did and said if I'd watch, I'd understand any symptoms I was suffering and @Lerwick8 he also mentioned they use the knee as leverage to dislocate the hip, the particular video he watched showed it being done twice. If you think about it.....it makes sense, they aren't going to get much leverage in grabbing us by the ankle. I think I just might give my OS a good swift kick next time I see him...lol!

But in all seriousness we made this decision with our eye on the prize and it's slowly coming for all of us.
Onward and upward! We'll all get there.
Wishing you both a great day!
 
I agree the heat probably increases the swelling but you still need to take it easy. Your body has a lot of healing to do and it takes time. I used ice all day long and then took an ice pack to bed as well. I also elevated most of the time when I was sitting that first week or two. I was told to get up and move a little every hour or so those first few weeks to avoid a clot and to do the toe pumps off and on when sitting to avoid clots so I wonder about advice you got in OR. If it were me, I'd call OS office and check on this and ask them about the swelling, too, while you're talking to them. I had an after hours number I could call 24/7 if need be and I used it to check on the constipation. If you don't have a number for the weekend, then you should call when they reopen in Tues. so that is my two cents worth as we all react to and handle these things differently. It will all get better - just a little detour on the recovery road.
 
@gwenc .. Thank you! I remember reading your thread before my surgery and thinking to myself, 'I won't overdo it, I won't.' It wasn't horses for me, but coming home from the hospital. After three solid days in bed, with limited walking, I arrived home and put too much energy into settling in at home. Apparently, it didn't take much to become a member of the ODIC:nah:

And, like you, I have shed a few tears in the last 24 hours, but I am determined to get over this hurdle and continue the healing process.
 
@GrannyC ..sounds as though you did everything I should've done! I did call the OS office yesterday, when the swelling was at its worst, and the doctor on call was the one who suggested checking for a clot.

Fortunately , the weather is cooling down significantly :)

As for ER advice (I think that is what you meant), I am doing what my body tells me which is the ankle pumps and moving about when needed such a toilet trip.
 
Aww @Lerwick8 Sad to hear you're feeling down but totally understandable.
So many of us did the tear thing.
It's kind of sporadic, can come out of left field and catch you by surprise.
I found it to be short lived but it did happen a few times over those early weeks.
It's frustrating to feel so confined. You think of all you feel you're missing, or would like to be doing.
Suffering a setback I'm sure magnifies it all. I hope you have a better day than yesterday. Thankfully that
crazy heat has dissipated! I can't even imagine recovering in that with no relief....AC.
Hopefully the ice packs you stocked up on offered some relief.
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday :flwrysmile:
 
@Lerwick8 it's supposed to be cooler today and that will help with the swelling, our poor legs take a beating during thr but we are rugged! As the swelling goes down, the log leg pain will subside too.

Sounds like you're doing well, the hard part is over, don't worry about walking aids, you'll start to forget them and that is one of the fun firsts.. you get up to make some coffee and realize you actually walked to the kitchen! I used them longer than needed and for me, it was worth it as it gave me early confidence and helped me attain a smooth gait w/o pain.

Btw did you feel the 1.6 earthquake this morning around 4:30 am? Yikes, this one caught my attention, it seemed to go on longer than normal and woke me up, felt like I was on top of it :scaredycat:
 
@Horseshoe ..so relieved by the cool down:yes!: No, l didn't feel the earthquake this morning,but I was so out of it from the oxy. I am actually a very heavy sleeper anyway and rarely feel the middle-of-the-night quakes. That said, I was here for Loma Prieta in 1989 and I will never forget that!

Feeling encouraged by your experiences with the log leg, etc. Although now I find myself in an extra cautious state of mind. If only I had been as good you were, I wouldn't be on this backwards path.
 
Don't think you're on a backwards path at all, you're doing just fine! This is a major surgery and our bodies are in charge of recovery (so much for mind over matter!) and while we all take a similar path there are unique twists and turns.

As @gwenc mentioned, it's not a linear recovery which can be frustrating, however, during the first days and weeks, I was impressed by how quickly the body recovers, even after a short nap I'd notice improvements.

I vacillated between being overly cautious to casual and mostly followed the @GrannyC style of recovery during the first few mos. I treated it as if I had broken my leg and needed 6-12 weeks to recover for perspective. My OS is a casual guy and very confident that I can't hurt or dislocate these new hips even if I try!

The confidence will come :)
 
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Hi @Lerwick8, I'm so sorry to hear about the problems you've been having (and in that heat too - I'm not good in heat at the best of times so I can imagine it's really not been helping!!)

Even though you've had a rocky start on the road to recovery, remember you are most definitely on that road to recovery and in a few months/weeks you'll be able to look back on this as an early blip in your recovery. As @Horseshoe says, the hardest bit is done!

Sorry I've not checked in earlier but I've been so drugged and sleepy that I could barely string a sentence together until now :heehee:
 
@Lerwick8 what a lot you've had going on-- I cannot imagine doing 106F with no air conditioning! You are a champ! Did they open "cooling centers"?

Lerwick8 said:
Yay! it is finally cooling down and I was able to change from @zauberflöte 's dreaded boxer shorts back to sweat pants:) Took off TEDs too as they seem to be making things worse..perhaps my OS doesn't use them for a reason!
Click to expand...

When you talked about that awful swelling (and the boxers, oh yest I giggled!), I immediately thought of what happened to me this time. I was sent home with extremely tight compression socks, and the op leg blew up like a balloon. It was very painful, especially around the top band of the knee-highs, which actually created a bruise. I ripped them off one night, left them off (and only later found out that I was supposed to take them off at night!), and in the morning began using the ones from my first hip, which I'd saved. Overnight, half the swelling went away, and the rest of it left over the next several days. I hope yours does the same-- it is amazingly painful, isn't it? And I am so very glad it wasn't a clot. I too went to the ER for my first hip, on my own initiative, on Memorial Day Sunday of all days, and they had to drag the ultrasound guy from a family picnic an hour away. I felt so very bad for him, but we were both thankful it wasn't a clot-- I was merely undermedicating.

I also don't think you're on a backwards path-- you're merely having a recovery like your recovery! I agree that you are doing great! Don't beat yourself up about anything, just get on with the good old ice, elevate, rest, eat, bathroom, sleep, rinse and repeat with a little walk around the room thrown in for good measure! You have done the hard part, now for the part where you try your own patience!:heehee:
 
@Lerwick8 if it helps at all I've come to see recovery as a vectoring process for me... like tacking when sailing... we're all moving forward in our recovery but not always in a straight line. You're taking really good care of yourself especially with the added discomfort of the heatwave. Once that heat really breaks I imagine you'll get more energy, less swelling and less pain. Even the tears seem to be part of the process. You're doing great! Hang in there
 
I agree with all the above...I had alot of tears, and log leg, and that first day or two as adrenaline drops down to reality and tentativeness....you are keeping positive and you are gonna do great.
Hope you rest well. Venting is healing too.
I went back and looked over my first weeks posts...I was a super whiner!:cry:
 
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Hi @Lerwick8, happy to hear you're home now and on the mend. I had that log-leg feeling for the first week and it's getting a little better each day. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
 
@zauberflöte ..where have you been? You were missed!

I hope that you had a great time in Cape Cod:curtsey: At least you beat the heat. Don't know if there were "Cooling Centers" in San Fran. I couldn't have made it anyway. Had to take a cab two blocks to the ER as I cannot walk that distance yet. It sure was painful getting in and out of the cab:gaah: I did indeed remember your ER/Memorial Day weekend saga as really mirrored my own yesterday complete with having to find a vascular ultrasound tech that could come to the hospital.

Love your explanation of having a recovery like my recovery...well still not off to a great start. Kind of can't help but beat myself up..everyone at the hospital was so astounded by how well I was doing and how easily I was walking, that I stupidly 'assumed' that I could come home and actively settle in before actually settling into rest (which is mostly what I did in the hospital). But, one can only look forward now.:hugzz:

Glad that you are back:angel:
 
@Lerwick8 , I'm sorry you had this swelling and am absolutely sure it was caused by the heat and too much strain too soon. You had to get in and out of a cab upon returning from hospital, didn't you.
My op was in 2015 and I don't know what it's like now but at that time a hospital stay after hip replacement was 7 days in Germany, usually followed by a stay in a rehab centre for 3 weeks.
I had to lie flat on my back for the first 24 hours (to stabilise my blood circulation) and only get up the next mid morning and they only made me walk to the bath room. The next day, they made me walk only a few steps down the corridor, and a bit further (with stairs) on day No 3. On day 4 I walked down a long hospital corridor to the café to have a coffee with my husband who came visiting. But only on my own initiative and only because I felt confident. Nobody "asked" me to walk that far (we use 2 crutches until we can walk unaided - not a walker followed by the cane).
While I often admire the way they encourage independence in Anglosaxon countries and "supervise" us patients more in Germany, I think they may do it for a reason. They don't want us to overdo.
Especially in rehab, it's quite regulated and one often feels like a boarding school child. We get seated at table for meals - we cannot choose were we want to sit, and of course one misses one's favourite food.
Well I left rehab 4 days early, because I felt ready for it.
But all this looking after does make sense. At the hospital I had 2 extremely nice room-mates. In rehab, I had a single room but the opportunity to get to know people during group rehab exercises.
However, in your case, you will probably get better quickly, since the swelling is not serious and the weather has become cooler. Try to increase the walking slowly and gradually - a couple of steps more every day - not so much in one go. Wishing you all the best
Constanze
 
@Constanze ..thank you !

I like the sound of the German system! Even though being treated like a child can be de-moralizing, it is, as you say, for a reason (and a very good one too).

I believe that one of the biggest problems with the"Anglosaxon" system, as you put it, is down to money. I cannot speak for other Anglosaxon countries-territories such as the U.K. , as their NHS system is quite different to our healthcare system which is driven solely by money. Sadly, we would never see a rehabilitative program as the standard (such as is in Germany}. The goal of most hospitals ( and even rehab in our context) is pure, unadulterated profit!

Good advice on the hip too. Thank you. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning and find that the swelling has decreased somewhat. I rested, elevated, and iced all day/night yesterday and will do the same again today,

I hope that you are enjoying your weekend!
 
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