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THR Mark's on the other side

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Wow .. your uncle is 99 and still lives alone and cares for himself?! Amazing! I have a 92-year-old friend who also lives alone, still drives, runs all her own errands, sharp as a tack. She loads up the van with her girlfriends (in their 70s and 80s) once a month and they all go out on the town for lunch. I'd love to go along once, I bet they are hilarious, but I am too young, LOL!!

Glad to hear you are coming along so well!
 
99 next week. Never been really sick. He is wiry, was about 5'8" and 150 during his WWII duty, and very strong and fit. He's always lived alone, never married, always took care of himself. I see him once a week, we chat, I take him food shopping. He is very sharp and walks and gets around very well. He is faster calculating change on the checkout line than the cash registers, this freaks out the supermarket people. But he does not look 99, if I told them, they wouldn't believe me.
 
28 days out today. I cannot believe how fast the time has passed. Low pain, only taking tylenol once a day now in the morning with breakfast. Walking mostly with no crutch, at least in the house. Driving. I will go to the outpatient PT center this afternoon, should be fun. But this is only an evaluation, so I will get some small exercises and a lot of forms to fill out and leg measurements. When I walk with no crutch the pain is less every day, but I sure do get tired. And my left leg (done in 2012) gets sore on the incision site, since I am putting a lot of strain on the left side too. But I hope to be back to a normal life soon enough.

Have a good day everyone.
 
@MarkK, glad to hear that you are doing well. Good luck at outpatient PT today. Wish you all the very best for a safe and continued recovery.
 
You are only one day ahead of me, so I'm really impressed with your progress! Driving already and walking around with no aids is outstanding! Maybe I'll be there tomorrow? :) I did a few steps last night with no assistance, but am not quite ready to turn loose yet. Will you be finished with PT after today? My last one is Thursday and I feel we've covered pretty much all we can, and now it's up to me. I'm sort of looking forward to this next chapter.

Keep on keeping on!
 
@Beachmusic I am done with home PT (I had 7 or 8 sessions) plus working on my own when they weren't here, but today I'll start the outpatient PT. I go to a local PT center where I've worked before with a therapist after my other hip replacement; this will be much more rigorous. I hope that after another 4 weeks this THR will be in the past mostly. But I think I did not really feel healed up until about 9-12 months. Oh well. But better than the bone on bone pain.

Good luck to you!

Mark
 
Insurance. The doctor's office told me before each surgery to call them when the in-home therapist thought I could go to outside PT, they'd write and fax a prescription, which they did. Today I go for an 'eval' and I expect the insurance company to approve 6 or 8 sessions. On the last session, I will be 'tested' again, and the insurance company will probably approve 4 sessions. Once they get down to approving one session, I will be done. Then on to the gym. It is cheaper for the insurance company to pay for this in general so I am well more quickly (and do not have complications). See if your insurance will pay for you. By the way, my insurance is from one of the big companies, through my wife, who is a college professor. My Medicare Part A is for some part of the hospital bill, but nothing else. And being over 65, I get Medicare Part A whether I want it or not, which is fine with me. When my wife retires, we'll do the usual Medicare thing.

Mark
 
@MarkK @Beachmusic
My OS 'doesn't think outpatient PT is necessary'. With that said, I asked for a script anyway. He said fine.
I got 12 sessions.
I then felt like I still needed more, and asked for a second script to focus on descending stairs. I got
12 more sessions - all covered by my employer's insurance. Whew.
But, I paid a huge out of pocket $6500 for my new hip. So after I maxed out on 'out of pocket' its all free.
Ha

Oh, and good grief, Mark --> you have done amazingly awesome!!!!!!
 
I am doing well, I did last time too. Glad to be over both hips, and have no more to torture me :)

About outpatient PT: Your OS might be a great surgeon with the knife etc, but outpatient PT is amazingly helpful and everyone should do it. And the insurance would not pay for it for the most part if they did not have some proof that it saves them money in the long run. One person who does poorly and needs more help surgery-wise or falls, etc, costs them more than 100 people doing PT I bet.

I had my PT today, a lot of testing, including up and down a lot of steps (my therapist could not tell which hip was done based on that), standing on each leg one at a time for a minute, which I surprised myself on my right side and did (but was achy after), 10 minutes on the bike and about 3-4 leg exercises. Then a massage of the sore area and ice and electric for 15 minute on both sides (my therapist is wonderful).

When the insurance company gives the real go-ahead, I will be busting my butt, probably about a dozen exercises after warmup. But I will get better sooner.

Mark
 
I'm hot and cold on more PT. At home has accomplished what they set out to do. In the course of less than a week I've gone from walker to cane full time, and in the kitchen, taking some independent steps. In and out of cars is fine, up and down stairs and hills outside.

My quad got dinged day one and two in the hospital with straight leg raises, and gets re-dinged in excessive abductor slides ( which also engages a part of the quad), and too many bent knee raises. He says I should be able to do them and straight leg raises at this point, and my reply is that if we'd let the muscle really heal instead of retrying every few days, perhaps I would be able to. I demonstrated today I could do them...and have paid for it the rest of the day with that same muscle now sore and stiff again. That's it. No more! One more session with him then I guess I have my final exam with the nurse Thursday.

I can do all these things on my own, although perhaps someone else would lead me down different paths, new learning. We are 100% on Medicare now, A, B, and N supplement thru United Health Care. I don't know if PT above and beyond is covered, and truthfully, I'm ready for a break, at least temporarily! I would like assistance getting back to gym equipment as I can, without paying for one of the marginally trained and very expensive Gold's "trainers". Phew. This is long, sorry, and I'm grumpy. :). I do appreciate PT, and he's a terrific guy, but I need a little break. I see the OS again Tuesday and will see how he feels. And I'm glad your experience had been so positive Mark and agree with you 100% on these things paying for themselves in the form of healthier patients! I'm going to re-evaluate my position next week.
 
MarkK said:
I am doing well, I did last time too. Glad to be over both hips, and have no more to torture me :)

About outpatient PT: Your OS might be a great surgeon with the knife etc, but outpatient PT is amazingly helpful and everyone should do it. And the insurance would not pay for it for the most part if they did not have some proof that it saves them money in the long run. One person who does poorly and needs more help surgery-wise or falls, etc, costs them more than 100 people doing PT I bet.

I had my PT today, a lot of testing, including up and down a lot of steps (my therapist could not tell which hip was done based on that), standing on each leg one at a time for a minute, which I surprised myself on my right side and did (but was achy after), 10 minutes on the bike and about 3-4 leg exercises. Then a massage of the sore area and ice and electric for 15 minute on both sides (my therapist is wonderful).

When the insurance company gives the real go-ahead, I will be busting my butt, probably about a dozen exercises after warmup. But I will get better sooner.

Mark
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@MarkK , massage of the sore area? Actually, that sounds great? Your PT did it, and exactly where? I am so so so tight everywhere.
 
@Beachmusic any therapist who tells you should be able to do something at some date is an idiot. I could not raise my left leg straight for about 3 months after surgery. Neither my home PT or my outpatient PT cared much, they both said it would come with time. It did of course. My right leg could lift straight the day after surgery. The OS just hit different muscles. I feel so much better today after PT yesterday, but I was really tired afterwards last night.

Find a different therapist. Or do exercises on your own.

@LoyalD she just massaged where it hurts, just under the incision area. Nice.

Be well everyone.

Mark
 
@MarkK , glad you are doing so well. I am happy with my own progress and I am doing the PT at home for a couple of weeks, but I don't think I will need more than that. How long did it take you to drive?
 
@Chessie -- last time I drove after 2 and a half or three weeks, but it was my left hip, so no issues with pedals. This time, RTHR, I drove after 3.5 weeks. No problem. I am very tired today after my pretty rigorous PT yesterday, but doing well otherwise.
 
@MarkK , I have a bit more aggressive plan, but I think I will be ready. My surgical leg is the left one, and I am planning to be driving by the 31st - that is when I go back to work. Of course all this is based on my post-op on Monday. We are on 4-day weeks at work with Friday's off, so my plan was to go back on Thursday the 31st, then 3 days off, then back to a normal schedule on Monday.
 
Driving and work after two weeks is kind of aggressive but I think if you are healing well it is doable.

Good luck.
 
Here is a two month update: I had 8 outpatient PT sessions, ending a week ago today, the last one was a re-eval. The insurance company approved 6 more, but my schedule did not work with my therapists schedule this week, so I will do those 6 sessions after Labor Day. I usually spend about 2 hours per session working out under her guidance. I need them to strengthen me up so that my return to the gym is successful. The sessions also loosen up the tight muscles.

I am doing well and I feel good. I do not notice the hip or leg about 95% of the time, which is wonderful: I am much more able to walk or work out than I was before surgery. No limping. No pain. The hardness around the incision is breaking up. I will hit some irons on the range on Friday, probably just 8 and 9 irons, pitching wedges; plus maybe a few putts on the green. I will play an abbreviated round next Weds -- I plan to not hit any drives or fairway woods or long irons. I will ride with my friend, drop my ball when he is 120 yds or closer to the green; and play from there. If I get sore, I will stop.

Thanks to everyone here for your kind words, your encouragement, and your knowledge, really helped me plan, and really helped me get over my fears each time. Thank goodness we only have 2 hips.
 
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