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THR My Hip Trip - Second Verse

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Yes I kept the breakthrough area covered with a breathable but waterproof dressing and bathed it with Salt every morning. With hindsight I was dealing with the internal stitches coming out as well as inflammation and minor infection. It was very unnerving but I lived to tell the tale. x
 
Wow! That's an amazing story, @copsham. Here's what I'm doing with my nylon breakthrough: the Home Health Nurse gave us a supply of sterile wash which comes in spray container. Instructions are to spray the incision, the puncture wound where the drain was placed ( about an inch or two above the incision), and the breakthrough area (originally a little pimple). Dab, dab, dab these areas -- never rub. Then cover with gauze and tape in place. The gauze and tape were also supplied by the Home Health Nurse. At shower time, use nonfragrance soap and never put it directly on this area but let a lot of water just run over it. Dab,dab,dab with a clean towel until dry. No lotion. Rebandage the area after showers or if it gets wet or dirty. Otherwise, change the bandage every day. Was this what you were doing with the salt bath? Did you ever have a temperature while this was happening to you?

By the way, my nylon breakthrough is definitely an internal suture. I was told that it was probably the "tie off" area for the incision; but, I don't see a knot like the one you had. Mine is just a piece of straight nylon.
 
My bathing it in salt was a sterile small bowl of boiled water with salt it and gently holding the salt water on the area with sterile gauze. You seem to be be doing very similarly to me. I did not check my temperature throughout this time but felt pretty awful , partly anxiety and partly physically weak. The knot was at either end of the wound and there were approx 20 stitches, tiny filament like stitches, in between. They came out at irregular intervals over 2-3 weeks. At first it was alarm and then I got used to it. A fizzing feeling usually preceded a stitch coming out.

With hindsight it was the not knowing what was happening that was the biggest problem. I hope you can make sense of what is happening. You sound like you have a good team around you which is a blessing. Look after your self x
 
Thanks again @copsham -- you are helping me so much with this breakthrough stitch issue. Right now I feel fine and I'm calm about it all. That calmness is in no small part due to you!
 
I was just going to write "I hope you have a good night" then remembered the time difference. This is fascinating your emails remind me of my difficult times and highlight to me how these difficulties really do pass. When you are in it, it is hard to see that there is going to be an end.
 
I hope your memories of your event are that you handled it well (which you did) and that you made it through with great good grace (which you did). You are now taking that bad event and helping someone else -- that would be me! Speaking of help, what was the series of antibiotics that you took? Did they bother you in any way -- nausea (you know me and my tender stomach!), headache, aches,etc. I've only taken a series of antibiotics once ( of course, except for the surgeries) and it was so long ago that I don't remember how my body reacted. Probably o.k. If I don't remember!

Thanks for the good night wishes -- right back at you!
 
Hi hollyB,
The strange thing is that I rarely have antibiotics because of my reactions. (Previous time was 20 yrs ago when I got Lymes disease from a tick bite!). This time I did not have penicillin as I reacted badly to it previously so had a different one called cephalexin. This gave me no reaction at all, so this was quite a welcome discovery.
Just had a fall but I will write about it on my recovery thread.

Keep plugging away at recovery you will feel the rewards soon! x
 
Hi @HollyB
How is your wound going today? Any developments? Thanks for your support of me today so much appreciated. x
 
You are just amazing @copsham. Here you are with a freshly broken foot and you're asking me how I'm doing...I'm really touched by your thoughtfulness.

Guess what? The nylon thread has fallen off and the little pimple is disappearing. The area doesn't look "angry" at all. I was just on the phone with my Home Health Nurse who didn't sound at all surprised by this event. She said she often sees these breakthrough "tie off" stitches especially with her cardiac patients. She will be here tomorrow and I'll report back.

The yellow drainage from the puncture wound where the drain was inserted during surgery continues to show up when the dressing is changed. It hasn't changed in color (light yellow) nor has it changed in size ( about the size of a pea). Still, the bandage has been changed five times since last Tuesday and the drainage is there. Now I don't have any other symptoms -- vitals are good, no redness, no red streaks, no swelling, no heat to the touch, no pain/soreness -- and I feel overall really good. In an abundance of caution I sent an e-mail to my OS telling him what I've just told you. I heard back early this morning. I was told that this sort of drainage was not uncommon (relief!). The recommendation was to continue to monitor the area and cover it with a non-adhering bandage. If either I or the Health Nurse or my Personal Physician became concerned, I was given details on how to set up an appointment and told I could be seen any time this week. I've told the Health Nurse this and she will give it a good check-up tomorrow. I took another shower today and the entire area looked so much nicer/fresher afterwards. Fingers crossed!
 
Looking better the outlook has a better feeling about it. As I say to my diff consultants so much depends on how we feel about ourselves. Keep smiling lass

Legin THR Sep 14
 
@HollyB sounds like that wound is healing up very nicely. Well done on keep track of it.
 
Hi @HollyB
Really pleased your wound seems under control and the health people are listening to you! Very promising.

I was just thinking we have so many things that we all worry about but the professionals say "it s fine" "its common" "its normal" I wish we knew ahead of time so that we could say "internal stitch coming out - oh thats normal" Mind you I would always find something else to worry about!

I am comfortable when sitting still with legs raised and laptop to hand. I am not on morphine, so am happy if only I did not have to go to bathroom.

BTW Terminology - when I was a child American relatives came to UK to visit. We thought it was hilarious that they were calling the toilet "the bathroom" We called it the toilet or the loo. Now we use the word "bathroom" too - very civilised.

Look after yourself X
 
Thank you @Sullivand for asking about me -- I really appreciate it. Yesterday was a huge day for me and completely wore me out! I've been doing lots of napping today. Here's what happened:

The Health Nurse and the PT arrived about the same time yesterday morning so I was "doubled -teamed". They always call ahead and schedule their appointments and I knew that they would be here together -- both of them knew it,too. It was o.k. with all of us. The Health Nurse did her exam first. All of my vitals were good. When she removed the bandage there was the faintest, tiniest spot of drainage. She was thrilled and said it looked great to her -- no problem! Such relief! She could still see the nylon thread but some of it must have fallen off because she said it was too close to the skin to trim. She said the thread and the area were it protruded looked good. Yeah! She saw no reason to have a special examination of the area by either my Personal Physician or my OS. We just changed the bandage a few minutes ago and there was no drainage on the gauze! The Health Nurse will be back tomorrow and I have a visit with my Personal Physician. I'll report back after tomorrow.

The Health Nurse also talked about starting to reduce Meds some more. The oxy has already been cut in half from every 3 hours to every 6 hours with no pain problems. The plan is to take my regularly scheduled pill at night and then set out the next pill, which would be for 3 -4 hours later. IF I don't wake up during the night then I've just cut my Meds down. If I do wake up, The Meds are right there and it isn't time to cut back yet. Sounded pretty good to me. Last night I slept through the night and started reducing the Meds! Pain- wise, I've felt fine today.

PT was a bit challenging with 3 new exercises. I keep Josephine's words in my head and don't overdo the PT. If they tell me two sets of 10, I'll probably do 1 set of 10 as long as it doesn't hurt. I don't do anything that hurts and I don't let the PT touch or move me in any way that hurts. I found that being careful during the first six weeks really worked with my "January Hip". When I started doing outpatient PT at about 8 weeks it really helped me a lot. Again, though, outpatient was gentle and didn't do anything that hurt.

After PT a house cleaning service came and cleaned the house for us. It was so worth it. They dusted, mopped, ran the vacuum, cleaned the bathrooms...all of the "stuff". So nice!

Here's wishing good recoveries for everyone!
 
@HollyB
So glad all is well. Isn't it amazing how better you feel after learning everything is ok? And a clean home on top of it?! Awesome!
I like how you handle your PT! You are in control! Way to go!
 
Hi @HollyB
Sounds like a good day. Wow a real "nothing to worry about" from your Team. In someone's post a while back (i think it might have been @LibraryLynn ) they recounted that when doing exercises they counted like this one, two, three, nine, ten!! It sounds like you have got it all in control.Impressive. x
 
Championing though the ups and downs... You go girl!


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Sheeesh Holly what a difference a wee while makes. Can see the smile on your face as.all is.looking good. Keep the balanced recovery going lass.

Legin THR Sep 14
 
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