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Bilateral THR My New Hips Are Here

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Hi Jen

Ditto all of the above... You will know when to move to the sticks. You are so right you don't want to create bad gait habits in the early days.. too hard to fix later and produces other issues.. You may have to be firm with your PT and let him know that you feel better with the crutches and would prefer to take it a litle slower :)
 
I think you are doing amazing!!!:yay:

Ill jump on the bandwagon here and also agree with using the crutches until you feel its time to move on. No reason to develop a bad gait. Trust your body on this!
 
YoooooooHooooooo Jen,

You are the funniest...are you still on the morphine?!?!? Hehehehehe! The straps in the chair and the alien comments made me fall out of the chair laughing, well not literally that would be kinda scary right now!

You are doing so well! I vote use what makes you comfortable right now crutches it is! and no need to rush, right?? I'm giggling over stairs I started doing stairs about 2-3 weeks ago. I did have to do a couple of stairs before they discharged me, then a step here or there when I went to friends house, once I got home I live on a 3rd floor apartment, one day my home therapist did say common lets do the stairs in the fire stairwell and I was like NOPE if there is a fire I'm walking out through the garage hahahahaha! For some reason it didn't interest me at all, even when faced with a curb it kinda also scared me a little and i would walk around to the ramp part. I'm such a wuss! BUT when I did start the large staircase on our walks I naturally walked up them with no hesitation, no fear and they are pretty steep too! So trust me all these things come back naturally without forcing the issue!

Glad you are doing so well....

Keep on doing watcha doing :)

PS wouldn't recommend cartwheels right now or using the trampoline!!

xxooxx
 
Tom, the one crutch was nice in that it felt like a small victory to be able to move around with just one walking aid. The downside is that I just didn't feel like I was walking as straight as when I use two crutches.

Sue, luckily both sets of stairs at home have handrails. Believe me when I say that I've clutched on to them for dear life each time the PT took me up.

Sandy, PT is coming back tomorrow for what might be our last session. With my luck he'll use that as an excuse to have me try something really advanced. I will definitely make sure I'm comfortable with whatever he suggests.

Thanks Haldox!

Sarah, it's great to read that the stair climbing came back naturally without having to really push. I love exercising so in theory the idea of the PT is great. I'd just like a little more time to be able to rest and recover without the pressure of having to hit certain milestones by a certain time you know?

I've been pretty lazy today, just alternating between my bed and chair and making sure to get up and walk often. My kingdom for an uninterrupted night of sleep. Or the ability to roll over and sleep on my side.
 
Me again.......

You will have some down time during the recovery, it is about week 3 everything seems to slow down, therapy stops if your on the coumadin sorry didn't read back and check then maybe the nurse will check your blood a couple of times a week. During this time you will do your own thing, there was one week I went into a super lazy mode, slept a lot too seems like a lifetime ago now! You will go at your own pace and I think there are times we intuitively know when to push ourselves and when to pause and enjoy the healing part, well hopefully! The first couple of weeks of home therapy was tougher thinking back, I think they are making sure you are moving because of maybe blood clots? Also to make sure you are confident at home. My PT gal had said hang on (scratching my head senile moment) I think it was about 600 yards if you can walk this you not considered home bound forget technical name, but it means you've upgraded to a community active level OYYYY I'm seriously hacking up the professional terms right now. I didn't realize they have terms for people's ability to move around. Hopefully someone clever can pop in an help me here hahahahah! I think I'm making sense though :)

Keep on doing what ya doing cuz it sounds like you are doing well!

Night Night,

xxooxx
 
I'd just like a little more time to be able to rest and recover without the pressure of having to hit certain milestones by a certain time you know?
Click to expand...
Who is making you do that? That's a very BIG no no! NO targets, NO milestones and NO timetable for them.
I've been pretty lazy today, just alternating between my bed and chair and making sure to get up and walk often.
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Not lazy - you've been doing it correctly! :thumb:
 
Jen, please don't compare your recover to any other recovery. It is yours and yours alone!

It took me a full 12 months to feel like I was finally back to somewhat normal. Other take weeks. In the end you will get there. But no pressure or time table.

You are doing great!
 
Thanks everyone. I must admit, I am probably being a little over-the-top with regard to my complaints about the PT. He is just trying to get me moving while I would be perfectly happy to lie comfortably on my bed or chair and just veg out for the time being. I think some of that stems from my inability to really sleep comfortably at night. I never realized how much I enjoyed being able to roll over to my side until I couldn't do it anymore. As a result, sleeping isn't particularly restful and I think it's made me a bit crabby.

PT came back today and we walked outside with the the single cane. I must sheepishly admit that it went a lot better than last time. :blush: I will still use the crutches more but I will mix in the cane every so often. Ah, major surgery can really make one rather irrational at times
 
Hi Jen, please don't feel pressured to move to a cane. If you are more comfortable (and confident) with crutches - stick to them. The cane will come when you are ready.
 
No worries Jaycey. I will stick to what works best. I like that you added the word "confident" because I'm not sure that I've ever consciously considered that in this process. There have been plenty of "this feels comfortable so it's okay" moments, but I haven't really stopped to ask myself "am I confident in doing this?" It's a good thing to consider from time to time.
 
Jen: I think the important thing is that you are making progress. Just keep in mind the 2 steps forward 1 step backward rule. It's going to happen. Don't let it get you down. Take 2 more steps forward! YOU'RE WALKING!
 
Hey Rock Star Jen......

Jaycey used an important word "Confidence" that takes a minute, well few weeks and months to get that back completely! In your situation everything is kinda double deal. The other thing to watch for when you get tired use either the cane, crutches not sure if you have a walker.....but wait I would get really clumsy when tired. To think back everyone is very consistant in saying about taking it easy, resting and relaxing there is sooooo much truth behind these pearls of wisdom. It takes a split second to trip, stumble or loose ya balance and thats not so great. Our 3.8 million pound rock star proved how easy it is.

You and Charlie are the funniest with the one liners! Im always giggling when reading both your posts!

Happy Healing hope ya sitting back being good!!

xxooxx
 
Jen, I felt a bit "unbalanced" post op. I had been using crutches for 6 months pre-op so they felt comfortable and steady. I never used a cane post-op. Graduated from 2 crutches (just out of the hospital) to 1 crutch day 2 at home, to no aides.

You will start leaving whatever walking aides you are using behind when you are ready to graduate. It happens to everyone. Suddenly you are striding across a room and realize something is missing! :th_heehee:
 
My surgical incision staples came out today! :happy dance:I am doing the happy dance (well, more like the lumbering Frankenstein's Monster dance but yeah). The staples felt so tight right after surgery and while that lessened as time went on, I could still feel them tugging at the skin just a bit. It just made the muscular tightness that much more aggravating. No more of that! :yes 4:So I can officially shower now but I must confess that my nurse practitioner mom set me up with special waterproof dressings so that I was able to take two showers over the course of the past two weeks. But it is nice to now be able to hop (okay, hobble precariously) into the shower whenever I want with no worries.

Now that I've taken a good look at the surgical scars, I have to say I am amazed. I am prone to keloids so I was a bit worried about how my scars might end up. I can safely say that they don't look bad at all (to me at least)! Just thin, neat lines. So for any pre-op hippies reading this who are worried about how their scars might end up, don't worry. If mine came out nicely, yours probably will too! As soon as the scars are a bit cleaner I will put up pics.
 
Hi Jen:

I would like to see "that" video of you "steining" around the house.

Funny you mention about the scars and keloid issues. All four of my scars from the 70's procedures are huge but my knee and hip scars from last year are very thin - my knee more so than my hip. My hip scar is actually a little raised which causes some issues with irritation and wearing jeans.

So glad you progressed to the next timeline. Don't be afraid if you regress. It will get better.
 
Major milestone Jen! Congrats on getting your staples out. Feels great doesn't it!
 
Jen, do everything at your own pace. Do the work, but trust your body to tell you when it needs to rest.

The PT I had in rehab had a very realistic take on recovering from a hip replacement--he said for every period of time you spend walking or exercising, plan a *much* longer period of rest to follow. That way you can strengthen and still allow things to heal.

He gave me this example when I arrived at day 3 post op: If I walk in the hall for 10 minutes (and I was slow as molasses at first, so 10 minutes didn't even take me very far), rest for 2 hours. Moving in the chair, bed, or whatever was always good and getting up and "stretching" my legs was still "rest", but he explained that it did absolutely no good to try to rush the body to strengthen everything when the body was trying to heal too. That as just a general guide, but I thought it was very good.

When he took me to actual PT, he expected me to put my all into whatever we were working on, but he gave me a nice rest period in between each exercise. He really stressed balance between work and rest as being best for healing.

Don't put yourself on any time table. Everyone is different. I feel like I'm doing really well, but reading Rick's report blew me out of the water and compared to him, I'm an invalid, ha ha! I'm very happy for him, but I don't expect that from myself. We are all individuals. That's something that I've had to constantly remind myself from the get go.

Hugs!

Dorothy
 
Chef, I too have previous surgical scars (from the 80s) that didn't heal as nicely as the hips seem to be doing. I don't know if it's due to location (the older scars are on the front of my calves) or better incision closure methods.

The PT came today and had me walking with no aids. No complaints from me because for the past few days, I've been doing a bit of that. Of course I'm only going from my bed to the bathroom or just puttering around my little basement domain. Still, it's just as Jaycey described. I'll use the crutches to walk somewhere, then I'll turn around to leave and halfway through walking I'll realize that I left the crutches behind. Funny how that happens.

PT fellow also had me walk up the stairs without the cane. Again, something I wasn't sure that I could do but in the end I was able to do it. After 5 sessions with him spread over two-and-a-half weeks, I see how he operates. Basically, he tries to get me to do something new each time he sees me. I suppose that's a "well silly, of course he is trying to get you to improve" type of realization. But it definitely took a minute for me to process that. I look back at my mini-rant earlier and feel a little silly for complaining. Perspective is a funny thing.
 
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