THR My New Left Hip

[Layla]

Aww, JR...I'm so sorry. I'll bet you're feeling like one step forward, two steps back. I do hope stopping the Dilaudid helps with the nausea and you find the Tylenol sufficient in managing pain. Nausea and vomiting are very common side effects of Dilaudid because the medication stimulates the nausea center in the brain and slows down stomach emptying.

I don't recall if you were around when, Josephine, the nurse with 50+ yrs experience in orthopedics was on the forum frequently. She used to recommend Extra Strength Tylenol at 1000 mg, every six hours, but no more than 4000 mg in any 24 hr period. You must also calculate anything else containing Acetaminophen into the 4000 mg so you're not exceeding that amount. If you feel you can tolerate that OTC med, consider confirming with your OS tomorrow that it's okay to try the Extra Strength dose in place of the Dilaudid.
Best Wishes in getting back on track soon.
@JusticeRider

 

[EalingGran]

I am so sorry to hear this @JusticeRider.
I just hope the nausea settles and the tylenol works. Also hope you can get through to the PA to get some better nausea treatment.
It is really miserable trying to battle pain with sickness.

 

[EalingGran]

How's it going? Hope there is some improvement in the nausea and you are able to stay on top of the pain.

 

[JusticeRider]

@EalingGran and all the Smarties

Omg, hello! I feel like I’ve come back from the dead! I’m FINALLY almost back to normal as far as my stomach goes. Yesterday was the first day I felt like I could really eat regular food. Stopping the dilaudin caused instant improvement, but it was incremental, and the nausea very gradually reduced over the last several days. I went from not even keeping water down to being able to have coconut water and V-8, to apple sauce, to broth, to rice, and finally yesterday I had an honest to god tuna sandwich! Hooray!

It really was a hellish week and a half. It will take some time to get my strength back. My neighbor suggested talking to a pain specialist to get advice for future surgeries. I think that’s a great idea! I keep warning my surgeons ahead of time but they just keep trying a different kind of opioid to see if that one will also make me sick and yep, it always does! There has to be a better way.

 

[EalingGran]

So glad you are feeling better finally. How's the pain doing?

 

[Layla]

Yay! You turned the corner. Thankfully you're feeling better and...eating big girl food!
I'm sorry you had such a rough start. May it be smooth sailing from here on out.
Happy Sunday JR!
@JusticeRider

 

[JusticeRider]

Yes, such a relief! I can finally have some protein and move and walk and have a chance to heal. Fortunately, the Tylenol seems to be managing my pain sufficiently. It is totally manageable at this point. Hopefully that won’t change! I’m just taking it a day at a time and appreciating the good moments.

I took my first little walk outside today, just down the driveway to my gate, but wow it felt good

 

[Hip4life]

@JusticeRider I’m so glad you got outside. I never feel “grounded” if you’ll pardon the pun, until I get to spend some time outdoors. It helps the roughness of your first days fade a bit. Nausea and vomiting are no jokes. It’s the thing I hate most, too. I’m so sorry that has been such a tough row to hoe for you. Blessings for continued pain control and a smoother recovery path for you.

 

[EalingGran]

Really glad the pain is manageable and you managed to get a bit of fresh air. Hopefully it will continue on this upwards trajectory and everything people say about hips being easier than knees, will turn out to be true.
Look after yourself and good luck!

 

[myglasshalffull]

Happy you turned the corner. I can’t take opioids either. Makes me so nauseous. I think my first day home I took them and then I stopped and just did Extra Strength Tylenol.
Fortunately I just had nausea, no vomiting and my appetite was quite normal.
Continued positive progress and enjoy those little walks outside. Definitely a game changer.

 

[benne68]

My neighbor suggested talking to a pain specialist to get advice for future surgeries. I think that’s a great idea! I keep warning my surgeons ahead of time but they just keep trying a different kind of opioid to see if that one will also make me sick and yep, it always does! There has to be a better way.

I think that's a great idea as well. Nausea and vomiting is a know side effect, so they shouldn't be surprised that you had that reaction.

I have similar issues with any pain medications containing codeine or codeine derivatives after a couple of surgeries. My PCP encouraged me to say I was allergic to it. I did and, after that went into my charts, it was never prescribed again.

 

[Layla]

the Tylenol seems to be managing my pain sufficiently. It is totally manageable at this point. Hopefully that won’t change!

It probably won't change, except to get better as long as you're taking it slow / easy and staying out of the
"you know where". I can imagine how great that little walk felt. I'm happy for you, JR.
I hope you have a great week!

 

[JusticeRider]

So lovely to read all your messages! Yes, going outside really is a new level of feeling human again. I was joking that it was good to get out of my ‘hurt locker’. But really it reminds you you’re alive and there’s a whole beautiful world and you are part of it. And fortunately it’s just gorgeous here right now.

I’m taking it as slow as I can while still allowing for natural progress to happen. I’m pretty weak anyway from the ordeal of the last week and a half, so that is somewhat self limiting. But today my sister walked with me down the street about half a block and back to see how that would feel.

It was lovely to be out and wave at neighbors and enjoy the sun and fresh air. But I felt also felt tired and a tad shaky by the end, and so now I’m lying on my bed with an ice pack for a while. Feeling hopeful.

Oh! I got these wonderful ergonomic sort of ‘off road’ crutches that are very easy to walk with, don’t strain my wrists and shoulders, and better suited to my uneven ground and country roads. They feel very safe and secure. I am a big fan so far. I use the walker in the house and am using these crutches for going outside. They even have little lights you can turn on that shine at the ground in front of you if you have to be out after dark. Pretty cool!

 

[EalingGran]

Those crutches are amazing! I remember the first time I went out after my PKR to a cafe. My husband drove and I did the last bit with crutches. It felt so good to be part of the normal world again. So glad you are feeling hopeful. Onwards and upwards! But dont forget to rest plenty and ice.

 

[myglasshalffull]

Those look like great crutches. I cannot use regular crutches, just don’t have the upper body strength necessary to command them. I had to use them when I broke my ankle when I’d go to doctor or out somewhere but never felt totally safe on them.
With the hip I was happy with the walker until I transitioned to a cane. Learned all about using grocery cart in the market from our friend Eman here.
I had considered buying walking poles once I was stronger and wanted to start my longer outdoor walks.
Healing is a process. Baby steps. I have a very close girlfriend who fractured her knee recently from a fall. She’s in a brace keeping her knee from bending and she’s annoyed she can’t do much.
I told her this is temporary. 8 weeks tops. Just remember you will recover.
If only I had listened when I was recovering! But it’s easier to give advice than take it I guess,

 

[JusticeRider]

Hey y’all! Still moving along here, using ‘baby steps’ of course. Had my first pt session post-surgery yesterday, with a pt who is familiar with Ehlers Danlos and hypermobility. She takes a very gentle and conservative approach, which I appreciate. She said overdoing it for someone with EDS looks very different than overdoing it for a healthy person. So she advised me to think about what I thought I could do, and then do half of that. It is so interesting in contrast to the pt I had directly after my PKR which was all about pushing myself harder to do more and more. What a difference! I definitely found with the knee that any pushing was counterproductive and actually prolonged the time it took to recover. So I think this approach will be more effective and also much less stressful! Kind of sounds like the BoneSmart approach, doesn’t it?

 

[JusticeRider]

I told her I felt like I was ready to start using the cane inside the house and she said, ‘that’s great! How about you do that for 5 minutes twice a day for the next few days and then see how you feel’.

I have done this yesterday and today and it was eye opening. I never would have taken it this slow. But I did start to feel some pain from just those short intervals of walking with the cane. Not in my hip though, or even in the knee on the same side, which was my PKR knee. I was feeling warning pains in my OTHER knee, on the right. I know that knee has damage of its own. I’ve never had it looked at but I have to baby it. As long as I protect it, it does ok. But it was protesting the extra strain and I realized the walker had been taking some load off of that knee as well.

So I’m glad my pt warned me to start out ao slowly. Then I remembered after my last hip repair in 2021, my surgeon said, ok go ahead and wean off the crutches! And the first day I tried, both knees blew up and I was in agony. I have to remember that all my joints have challenges and a surgery on one joint affects them all. Baby steps, baby steps.

 

[EalingGran]

Not in my hip though, or even in the knee on the same side, which was my PKR knee. I was feeling warning pains in my OTHER knee, on the right. I know that knee has damage of its own.

I think this is a valuable lesson. Like you I have arthritis in other joints ( in fact in pretty much every joint that has been X rayed or MRI scanned). I have found since my PKR that I have a tendency to pain in the other hip ( which is supposedly better on Xray/ MRI. My pilates teacher notes that I still tend to put more weight on my unoperated leg- despite objectively the muscles in the operated side being at least as strong if not stronger. These subtle imbalances definitely can lead to pain.
Now I am fully healed,when I am standing I try to consciously rebalance my weight so I don't protect the operated leg too much.

 

[myglasshalffull]

Well you tried the cane and now you can take it slow each day using it a little more if you are up to it.
I found recovering from my hip other areas hurt like my knee more than my hip. I think for me it was an alignment issue and my body relearning what muscles and nerves to use.
It all worked out in the end!
Have an amazing Sunday.

 

[benne68]

she advised me to think about what I thought I could do, and then do half of that.

I love this! It's advice that we can all benefit from during the early weeks of recovery.