nearly 3 weeks now

[cowboypilot52]

I am an active 55 year old and had a THR of my left hip the third of February. I feel like I am doing pretty well with the recovery process. I have been going to Physical Therapy since the 9th, three times a week. Now I can walk .4 miles (with my cane) in the morning and the evening when my wife walks our dog. I am still pretty slow on the stairs but am making progress. The only problem I am having as of today is sleeping through the night. I can sleep on my right side about 45 minutes at a time and then wake up from aching around the cut muscles, and have to change to my back. I sleep on my back about 45 minutes, and then wake up and have to change back to my side. I would give most anything to sleep through the night. About how long is this nonsense going to continue?

 

[Judles]

Whooooooaaa. Cowboy!!!! Welcome! I'd say you're doing pretty well in the sleep department,
My OS wanted me sleeping on my back for the full 6 weekswith the abduction pillow between my legs! I am totally not a back sleeper so I gathered as many pillows as I could to prop myself up, then was able to sleep almost in a sitting position, or prop my opposite leg up so I could sleep on the side that wasn't operated on!
Hope you've been taking your pain meds a little before you are ready to go to bed!
Good luck! Keep posting! And since you're still early on in your recuperating process, sleep when you can! We all have these disturbances Happy Dreams!

 

[JudyS]

Welcome Cowboypilot

I am a side sleeper and it took maybe 6 weeks or a little longer to be comfortable on my operated side. I move from side to side all night. I take a drug called trazadone for sleep. Otherwise I am always tossing and turning. As I think Judles said, take some pain med before bed and seee if that helps.
Glad you are doing so well. Maybe too much, don't overdo it.
Judy

 

[Karen54]

Welcome, Cowboy! And you are just one day ahead of me - I had THR of my right hip on Feb. 4. I'm an active 54 yr. old - I see that we are just exactly (within one day) two years apart. Sleeping has also been about my one and only complaint so far. My dr. did give me the OK to sleep on my stomach with the pillow between my legs, but I can still only sleep for about 2 hrs. max before I either get up and roam the house, or switch back to side or back. Actually last night was only the 2nd night in 14 at home that I didn't roam the house. Maybe it was the glass of wine I had before I went to bed?? Anyway I thought I would try that again tonight just in case that is the trick! I've been off all pain meds for a week or so, so that is why I thought it would be safe to try the wine. Keep posting!

Karen

 

[cowboypilot52]

Hey Karen. Well, I hadn't thought of roaming the house, but I may give that a shot if nothing else works. Last night was about the same, but I did take a pain pill a couple hours before we went to bed. My wife has a theory that the problem is that whenever I shift, the pain wakes me, rather than the pain waking me on its own. Regardless, we're still at about the 45 minutes wake up schedule! I may try the wine...I tried a Coors the other night, and it just didn't taste any good so I dumped it out.

A pillow between your legs?? My wife and I thought that the doc said a PILL between my legs! That doesn't work so well, but maybe the pillow will work better!! Sounds like its worth trying, anyway!

News flash..just made it a half mile this morning, walking with my wife while she walks our dog! Poor wife, she has to go the next mile or so alone but soon I will go all the way. Feeling pretty good about the new distance, but it was a slow finish!

Everyone, I do have to say this is a fantastic site. I wish that they had told me about it before the surgery, because I suspect a lot of questions we had would have been answered up front. One of my friends who had THR last summer came by yesterday afternoon and told me about the site. I should have thought about the power of a forum; I am a frequent poster on the Golden Retriever Forum and on the Cessna Pilots' Association Forum too.

 

[Josephine]

8 miles a day at 3 weeks! Sheesh!

We should give you an Olympic gold medal or something! (Or maybe not!)

1. you don't mention pain meds. Are you taking some before bed at night? Sounds to me like you need it.
2. might be a good idea to cut back on the mileage until the muscles stop complaining so much!
3. might also be a good idea to acknowledge that you have had MAJOR surgery that takes anything upwards of 6 weeks to completely heal. Rushing it, whilst psychologically satsifactory in the short term, is physically counterproductive in the long term.

 

[cowboypilot52]

howdy Josephine! Eight miles! Wow...if I was doing that, I would deserve a medal or something. Or a bop on the head, maybe! No, I walked a half mile this morning, and that is it for the day I suspect. I may try to walk a little this evening, but certainly no eight miles. Sorry that I wasn't clear on that. But I sure don't want to injure anything, as good as it makes me feel to be out and about!

Occasionally, I do take one 325 mg oxycodone before I go to sleep, but I really do not want to get dependent on them, so don't regularly.

 

[BigDog Mom]

Hey Cowboy,
I think we all missed the decimal point before the 4 in your post. ;)
You may want to try Tylenol PM before bed time, It may be just enough to help you ignore the annoyances that are waking you. I still use it on occasion when I want to get a solid nights sleep next to the SNORE monster. ;)
The other piece is you may be less active during the day (which is as it should be right now) so you are not as tired at night?

It gets better as time goes on,
Donna

 

[Josephine]

0.4 of a mile! Oh THAT sounds better!

And perlease! You are not going to get dependent on something you're taking but once a day! Tylenol should do it though, as Donna suggested. Take them routinely just for a couple of weeks. You need some help in this period.

 

[JudyS]

Cowboypilot
I thought your first post said 4 miles instead of .4 as well. Glad my friends were with me on that one!!!!
I am also very active, at about 4 weeks I was walking half a mile to the pool, swimming a lot , then walking home.
Like I said, I have been taking a sleep aid (trazadone) for a few years which has really helped after surgery.
A lot of us with a regular posterior incision (which may be a little more painful than other incisions, but everybody is different) took pain meds for a few months , not weeks. As you feel better you naturally take less.
I think the human sleep cycle is abaout 45 minutes. I remember this from my 4 lovely children as the first one slept only 45 minutes for each nap and woke me up every 45 minutes throughout the nite.

Until my many orthopedic problems hit, I would never take a tylenol or anything ever. Except for the mild antidepressant that really knocks a person out (trazadone) which was prescribed a few years ago after a year of sleeping only 3 hours per nite total. Even then I was just mentiioning the sleep to a doctor who asked how I was sleeping. I never thought to ask for anything.

Anyway some times in our life medication really helps a lot. I think it is rare to become addicted. I have had a few other surgeries since the hip in June and have been taking percocet for quite a while in varying amounts. I think I have built up a tolerance and need more to combat pain , but certainly no addiction. It may not even be that, I just had some significant back surgery so it just may be that much more painful.

ANyway go easy on yourself. Seems like you have a good enough sense not to overdo. I overdid at aabout 4 weeks as I was feeling so good. I have learned my lesson now!!!!

Happy snoozing , I'll be praying for all of you to get some sleep. I am with your obviously very smart wife thinking moving around the pain then wakes you up.

Judy

 

[TBONE]

Before I found this website, my main source of info was from my cousin who is abut 10 months out from THR. His only complaint was with not sleeping through the night for the first 3 months or so. He, too, used to roam the house and then settle on a reclining chair.
I am curious whether anyone has taken Celebrex for this. I started taking 1 pill a day at 40 days from surgery and almost immediately I started sleeping through the night, when previously I would turn and wake up every 1-2 hours or so. It just seems to take the edge off. I think Celebrex does have some downsides or risks, and I'm not sure they were too keen on giving it to me before about 2-weeks pre-op, but it seems fine so far. Of course, pre-surgery is a bit different than post-surgery. So it looks like I'll be up and roaming for a few months after the surgery.
Tom

 

[Karen54]

Hey, Cowboy, must be the wine! I didn't get up last night either! Although I did wake up a lot during the night, but I've never been a sound sleeper. I really don't think pain is waking me up, because I can honestly say I have practically NO pain. I just can't believe that, because I had anticipated weeks of pain. I might try a Tylenol PM one of these nights. Great comment about the pill between your legs! Do try the pillow, though - works great! And dumped the Coors out?? That's sacrilegious!

Karen

 

[UTdave]

Cowboy,

We're all in the same time-frame, huh? I had my second hip done Feb 9th. Since I'm now a veteran, I knew to pop a pain pill and drink some wine in the evening. I HATE back-sleeping!

When you sleep on your non-operated side, try stuffing a big pillow between your thighs (not a pill. . .). This will relieve some of the tension on your ITB and result in less pain, hopefully. It is also recommended as a precaution for dislocation. I still wake up three to four times a night to shift and what not, but hey, we just had major surgery!

Before the first surgery last Fall, when both hips were bad, I couldn't sleep on either side without waking up in severe pain after 20 minutes. Then when I shifted off the hip I slept on, the pain was temporarily much worse. Since my hips were so stiff I couldn't straighten them out all the way, they torqued on my low back when I slept on my back. This resulted in back pain after a few hours. Needless to say, I am sleeping better now than I have in years, despite having major surgery!

See you guys, I'm going out for an 8.1 mile walk. ;-)

Dave

 

[UTdave]

Before I found this website, my main source of info was from my cousin who is abut 10 months out from THR. His only complaint was with not sleeping through the night for the first 3 months or so. He, too, used to roam the house and then settle on a reclining chair.
I am curious whether anyone has taken Celebrex for this. I started taking 1 pill a day at 40 days from surgery and almost immediately I started sleeping through the night, when previously I would turn and wake up every 1-2 hours or so. It just seems to take the edge off. I think Celebrex does have some downsides or risks, and I'm not sure they were too keen on giving it to me before about 2-weeks pre-op, but it seems fine so far. Of course, pre-surgery is a bit different than post-surgery. So it looks like I'll be up and roaming for a few months after the surgery.
Tom

Sorry for the two-posts here.

Tom, I have been on Celebrex since 1 hr before my surgery. Stuff is awesome. I had to justify it to my insurance company to get an Rx for home (it's expensive). The justification for it is simple - GI bleeding risk associated with things like Advil/ibuprofen (the alternative NSAID) when you are already taking coumadin. I had a post on another thread (something about foot swelling, I think) that reviewed NSAIDs and their relative risk benefit profiles.

Anyhow, that's pretty much my only pain med. I may take a tylenol or two during the day. The Lortab 7.5/500 I take one a night. Mostly because it knocks me out and not really for pain. But I also am digging the weird dreams it causes - sort of a bonus. I agree with Jo, you'll have a hard time getting hooked on a single 6hr pain pill taken once a day.

 

[cowboypilot52]

thanks for all the comments! Sorry about that silly decimal...that would be pretty amazing! Even for a Wyoming guy!!

I will see about that large pillow this evening. Maybe between the Oscars and the pillow, things will work out!

 

[TBONE]

Sorry for the two-posts here.

Tom, I have been on Celebrex since 1 hr before my surgery. Stuff is awesome. I had to justify it to my insurance company to get an Rx for home (it's expensive). The justification for it is simple - GI bleeding risk associated with things like Advil/ibuprofen (the alternative NSAID) when you are already taking coumadin. I had a post on another thread (something about foot swelling, I think) that reviewed NSAIDs and their relative risk benefit profiles.

Anyhow, that's pretty much my only pain med. I may take a tylenol or two during the day. The Lortab 7.5/500 I take one a night. Mostly because it knocks me out and not really for pain. But I also am digging the weird dreams it causes - sort of a bonus. I agree with Jo, you'll have a hard time getting hooked on a single 6hr pain pill taken once a day.

Thanks Dave--From your previous posts, I infer that our docs have similar ideas on meds and pain management. The docs didn't actually write me a scrip. Instead they just gave me a pile of samples. Now that makes sense. I don't want them to run out before my March 16 medical appointment, so I have been trying to get by on 1/200 per day, and even since I've started back to the gym to get in a little better shape before the surgery, that 1 pill has been great.
Let me ask you another question. I want to go to PT for a while 9sevreal months) after surgery. My theory is that a PT session or two a week will get me back to a strength level of 5 years ago and a flexibility level of 10+ years ago. I'm thinking I may do it even if insurance won't cover it. It seems though like everyone says walking is your therapy. Walk, and then simply begin to do the things you used to do gradually. Has anyone continued PT for a while after THR or BTHR?
Tom

 

[cowboypilot52]

that is a great question Tbone. I am doing therapy three times a week and walking once or twice a day otherwise and have been wondering how long I will do the therapy. I like the place I go, so it isn't a strain, but it is an hour out of the day that sometimes I don't want to spend! So far I have gone 6 times since surgery.

 

[UTdave]

Thanks Dave--From your previous posts, I infer that our docs have similar ideas on meds and pain management. The docs didn't actually write me a scrip. Instead they just gave me a pile of samples. Now that makes sense. I don't want them to run out before my March 16 medical appointment, so I have been trying to get by on 1/200 per day, and even since I've started back to the gym to get in a little better shape before the surgery, that 1 pill has been great.
Let me ask you another question. I want to go to PT for a while 9sevreal months) after surgery. My theory is that a PT session or two a week will get me back to a strength level of 5 years ago and a flexibility level of 10+ years ago. I'm thinking I may do it even if insurance won't cover it. It seems though like everyone says walking is your therapy. Walk, and then simply begin to do the things you used to do gradually. Has anyone continued PT for a while after THR or BTHR?
Tom

Last time around, I seem to remember having an allotment of visits determined by my insurance and that it may have been linked to how often I required a home RN to check my INR for the coumadin. I want to say I had about 8 visits total. That seemed more than adequate initially. However, by my two month check-up I was a little disappointed by certain shortcomings in my "active" range of motion (what I could make my leg do using the muscles as opposed to just flexibility). My doc sent me to the climbing gym and that helped fix all those issues.

This time around, my PT suggested I come back to their outpatient center at about the 3 month mark for some "tune-ups". I think to do that, you need a script from your OS and then your insurance will pay for part or all of it.

As far as initial PT - you're right, walking is king. But there are some other basic things that are helpful if your surgeon allows. These are mostly some version of leg raises (in all directions, mind you). It's pretty hard to do them lying down, so I started standing at the counter. After several weeks, I could do them on the floor, adding more resistance, and eventually, weight-trainers. Some OS do not allow abduction early on, so ask about that.

Happy healing!

 

[TBONE]

Thanks guys
Tom