THR night time muscle spasms? collateral damage?

[Debowma]

I am having this issue at night as well. I will read the article on magnesium - thanks for bringing this up. I don't know that I would have thought to do that.

 

[Jaycey]

Are you under medicating at night? RL can sometimes come on due to lack of meds.

 

[billyedtimmy]

Hi all, I wonder how many of you have experienced (and subsequently post-THR recovered from) what some call 'collateral damage'? For example, in my case, I lived with the crappy right hip for over 10 years. I remember shortly after I was diagnosed with AVN, I noticed a pair of house slippers I had worn for years where the left heel was compressed down to about 1/2 and inch while the right heel (bad hip side) looked almost new (and about an inch or more in height). T'was an excellent visual demonstration of how my hip pain screwed up my gait. One of the secondary consequences years later was that I began developing pain in my opposite-side knee that up until my hip surgery kind of comes and goes.

One of my hopes with this THR is that it'll straighten me out and help resolve the knee issue before it gets serious. Has anyone else experienced similar 'collateral damage'? Better yet, has anyone had this and then it resolved itself in the months/years following THR?

 

[cnydutch]

i sure had knee pain for a year or so before surgery, but since both of my hips were bad i can't say
which one caused it! that has not come back for me, although the opposite knee doesn't feel as
stable/strong as it used to, and occasionally a slight ache while walking. i'm sure most of that is
from the de-conditioning the body went thru.
how are you feeling at this point?

 

[Vida]

Absolutely. After years of my right leg compensating for my left hip, my right knee is constantly swollen. I have not had an x ray but my physio says all the clicking and discomfort on the outside of the knee is early arthritis. She says it will improve over time as my operated leg gets stronger and my gait, acquired over half a century, improves. Luckily for me, my right hip is in great shape. Meanwhile I take 15 mg of the anti-inflammatory meloxicam daily, whick keeps the swelling down and apply OTC gel containing diclofenac before bed. It really helps. Hope you bought new shoes!!!

 

[Davefd]

Pre-op I had loads of issues in my right leg (the op side) - everything from tendonitis type pain throughout the whole leg, IT band issues, knee issues, shooting leg pains.... you name it- and for years! Had my obturator nerve 'zapped' in 09/10 to help relieve some pain, and by the time of my surgery I had THREE braces on that leg- a full knee wrap, and tendonitis 'straps' on the ankle and thigh, and The only shoes i could wear comfortably we full ankle support 'hikers'.

After a few weeks I started to notice that 'hey, all those pains are gone!' and that I hadn't put a brace on since my op day! I bought 2 new pairs of Merrell walking shoes a week or 2 pre-op (just enough time to break them in), both 'lows' so I could get elastic laces (no way I could futz w/ hikers post-op) - and I keep feeling surprise on how i don't 'need' that ankle support anymore.

I too am hoping I didn't 'blow out' my knee, 'cos I'd like to keep as much OEM parts in me as possible, but it has not bothered me at all for some time now.

 

[bottomshollow]

I have merged your two recovery threads. We prefer that everything about your recovery be kept in one thread for continuity's sake and so that we have everything in one place when responding to questions and concerns. Thanks for your cooperation.

 

[billyedtimmy]

5 weeks post-op today, and though I'm feeling a lot better in terms of weight-bearing (I can almost get around the house with just hiking poles), flexibility is still awful. I went for a walk outside (with crutches) today, and decided to put my operated-side foot up on our short (maybe 5 inches) front step (resulted in about 70 or 75 degree flexion, which is about as far as I can go at this point) to attempt to stretch it a bit. At first it felt a little weird/resistant, and then all of the sudden there was a sharp groin pain (I immediately moved my foot off the step). These days I'm doing hip flexion exercises at least 3 times a day, but it doesn't really seem to be adding much, and that groin pain was weird, almost reminiscent of pre-op. What the heck was that and around what week(s) does one normally start seeing gains in flexibility?

 

[Poppet]

Billy... The timeframe for flexibility varies for all of us.. and is very dependent on our level of immobility Pre surgery.. Some days I can put my shoes and socks on, some days I struggle and I am at 14 + months.. Not indicative of everyone though as I have lower back issues.

You did the right thing in bringing your operated leg back down off the step.. Pain = The body saying 'I am not ready for that yet' and a 5 inch step is quite high.. Give it bit more time

 

[stargirl]

Wow Poppet!!! that is a wealth of info regarding mineral benefit of various food types, i will have to print this gem out!! thankyou for sharing xxx

 

[Poppet]

stargirl I have more articles in the pipeline relating nutrition to healing... I am a bit time short at the moment, working full time, studying etc..

 

[billyedtimmy]

I guess I'm feeling a bit frustrated/'whiny' today: Although my ROM for things like abduction has doubled (today I'm at just over 5 weeks post-op) compared to a few days post-op, my flexion (measured at 70 degrees on the day I left the hospital) doesn't seem to have changed at all.

I'm doing my exercises daily and even multiple times per day and I definitely feel the strength returning and the swelling diminishing, but every time I try to push the flexion ones even just a bit beyond the 70 or some that I'm stuck at, that sharp groin pain nails me. At what point should I be concerned? My follow-up appointment with my OS isn't for 3 more weeks.

 

[Davefd]

RE: groin pain- I had it pretty bad till a week or 2 ago and it still comes back to party some days. I was pretty good about PT and also took long walks- 2-3 times a day. I'm almost at full ROM now, but some movements still bug me (but then again, i did set myself back w/ a long climb-y bike ride)- and I'm not even 3 mos post-op. And you are only just over a mo. I think at maybe 2 mos I has pretty good ROM, but not quite enough leg strength yet. Sucks, but all I can tell you is 'it takes time' - too much damn time it seems, but really there are literally the days you get up and out of bed and say 'huh- well that (insert movement/body part here) doesn't really seem to hurt so much anymore....' I get those 'realizations' about once a week or 2 nowadays.

 

[Sooty]

At what point should I be concerned?

Here's a very bad, but full of wisdom, joke for you all (and for me)...
Patient: "Doctor doctor it hurts when I do this"
Doctor: "Then don't do that anymore"

 

[billyedtimmy]

Learned a new trick today for getting socks on on my operated side: Used a grabber to get the sock over my toes, then stand by the bed about an arms length out and lift foot behind me onto the bed (so, full knee flexion), then reach behind me to pull the sock up my foot. Very little hip bending required. ;-)

Yeah, I lost my sock aid, it's somewhere around this messy house, just not sure where.

 

[billyedtimmy]

I decided to try repetition as the antidote to this stiffness/inflexibility: Got on a height-adjustable elliptical machine today and set the 'stair' height about halfway (which seem the threshold of my comfort). Each time around of flexion on the right, it felt like it was pushing it against the stiffness, but luckily I never had that sharp pain, so I assumed this setting was reasonable. Could only go about 10 minutes before it started feeling stiffer, but hopefully I can just a add a few minutes per day and work up from there.

I think the swelling/inflexibility problem must just be something specific to my body. I remember about 5 years ago when I broke my wrist, I had trouble with supination (twisting wrist around to palm up) for the longest time, and it was very frustrating for myself and my PT. The harder I'd push it, the more it would stiffen/swell in protest and the less my ROM got. I had to just leave it alone or be gentle and finally after quite a while (can't remember how long it took) it calmed down and I got my ROM back. I guess I'm in for that again with this hip flexion. Ah well...

On the bright side, I could never comfortably do the elliptical pre-op, but now other than the stiffness, I pretty much have no pain at all no matter how much weight I shift to it. I like that part. ;-)

 

[Davefd]

FWIW, my PT had recco'd I stay off anything like an eloliptical or stairmaster- but to ride the staionary bike on low resistance- this way you are not putting to much pressure on the hip.

 

[billyedtimmy]

Hmmm, thanks for the heads-up. The elliptical actually felt like less pressure than just walking around, but I'll look into that with my OS just in case.

 

[Davefd]

No sweat. It's just simple body-mechanics theory really- on a bike you don't have the weight of your upper body pressing down on the lower, and in post-THR recovery you can focus on mobility and ROM and can alleviate any weight-bearing with it- and eventually work up to strength-building and more aggressive cardio. (also why they recco aquatic excercise, but with 2 bum shoulders, I'm not too keen on that myself

Probably why I always preferred biking to running anyways and why my knees are in great shape (welllll, except for that dang limp I had for years messing with the right knee)

 

[Sooty]

Used a grabber to get the sock over my toes, then stand by the bed about an arms length out and lift foot behind me onto the bed (so, full knee flexion), then reach behind me to pull the sock up my foot. Very little hip bending required. ;-)

Be very very careful! Twisting AT ALL in this position is a shortcut to a dislocation, so I've been told!