WOW I finally made it to my laptop instead of reading these off my tablet upside down. I really do not handle pain meds well. I am quite goofy as my daughter has let me know. My wife was being kind to me but I am way out there. It does not take much to tip me over but I can still hold my Irish Whiskey better than anyone else in my family.
That said thank you to everyone trying to help. I can clip and paste questions now and will do my best to explain. I think what I am feeling is just different than what the Ortho folks are used to. I ran large marathons before the original injury and had very strong core muscles that do not take to atrophy well. I am feeling better but still hard to focus more than 5 minutes at a time. No major decisions to be made till I detox.
1. what approach did you have for your surgery? Anterior, posterior, lateral? You can look here to see the various types
THR approaches or incisions
Posterior that led into some reconstruction with a graft and plates. Still waiting to see how much with the next office visit and xrays. 28 staples with heavy early bruising that settled lower than usual but all from the surgery still. Now almost all bruising is gone with few dark red marks left over. THe extra work was from the break 30 years ago. One crack did not heal and caused some degeneration they cut/ground out then used grafts from same femoral head to fill in.
2. what are your pain levels right now? (remember the 1-10 scale: 1 = no pain and 10 = the worst you can imagine. And don't compare this with the bone-on-bone pain you had before surgery!
) Also don't forget to include other forms of pain such as soreness, burning, stabbing, throbbing, aching, swelling and stiffness
Pain is different for everyone and I am very good at isolating what hurts and why. Now I can actually feel which muscle group hurts and why based on incision and locations. So Mornings I am low levels evenings crying and very frustrated.
Today and now I am sitting at about 8 with extreme muscle cramp/spasms. From the outer knee up to just above the implant. icing works sometimes massages help little Norco does nothing. Normally there is a sweet spot you can position in that fells better if not eliminates the pain. Nearest the knee the tendons are rigid in the evening and will not relax feels like a pulled ankle, achilles tear. Over the point of the hip about 6x6 inches square also becomes very rigid and is the feeling everyone calls sandbags. I varies between stabbing and just pulled muscle spasm pain.
Lastly the groin where they pulled and tugged. This I know will take time just because of what they had to do. It is always a stabbing Ice Pick pain that seldom lasts more than 15 minutes. Icing works well.
3. what pain medications have you been prescribed, how much are you taking (in mg please) and how often?
The only meds they will allow is Norco 5/325 that I have added a single 325 Tylenol taken every 4 hours without fail.
4. how often are you icing your hip and for how long?
Icing is with a Donjoy and is pretty much running all day keeping temps down. If the skin is warm I ice. My wife gives me my first load at 6am and I move the pad up and down the leg till about 9am. If I am still warm I will continue but I try to take a break for an hour. Today is the first day of no swelling and skin stays cool to touch. Icing is 30 minutes on 30 minutes off.
5. what is your activity level? What do you do in the way of housework, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc., and
I walk to the furthest bathroom every 2 hours whether I want to or not. It is about 60 feet from one end to the other. I now get my own water refills using a cute little basket on the front of my walker. I intentionally leave things behind so I have an excuse once an hour to get up and move. 5 hours of the day I am in the front room sitting in a chair then I move to the bed for 2-3 hours and back out to the chair. THe only way I can relieve pressure on the back is on my side in bed. Not easy but it gets me moving.
While sitting I do sets of 10 butt squeezes, flexing thigh pushing knee into a pillow, foot rotations pointing and pulling. When I stand I do mini squats to warm up as the PT guy said, lift foot as close to butt without bending hip, side kicks, and backward kicks and finally the parade lifts. THese are very hard still and hurt so I am not as active. Everything is sets of 10 and I try to do them every time I get up.
I can get in and out of bed now without a leg strap to lift with. Most the time I can move myself around in bed with out help. THe blankets are heavy as my wife is a quilter and she loves a pile. The only help I get now other than fetching is pulling up my pants and socks. Wifey stands by for my showers but I think it is because she loves me. I stand for showers and do not sit as I cannot get up off the chair afterwards it is too soapy. I have a good walker and it dries quickly so standing is not a problem and actually feels good.
6. what kind of PT exercises and exercises at home are you doing? How much and how often?
I think this is answered in the question above.
Today was a much better day. I am more alert. I called my doctors office, the medical group and my insurance carrier to explain my communication issues. Still since I called 5 days ago complaining of pain, a rash across the back, extreme constipation, no one has called back with an answer. I did go to the ER/ Urgent care for the bowel issues but still no help otherwise. I think the rash is from the heavy sweating with the obstructions but today I did break out again. I still may be reacting to meds.
Pain used to be the entire thigh front to rear with no specific attachment to activity. Now with swelling down and bruising almost gone I can say accurately it is three different muscle groups and the worst is just muscles not relaxing. I am sure there is some pain with a bone graft but I could not find anyone else that had a graft to say how it felt.
Every one here is awesome. Each day I continue to get better and I am so glad I kept in shape before this. I cannot imagine going through this ill. My strength is getting better daily and my ability to funtion is also changing fast. If I can only get a grip on the pain all will be great.
My wife has been the best with all of this. Last night she was helping lift my leg onto the bed and accidentally pulled my body sideways with the leg. My scream could be heard miles away and we both cried. After settling down we finished getting me settled with new socks. As she did this her nails raked the underside of my extremely ticklish foot. I jumped to the ceiling. This time we both laughed so hard it felt good. We are really going to celebrate when this drama is over. She is an amazing woman and deserves the world.
United States
![[Bonesmart.org] Not old yet but getting right hip done.](https://data.bonesmart.org/attachments/26/26659-6d8c48018c28c580a7ef2354c1420daa.jpg?hash=bYxIAYwoxY)
