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Revision THR One Down -- One to Go

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emjayp said:
I will see my OS the week before my surgery and he is very good at explaining everything ( unlike my last surgeon) but I wonder about a lot of things. Since I am having an osteotomy, how long will it be before I can get around? I have heard no weight bearing for 6 weeks. Is that true? Will I need a walker at first, then crutches? My OS said 3 days in the hospital after surgery then home. I don't want to go to rehab, which I did do last time when I had both hips done. My house has 5 levels, and about 10 steps to my bedroom. It's a 1.75 hour ride from the hospital to my home. Will this be doable? Last time I was transported by ambulance to the rehab facility. Lots of questions. . . .
Anyone with answers?
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Hi Mary Jane,

You have a good list of questions to take with you and ask your OS, he will be able to give you a bit more insight in to how things will work for those first 6 weeks after your revisions.

Can you set up a place in your home that is on one level and stay there for a few weeks? Do you have someone at home that can cook, clean, run errands and take care of you -- like a husband, maybe?

Enjoy your last three weekends before your surgery and I hope this revision goes well and easier than you are expecting!!

Take care,
Cardie
 
I had my surgery last Monday, came home on Friday and am doing ok. I had an extended trochanteric osteotomy to remove the stem and am told that about a golf ball sized amount of dead tissue was removed, which is apparently not too bad. I will be toe touch only, for 5-6 weeks so I spend most of my time in bed, watching tv or working on my iPod. I use a walker to get to a commode. My bathroom is ensuite but down 3 steps, so I only do it about once a day. I took a shower today. Tomorrow I have to do the 3 flights of stairs to the car because I have to go to the clinic for blood work because I'm on Coumadin. Pain is tolerable if I take 2 - 5 mg Percocet every 4 hours. Trouble is, they only gave me 40 tablets, which has me running out by tomorrow evening! My Dr is 100 miles away! Hospital called today to see how I am doing and I mentioned it to them.. They said call the Dr tomorrow morning, because the scrip will have to be mailed, can't be called in to my pharmacy because it's a narcotic! Can you believe it? Did they expect me to be pain free in one week? What were they/he thinking? That means I have to start rationing today! I've done this before (bilateral s June 2011). I took pain pills for at least a month! I am so angry I could spit!

So there it is. My revision journey. Will have the other one when this one heals.
 
Hi Mary Jane,

Eeeek, I don't like the sound of your pain medication predicament -- is there anyway that you can get a script from your local GP doc to cover you so you don't have to ration????

I hope each day gets a bit better for you and that the trip down all those stairs and back again went ok!

Take care,
Cardie
 
I think my thread should be titled revision, but I am not sure how to change it or tag anyone to do so. I thought Josephine had changed it, or started a new thread for me awhile ago but can't find it. Short recap: Had my original bilateral hip replacement in June, 2011 with Stryker parts. Had my first revision July 29th. Surgery and recovery went OK. I had blood transfusion and a fever and needed oxygen on the third day after surgery, due to very low hemoglobin but no other complications. I get around on crutches and restricted to toe touch. Very frustrated with it since my house is multi-level with stairs everywhere. We are shopping for a new house that is all one level. I will NOT have my other hip revised until I have moved. See my OS next week, which will be 6 weeks after surgery. He will take x-rays to see if the bone is "knit" and then change the restrictions and I can start PT. I am counting the days. NINE!
 
I don't know how I missed all this! Except I'm not on here as often anymore. I should have been "following" your thread so I could be kept updated. Have to figure out how to do that before I sign out!
 
Hi Mary Jane. I'm tagging bottomshollow to add the Revision tag to your thread. In the future, to tag someone, type @username and that will create a live tag to alert that person.

:)
Sharon
 
emjayp, I have changed your prefix to Revision TKR, and I have also changed your thread title to reflect what is going on: One Down -- One to Go. I hope this is okay with you. We can make another change when you have your second revision done.
 
Welcome emjayp, I hope you get your pain med protocols sorted quickly and don't have to ration for too many days.. Do let us know :)
 
I'm back after a long absence. I recovered pretty well from my first revision, moved to a primarily one level house, and had my second, and hopefully last revision last week, April 7th. The surgery was the same, and according to my OS, looked pretty much the same when he got inside. He found some blackish corrosion and debris surrounding the femoral neck, and some damaged, dead tissue in the surrounding areas which he removed. I feel a lot worse though, than the last time. I've been home for a week and still have a lot of pain and am unable to lift the operated leg out of bed, I can't get in or out of bed by myself so need someone with me at all times. I can walk with a walker but can't sit in a chair for any length of time because of pain. Therefore, I spend my days and nights in bed. My OS is very stingy with pain meds and truly thinks I should be off narcotics by now so gives me a supply of 20-30 at a time and downgraded me from OxyContin + acetominophen (Percocet) to hydro done + acetominophen (Norco). Says to take 1-2 tabs every 4-6 hours. I do 2 every 4 hours and this is not controlling my pain well but is the best I can get from him. I am constantly stressed out about running out of pain meds. This is not going to change.
I think I was at least improving by this time of the last revision. Maybe my memory is flawed. I know, and have been reminded that each surgery is different. I'm depressed. Plus, I live in Wisconsin where we just had 17" of snow last night!
 
Hi!

I was thinking of you recently and wondering how you were doing. I'm sorry to hear not that well right now.

It's unthinkable that in this day and age that a doctor would do this to a patient. You have been through enough already. How is this "do no harm"???? Two weeks out and he's telling you that you should be off them by now!!??? That's outrageous. This isn't the 1800's. Maybe you should just bite down on a stick and have a shot of whiskey. Come on, buck up, what's a little pain, it can't hurt that much! He's obviously never had a hip revision, let alone TWO of them.

I was still needing pain meds three months after my revision. I was on Tramadol though. Maybe he would be less reluctant if it weren't a narcotic pain reliever. It wouldn't appear he's thinking about your well being at all but his own.

I can't imagine going through a revision again, even a year after. It knocks you down totally, absolutely and completely, takes every ounce of energy you have and then some and takes forever it seems to recover. Even at one year post-op, I feel I'm still recovering. I have never felt so wiped out before in my life as I did after my revision. To say you should be off them by now sounds incredibly ignorant.

Can your primary care doctor help you at all? That you should even have to be dealing with this at this point is unthinkable. You should just be focusing on healing. 20 or 30 pills just gets you through a few days. That's insane, totally insane.

I hope he comes to his senses or you are able to find someone to help you soon so you can get the rest you need. Is there someone who can help you make some calls? I can't imagine having the energy to have to deal with this now.

Keep us posted. Wish I lived closer to help out in some way.

Mary Jane
 
Hi Mary Jane! It's great to hear from you. I didn't know if you were still reading the forum and was planning to contact you on your personal e-mail but yesterday I just got too tired. How are you doing?
I am not good this morning. I took 2 tablets at 6:30 and it hasn't kicked in yet. I have 4 tablets left. Yesterday I actually had a pretty good day and was hoping I had turned a corner. I guess not yet.

The meds issue is unbelievable and adds so much more stress to my already difficult situation. My OS sent me home last Thurs with a script for oxycodone, 40 tablets. I calculated that they would run out Monday evening sometime so called to get a refill knowing that they can't be called in or faxed because they are a Class 1 narcotic. I knew from last time that he would have to downgrade the strength which he did, to Norco. He gave me 20 pills! 20! I started calculating how long they would last immediately and figured they would be gone by Wed morning. They also don't really manage my pain so I called the service on Tuesday to tell them I am still in pain. His PA calls me back and says he can MAIL me a script for the original Oxy or my husband can drive the 100 miles to Eau Claire to pick it up, and in the meantime he can call in a script for the Norco, which doesn't work very well. Well, driving to pick it up is sort of out of the question because I can't get in and out of bed by myself so him being gone for 4 hours is a little scary. I told him to mail the script and call in the other one. Later that day I sent my hubby to pick up the Norco, which I would not need until the next morning at 10:30 or so..
Guess what? My insurance would not let me fill it until the next day! When he got home I called my HMO and they said because I had just picked up one script the day before, they would not fill it til the next day and then they said something about how I was allowed 8 pills a day which I think should be 8 doses but I didn't argue.

So now I'm still waiting for the handwritten prescription to come in the mail, worrying that it won't come or if it does will my HMO fill it, and will the pharmacy be open, etc. if it doesn't come in today's mail how long will it take to get in touch with the OS and knowing that all my pills will be gone by 2:30 today!
I think that if my doc would just write a script for 2 weeks or more all these problems would go away but he won't. I talked to him about it in the hospital before surgery and he just started lecturing me about the prescription drug problem in the US. I won't get anywhere with him. They like to start weaning their patients off drugs right away. Obviously neither of them has had somebody use a saw to cut through their muscles and bones!
So, I'm still in pain 2 hours after taking a dose of the Norco and looking forward to my next dose in 2 hours. Maybe then I will "catch up".
Thanks for listening.
 
@emjayp
Wow. What a horror story. I feel so bad for you. I can't believe your doctor isn't more sympathetic. These surgeries are not easy. I hope things work out for you. There is no reason you should be in pain right now! It's not like you're some junkie on the street. Geeze. :what:
 
Thanks Debbie!
 
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I don't follow much on here anymore. But I do get e-mails to watched threads so I got your post via e-mail.

How narrow minded can he be?? He'd rather you be in pain than be treated properly. And the insurance company decides how many pills you can take a day?? Yikes. Meanwhile you are not being properly cared for. The patient loses.

You could always pay out of pocket for the meds instead of running it through insurance. Can you take additional OTC pain relievers with it till you get the real thing?

I am doing better. I had my one year post-op check recently. The x-rays looked good. I still experience pain in the joint, like deep in the joint, especially after exercising. He said to be sure to massage the area because scar tissue can cause pain as well. Then when I researched that I found it can actually cause significant problems down the road, especially considering the huge hole it has to fill where all the dead tissue was removed. I use a foam roller and it does help. I'd love to get to the point where I experience no pain whatsoever so I can forget about it completely as I'm moving about, but I have a feeling this may go on for some time.
 
Maybe someone could offer suggestions for you to get around this foolishness.
 
Any suggestions from anyone are welcome here. I'm not sure if they would have filled the prescription anyway because I asked my husband how much to just pay for it and they told him they didn't know. Narcotics must be really cheap because the next day when he went back they cost Us $1.60! My co-pay is usually $15. I can't take anything else because the Norco is full of Tylenol already and I can't take NSAIDS with the blood thinner that I'm on. I'm stuck.
I'm glad to hear, MJ, that you are feeling good. I really don't think we will ever be the same though. I was still limping when I got tired after 8 months. We just have to be as active as we can I guess. We went to Mexico for a week in March and took our kids and grand kids. I planned it last fall when I was feeling sorry for myself recovering from the first revision. I'm so glad I did.
 
Hi Mary Jane @emjayp

How are you doing now that you are about a month out from your revision? I sure hope you are feeling better!!

Take care,
Cardie
 
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