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THR one year later ...

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Hi @Peaches Sorry that you are still having problems with your back and left hip.As you know I am in a similar position in that my other hip is causing a lot of intermittent pain and getting worse but X-rays are showing adequate joint space.Like @zauberflöte I feel the left o/a in the left side is holding back the rehab in the right side and contributing to the tendinitis.I have been in the " twilight zone " ie between hip operations for almost a year and don't feel that I will see any improvement until I get a new left hip.@TeeEm Its good news about the short waiting list for knees in your area and September is a good month for surgery as it is at the end of summer and you have the autumn / winter to recover.

@Peaches Do you have a follow up appointment with your OS team to monitor your left hip ?
 
@TeeEm LOL I wrote you a long reply on my phone last night after I went to bed, but it wouldn't let me in to post it!Yeah, after my son's wedding I will storm the doors and see what happens :)
 
Sorry to hear about your back problems peaches but how quickly does a year pass take care and look after yourself

Billy
 
Yes, how quickly that year has passed @Peaches - these jolly back problems... Ugh!! I can so relate to your pain and how it slows us down. I too have grumbling so from my left hip. But I want to defer it for as long as possible.

The only thing that helps my back pain is constant heat, it also helps my kidneys as I can't take pain meds.

Hubby bought me a fluffy pink hot water bottle cover and I wander around like Charlie Brown with my hottie...
[Bonesmart.org] one year later ...


Hugs xxx
 
Kinda glad to resurrect this thread again so anyone who comes here will see Josephine's wonderful explanation (with pictures!) about the concern I had a little while ago.

Really happy to see so many familiar faces from our "class of spring 2013." I could not have gotten through this surgery and the weird recovery details without all of you. And your avatars have held up over time and still make me smile. (Still wish I could do the high kick in @TeeEm's) TeeEm, I"m very sorry about your knee, but am glad you are on that waiting list. It sounds like you will be very glad by end of Sept. that you decided to go for it. I hope your new hip is behaving. Aren't you glad you had it replaced? I sure am.

My other hip has been okay for a while now, not bad like it was at six months out. I still think those back-PT exercises from hell that I was doing for the spondylolisthesis are what made the other hip hurt so much. I do have
pain at night when trying to turn onto the other hip's side; it really hurts. But during the daytime I have long periods where it is just fine. So there you have it. Osteoarthritis plays a cat-and-mouse game with us: Now you're in pain, now you're not.

@zauberflöte, I have seen your postings today and am glad to know you're been well. So sorry for the stuff you went through after an innocent seeming shoe shopping expedition. I concur with what you said on another thread about not really wanting to waste time/money on shots and PT if you know in the end you're going to end up in the OR anyway. That was always my feeling about the first hip. Tried PT & supplements in the beginning and neither one did a lick of good other than drain my pocketbook.

@Poppet ... so good to hear from YOU! Very sorry about your back and other hip. I suspect hip surgery is a walk in the park compared to back surgery. I hope your other hip holds up for a while, but I know you know not to wait too long this time. You had such a hard time. Thank you for your constant support and caring. How's the Countdown to Retirement?? :)

Hi, @Kim22 and @forbesy (your avatar always makes me laugh; I hope you are doing okay. Where are you in your recovery?) ... so nice to hear from you. Kim, you have had a rough road and I hope you leave the twilight zone before long. Are you still scheduled for the injection you had to wait so long for? We both have "adequate joint space" in the other hip, yet pain. Do you know why? For me, it's supposedly bone spurs. I will go back for a checkup when there are more bad days than good days. Keep us posted on how you are. Thank you for your support!

I hope to catch up on other threads what you all are up to.
 
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@Peaches Glad you are back and good to hear from you. Are you still working ? So it looks like many of us have second joint issues ! It really does appear that you never get away with just one bad one !
@Kim22 @zauberflöte When I went to see the OS about my hip in the beginning, and also this time with my knee, I got the very strong impression that one of the main criteria for putting you forward for a replacement , was not so much what your xray showed or how much your joint pain was impacting on your life, but whether you were having pain at night or at rest, especially if it ever wakes you up. I was definitely prompted to say I had frequent pain at rest both times. Perhaps the OS has to justify the surgery to the powers that are paying for the op and limping and hobbling around doesn't score enough points.
 
Hi, @TeeEm ... so good to hear from you, too. I asked a while back about that very issue: If you don't have X-rays showing "bone on bone" areas, can a surgeon still do surgery or will the insurance gods deny him? I asked my OS at my one-year checkup and he said, "It's not so much that the ins. co. requires you to be 'bone on bone.' It's more that you have to have tried other measures first, such as injections and PT." I guess it varies from place to place.
I hope you can get the surgery scheduled without nonsense from the ins. company.
Yep, still working. Am working a lot of long hours, too ... but the happy (sick?) thing is that I am really happy that I am able to work hard. It was scary to feel so fatigued. It too me probably longer than others to really get my energy groove back, but it IS back and I am grateful.
 
@Peaches A lot of us feel that it has taken a good 10 months to a year to feel totally back to normal again, so I don't think you have been any slower than the rest of us.
 
@Peaches @TeeEm yes, the energy groove didn't really come back till 8-10 months, and this move, made between 11 and 12 months, showed me that even at 10 months I couldn't have done what I did at 11.5-- day after day of hard labor-- AND all with a severely damaged foot on the other side(don't know if it was a sprain or a tiny little bone fracture and likely never will know) that was causing so much pain it wore me and my S-I joint out!-- and I still kept on tickin' after that lickin'! That is so very gratifying, to keep on tickin', isn't it.
And at the both of you-- these comments re when the OS can approach the ins co for you make a sick and evil kind of sense. YOu would think that a health insurance provider would rather put out once and be done with it, rather than nickel and dime themselves to death only to have to put out the big one anyway! I suppose their number crunchers tell them that if a person does PT and injections one year, and doesn't meet their deductible but comes close, will wait till the next year for the surgery and the HMO will make more $$$ that way. Sick, evil. Health Maintenance my Aunt Fanny!!!!!!!

@Poppet Must tell my dear friend from Down Under that it's Linus, not Charlie Brown, who carries the blankie. I would have put "funny" for my rating, you swanning around with a fuzzy pink "hottie" , but for the reason you do it. It is good to see you again :) :) :)
 
Hi @Peaches I am so glad that you are back on this site and it is good to hear that you are coping well with your busy work schedule.The long awaited appointment was scheduled for this Thursday but I had a phone call today rearranging it for next Tuesday.I suppose that I have waited so that a few days won't matter.
 
Hi peaches it's lovely to see you here again. Wow! Hasn't the last year passed quickly? I hope you get some relief for your back.
 
Hiya everyone, so good to see the old gang gathering @Peaches, @TeeEm , @zauberflöte, @octopus, @Kim22, @forbesy - don't be strangers... I miss my 2011 cohort - off enjoying life which is good..

Chris, and here I thought it was Charlie Brown.... I must have been asleep with that comic, lol....

[Bonesmart.org] one year later ...
 
very good @Poppet ! Now, without looking it up, who is related to whom in that pic? I'm not actually sure if I can do them all but I can do two!:wink:
Ya know, this sorting through smileys is getting old....but I guess it's balanced by the fact that we have twice as many to play with!
 
@zauberflöte Hi after all this time! I never saw when you tagged me Z, but its not too long ago. Glad you are doing well and congrats on the son's marriage! I also have arthritis in my good left hip and I think it got a little aggravated by the stiff left knee post-knee-op. I was thinking maybe I'd have to get the left hip done too but then it improved by walking squarely on it and not "favoring" it. It would have to get much worse and more persistent for me to get it replaced and it seems to be doing ok for now. The right hip was SO much worse by the end, and I would not wait for it to get to that point on the left side.

@TeeEm @maryo52 The right hip is great, and still getting stronger! The left knee was much harder to get working again and still could be better. Still it is better than it was before I had it replaced after it had collapsed to bone on bone on the inside. It took about 4 months to reliably bend it to 90 deg but is still not up where my good right knee is at almost 10 months. I have a warning for you. I think part of the recovery problem and probably extra scarring was caused by me working very hard climbing ladders and trying to finish fixing my leaky RV up to the day before the knee surgery. (I wanted to take the RV when I went down to my son's wedding 2 months post-op - fail). I know I would have had sore muscles for at least a few days after that in any case, but then I went in the very next day and the OS cut right through those overworked muscles and sewed them back up with all that lactic acid still in there. That knee didn't bend more than 30 degrees at first and it was a lot of worry and work to get it up to 90 degrees by 4 months. Now it is at around 120 deg. but still stiff, sore at times on stairs, and not quite where I want it to be. But I can walk a few miles, ride my bike as much as I want, bushwhack blackberries on my steep hill. I can't really crawl or kneel while gardening partly because its numb on the outer side which is uncomfortable and partly because I'm not wanting to risk damaging the plastic parts therein. I'm still trying to stretch it more and not baby it. I want it to bend as far as my other knee does easily. "They" say it takes a year for knees, and bonesmart says it will continue to improve after that. Good luck!
 
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@westsea good to hear your knee update! Are the Kneesies as much fun as us hippies??:loveshwr: I am glad to hear your progress report-- so sorry that you didn't get to your son's wedding, though. You say you have a numb patch-- I still have a hand-sized one on my op hip-- if previous surgeries are any indication, it will take years to fade! You deserve a break from replacements, and I hope you have good joints the rest of your life!!!
 
@westsea That's interesting info about your knee regarding not overworking the muscles before surgery. Mine is the other way around to you - left hip, right knee. I think you were lucky to get both done last year out of the way. I wish I could have done. Oh to walk up and down a hill again ! I walked down a small hill today and my knee was really painful and ached for ages afterwards. Im looking forward to being able to do that again. I'm sure your bend will improve in time. Ive heard its a year too.
 
@zauberflöte No not yet. I've told them I don't want it done until the end of September , but I went to pre-op on Tuesday and have got knee class on Friday, so the ball is rolling . I was given two bottles of pre-op carbohydrate drink when I went Tuesday - one to have at midnight the night before theatre, and the other one before 6am on the day. Its a new thing that they have brought in. I never got it last time. Apparently it enhances post op recovery.
 
@TeeEm As you say the ball is well and truly rolling for your new knee.The carbohydrate drinks make a lot of sense.We starve from midnight on the day before surgery and then it is often well into the afternoon before we actually get to theatre so that is along time without food.They gave my daughter energy pills during her labour for the same reason.I hope that you manage to enjoy the summer before your surgery.Has the knee pain curtailed your activities ?
 
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