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THR one year later ...

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Hey ... sorry I missed the Hip Lollapalooza on my thread recently! So nice to see @octopus again after so long & glad you only have niggles instead of the dreadful pre-op pain. @glynis, so sorry about your recent mishap and broken foot! No apologies for posting here on my thread. I enjoy the company. I always get a lot out of reading your posts about your infection horror story. It girds me mentally "just in case" god forbid it should happen. Hat's off also to Vetgirl and dianehelen for generously posting all the details of the rough road they have traveled. Well, I am hardly laid back about living in the big city. The numbers of bodies around you most of the time and incessant noise (ever notice that people TALK LOUDER THESE DAYS?? Not old folks with hearing problems. Young people.) just grates on me. So I seek out the quieter, less populated areas. @TeeEm, how's the knee holding up and are you actually having to drink that pre-op drink with the unimaginative name of Pre-Op NOW, this far in advance?? @Kim22, I do hope you have had more low pain days than not. You have had such a long haul with this stuff? Anyone who says all you need is positivity is really short sighted. Positivity helps with getting you through the night kinds of stuff, but has nothing to do with bad luck of the draw stuff such as all these soft tissue syndromes and related difficulties. The patience that we all are told we need at the beginning of recovery might be even ore useful longer down the road, when it is expected that we're done and it's all tied up in a neat 'n' tidy bow ... but for one reason or another simply is NOT.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Brits Say This, Yanks Say That discussion. When my pals or colleagues and I start talking books, we end up complaining about how these days it seems that U.S. publishers or someone thinks it's necessary to "Americanize" the lingo in contemporary novels set in England. As if we can't figure out from context or, god forbid, look in a dictionary, to see what something means. It's especially sad that children's books by or about England are often "Americanized," too. How can you be an armchair traveler if you don't encounter "exotic" phrases and words? Oh, I digress......

I am having a bout of insomnia, came on bonesmart, read a little, then had a brainstorm: Why not add certain particulars to the ol' signature line other than the date of surgery & the type of surgery? So I added the basics. What do you all think? TMI? You notice I did not mention what method I used for getting rid of post-op block-up, or The Stinky Toilet Thing.

I still think about the op hip and its progress. I am thrilled at not having pain there. "The Forgotten Hip" syndrome continues to mystify me and elude me. It (having the hip go down and then get fixed) is something I'm almost always aware of.

Hope to hear from you all again when you can post. @zauberflöte, you must be getting MOB pre-wedding jitters about now. Hang in there!
 
@Peaches Oh please, please, please add the stinky toilet raise . The laughs we used to have over that.
The knee is holding up, thanks. They don't seem to deteriorate as quickly as hips do, so its not too bad. The pre-op drink is for the night before and the morning of surgery. Apart from that, I had to go to a pre-op knee class last week. It was totally different to the hip class. They expect you to do quite a bit of home PT starting now to build up your muscles for a faster recovery, so you got a little book of exercises. There are no restrictions or precautions, no toilet raises, no equipment of any type not even a grabbing stick, and no special way of getting into bed ie bad leg first out, last in. And you go home the next day, but are expected to take at least 12 weeks off work. But you have to go to a post-op knee PT class held in the hospital gym every single week until they think you are Ok.
Some of our English words are so peculiar to a certain area of the UK, they need translating from region to region, let alone to American. For example, they call an ordinary bread roll in the region I live a 'batch', in Lancashire, they call it a 'barm cake' and in another region (cant remember where) they call it a 'bun' . And going back to the discussion on alleys - where I live they call the alley behind houses an 'entry' , which you always go up but never in, ie 'ive parked my car up the entry' :loll:
 
Thanks for the welcome, Peaches, and I totally agree with your comments on our shared dialogue. We truly are, in the words of someone sadly not immortalised in either of my reference books of quotations: "Two nations divided by a common language".

My career was in publishing, and I am fascinated by the use of language and idiom. (I would say that my career IS in publishing, but sadly commissions do not seem to land in my lap all that often these days.) At the height of my career I worked extensively on background material for US TV shows (particularly Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs), and had a dictionary of American slang. In those days my husband's business required US colleagues to come over here quite often, and I would sometimes try them out. Not infrequently, to totally bemused and blank responses.

There is nothing at all wrong with Americanisations (and on odd occasions they can convey an idea better than our equivalent), but by and large Americanisations belong in the USA. I have a particular dislike of "ahead of". I'm not quite sure what was wrong with "before", which worked OK for us for probably hundreds of years.

Another one which threatens to wriggle its way in, is "cheated on". This really grates on me. I once heard it used on BBC News (the gold standard of news reporting in UK). Obviously it grated on others too, as in the next bulletin they used our much more safe, reliable and comfortable "had an affair".

I'm sure there are a great many words we use which seem very odd to you. My US friend Sharon is fascinated by the word "bloke", which I use quite a lot. (Means an everyday sort of chap, or guy.) She occasionally tentatively tries it out... "b-loke", and seems highly delighted to make such an achievement.

TeeEm, I know what you mean about bread rolls. I would sometimes say "barm cake". I don't say "batch", but I know what it means. Growing up in Manchester in the 50s, my mother would refer to little rolls served at children's parties (often generously spread with a delicacy such as Princes salmon spread) as "bunnies". Have you ever heard that one? I think most people would call them "finger rolls" nowadays.

Vive la difference!
 
@glynis I remember having salmon spread on bread buns for tea on Sunday as a small child and they were a real treat along with butterfly cakes.@teeEm we call bread roll bread buns in County Durham.I think most of the world know Americanisms due to Hollywood and American TV.When we lived in Paris a few of my husband's colleagues were Dutch but when I first met them I thought they were from the US because of their American accents.They told me that as children had learnt a lot of their English from American TV !

@Peaches I couldn't agree with you more on the subject of positivity.I consider myself a very positive person but being positive did not have any influence on my iliopsoas tendinosis which I have just learnt has most likely been caused by a misaligned cup.There are plenty of other positive people on here with other issues whose recovery has not been straight forward to say the least who are in the same boat.As you so wisely say it is patience that we need in abundance and not only in those early days either.It is almost 16 months since my THR and I am still trying to learn the art of patience.
 
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@Peaches - sorry if I am asking what you've answered already somewhere but I didn't find... Who is your OS? You did your THR at HSS, right?
 
@Peaches @TeeEm @glynis @octopus @Kim22 @zauberflöte
Hi, Sorry I missed all the chat- I've been traveling so not online. I have more words for you all. In Brooklyn, the front yard in a "brownstone" or townhouse is called an areaway, or airyway if you were born here. The back yard is a garden. I have a walled garden with a door that leads to a lane, with small houses that were once stables. My front door is on a street. The houses all have "stoops" -high stair cases leading to the parlor floor-1st floor in the UK. Stoop comes from our original Dutch settlers. Isn't language fun?

Sorry to hear about the upcoming knee surgery @TeeEm. Sounds like a good idea to do some strengthening work beforehand.
 
Wow, @LeeApril26, those are some good terms. I didn't know them at all. How about trying to explain to our pals across the pond the term "courtyard" for some apt. bldgs. like mine that is nothing like a courtyard in a fancy sense. I think "airshaft" is the real term, which does not shed light on what it is. "Courtyard" is a euphemism.
Oh, those stoops are not friendly to pre- and even post-op hippies or kneesies. I wonder what those gated streets like Patchin Place in Manhattan are called? They remind me of mews such as NYU's mews. I'm sure you can explicate and define these better than I can! @glynis ... what I meant by "Americanizing" was this horrible thing that U.S. book publishers do when they publish a novel that is by a Brit and set in England and originally has British spellings and terms and the publisher has an editor change all the terms to Americanize it so we dopey Americans will not have to tax our brains to figure out or look up the terms. So some London gal in the novel is now wearing a sweater instead of a jumper and going on an elevator rather than a lift. I think that's appalling. I never buy the U.S. "Americanized" version of any original British novel.

@Kim22 ... butterfly cakes are new to me. I think I've heard of fairy cakes when reading British novels. I do get your carbs mixed up sometimes. We say cookie, you say biscuit? To us, a biscuit is a non-sweet bread you eat at breakfast; very big in the South. I wonder what you call a bagel. Probably "a bagel." Oh, and what is a cake (as in cakes and ale)? Is that sweet or savory? I do hope you get some answers to this ongoing problem you've been having. It was just rotten luck, that's all, nothing you did. It's always good to try to maintain hope and try to become flexible with what is thrown at us, but being human, it's normal to feel down about things. You can vent here as much as you need to and we will see you through it. @TeeEm ... so unfair that if you have to go through another joint replacement surgery, you don't get to have A Stinky Toilet Thing in the bargain. That Stinky Thing was endlessly fun to laugh at and hate. Didn't we imagine a group bonfire to burn our Stinky Things? I'm glad to hear you say the knee doesn't go to pot (go to seed?) as quickly and badly as hips do. I hope you can maintain that till surgery time. I'm glad the mandatory outpatient PT is right there at the hospital, where the PTs will be reminded all the time that you are after all a surgical patient and not just someone there to train for a marathon. That's great you have no restrictions.You sure do sound upbeat and mentally ready to tackle this. Make sure you keep us posted so we can pester you on the knee side. Barm cakes don't sound too yummy. Oh, Glinnis ... I rather prefer "cheated on" to "affair." Affair sounds like a party. Which of course having an affair is, I guess, at the beginning. If only bonesmart had a Blue Room where we could now all retire with our brandies and smokes and really let loose with some cross-cultural lingo. I would have a field day. (In my real life I do curse like a sailor. It feels kind of liberating, the way I guess chanting does for some people.)

I am in a waiting room at 6 p.m. on the eve of on of our major holidays--independence from You-Know-Who. ;)
All I'm sayin' is that it is not a fun place to be, the last appointment of the day (doc office) on the day before a holiday, when everyone is champing at the bit to get the hell out of Dodge and blow this Popsicle joint (that was three idioms in a row).

More later. (P.S. Some cyber thing yanked off my laundry list of details about the surgery that I put in my signature line. Surely I can add those back in? Anyone know how??)
 
@Kim22 Oh wow ! I didn't know that ! That's a blow . When did you find that out ? Jeez. What happens now???

I thought you called bread rolls stotties in Durham ? My family were from Co Durham and my grandfather had some strange names for things. A gamp was an umbrella. Oooooo @glynis - princes salmon spread. Lol. That takes me back. We had that for Sunday tea too followed by tinned fruit and carnation milk.

@Peaches a bagel is a bagel. A cake is usually sweet. Biscuits are always sweet . Butterfly cakes are like fairy cakes, but with the tops cut off and cut in two, then placed like butterfly wings on the top over some buttercream.

I hope you all across the pond are enjoying independence day. What do you generally do. Firework parties etc?
 
@TeeEm We do have stotties or stotty cakes as well but in this instance the cake is not sweet which is even more confusing.Stotties are round and flattish where as bread buns are more spherical. I must admit that I have never heard of a gamp !

I found out about the possibility of the tendinitis of the operated hip being caused by a misaligned cup when I saw my actual OS a week gone Tuesday.I had seen two separate registrars at my two previous appointments who had told me that impingement was not an issue when I asked them so I was a little taken a back when he came out with this.You will probably remember that I waited five months for cortisone injection of the psoas tendon and when the appointment came round I was so much better.The ultrasound showed minimal inflammation and a lot of improvement since my last test so the Radiologist advised against due to the possible risks.I saw the OS a week later when the pain on that side was minimal but the other side was giving me a lot of pain so he referred me for an MRI of the left side.Fast forward another week and the groin and front thigh pain has returned in the right side so both sides are bad and the pain keeps swapping from side to side and back again.

The OS warned me that the pain may return but he told me that cortisone injections would help.He said that my prosthesis contains a metal component at the top of the cup which is rough and designed to fuse with bone but it can irritate the soft tissue with scraping during movement I have shallow hip sockets so more at risk.He said that eventually scar tissue forms and often the inflammation settles eventually.I have read a number of studies and have learned a lot from discussions with two other hippies who are in the same boat on here and have found out that further surgery in the form of a tenotomy or revision offer the best outcomes and it is rare that conservative management including injections work.

Sorry that this is such a long winded reply but my plan is to contact the Radiology Dept on Monday to arrange another appointment for an injection as they did say that I would be fast tracked if the pain came back ( we will see) I have another appointment with the OS on 12th August.Studies show that about 4 % of patients end up with this following THR.To me that is a substantial number.
 
@Kim22 I get what you mean now. I remember you saying that the edge of the cup scraping the soft tissues, but I took it that there was like a lip or something on the edge of the cup. When you put misaligned, I imaged the cup wasn't in straight - or whatever way they put it in. I think I told you about my husbands friend. He had similar problems - from a hip resurfacing. He had pain for nearly 18 months post-op until it settled, but then had several flare ups after that that never lasted as long and eventually it settled completely, so don't give up hope yet, but I hope you get a quicker appointment for your cortisone injection quicker than last time.
Going back to gamp. No one else in my family ever say it either.
 
@TeeEm The OS explained that if the prosthesis is not aligned exactly as it should be and it is very difficult to get it just right especially in women with shallow sockets then this problem can occur but I haven't had a CT scan which is the test of choice to detect impingement of the Iliopsoas due to misalignment which would give more information. All I have had is X-rays which don't show the soft tissues and where they are in relation to the cup.It can be caused by an over hanging lip or piece of cement too.

Yes I remember you telling me about your husband's friend and I am so pleased that he fully recovered in the end.I am glad for him and for myself as hearing his story brings me some much needed hope for a resolution to my issues too.
 
Sorry @Peaches So sorry I seem to have high jacked your thread.I hope you are enjoying your holiday to celebrate your liberation
 
@Kim22 feel free always to post here on my thread. No worries ever about that. What are the chances of getting an MRI?? Let us know what you find out Monday when you call. TeeEm's husband's friend's story is hopeful, but you've waited so long already!

Fireworks and picnics, often hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue--that's what a lot of Fourth of July celebrations are often about. Lots of flag waving. It's the "biggest" summertime holiday. Some stores are actually closed. When I was a kid we actually got to shoot fireworks in the backyard with only a "Be careful!" thrown at us. In some states that's not even legal anymore. In NYC there's a "who can eat the most hot dogs" contest, which I have never seen or participated in!
 
Hi Peaches

I do take your point about the publishing houses which "helpfully" explain all those silly Brit words, like "jumper" and "bloke". Must be very irritating.

I have a similar bugbear if I inadvertently pick up a "book club edition" of anything I am reading.

You have just got to the end of the story, and begin mulling it over in your mind, only to turn the page and find some hot shot know-it-all suggesting appropriate ways in which you might respond. This person is probably 30 years younger than you, with very much less experience of life, and has, for my money, some monumental nerve in believing he/she can guide you down paths where you might otherwise have been too stupid to venture.

TeeEm and Kim: The question "What is a gamp?" came up in a quiz I entered once. We were told the answer was "umbrella", so when I got home I looked it up. Seems it relates to a character, Mrs Gamp, in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit. She was a nurse, and always carried a voluminous and rather scruffy umbrella.

Do either of you use the verb "to mither"? Another good Northern one!
 
@glynis , the book club edition sounds dreadful. Are these those "questions for your book club to discuss"?
How is your foot??? I love the Dickens connection. Gampy means wounded body part (according to urban dictionary); Gampy is sometimes a nickname for grandfather, too.
 
@glynis We use the word mither up here it means to worry or to fret and is often used in a derisory context.
 
I am ok thank you @Peaches We managed my mother's house move on Saturday which was exhausting but there were many family members helping so it wasn't too bad.My left hip suffered but there was no increase in the pain in the operated leg as a result of all the activity.Of course the right side is still not right so I made an appointment for the injection on 29th July.I can always cancel it if necessary.I have restarted the exercises which I had neglected during the the last few weeks as I have been too busy. We are going up to our caravan by the sea tomorrow for two weeks and I am really looking forward to the break.

I hope all is well with you and that your back is not giving you too much trouble.
 
Paging @TeeEm ... are you all scheduled for your knee replacement at the end of Sept.? Are you still drinking the unimaginatively named pre-op drink Pre-Op? Let us know how you are so we can cheer you and pester you throughout the process. Don't know if you will need a stinky toilet thing for you knee ... I hope you are not spared.
Seriously, hope you are doing okay and not in too much pain. Eager to hear how you are.
 
After a long absence I came back on bonesmart and wasn't going to say anything. But I guess I will. It's almost a year and a half, shy one month, since my THR on right hip. I now sometimes get a "pain" (more like a sensation, like a tight muscle pulling thing) along my thigh, kinda toward the inner thigh. It's only when I walk; not when I stand on the one leg like a stork (which I sometimes do ... don't ask). It's not all the time, but often. What IS this? Am I crazy to worry and wonder about it? I'd love to be able to say I just never, ever think about the op hip and it's just one hundred per cent perfect. But this weird sensation is hard to ignore. At the one year mark I suddenly started having a similar "pain" and told my OS about it at my yearly checkup and X-rays and asked if it could be "micro movement of the femoral tip" and he said no, the X-rays looked fine. He dismissed the pain as "probably due to weak adductors."

I'll just be honest: I don't think I will ever stop worrying about anything pain or twinge or sensation like that goes on with the operated hip side. I'm sorry, but that's true.

I don't regret the surgery at all. I "ambulate" a thousand times better than I did. It's really been almost perfect ... till this weird sensation. And I can't help but wonder and worry. And I really don't know who to ask about it. My primary care physician is very unhelpful. The surgeon is probably sick of my popping up every few months with questions. Though I have given him a vacation from them all summer......

Thanks for letting me whine......
 
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