Revision THR Other side of hip revision--SWELLING

[Birdie53]

@LibraryLynn i was thinking about you too. Are you at work full time? How is that going?
My week was a little weird -- seems like every time I write that I am doing well I have a setback. This week I woke up nauseous and couldn't get rid of it. Stayed in bed all day the first day-- couldn't eat anything for about 3 days. Then out of no where a stabbing pain and I couldn't walk. My incision bruised up like someone hit it with a sledge hammer. Really scary. Then just as quickly went away. Weird. I decided the nausea had to be drug related because I was taking my meds every 8 hours but doubling up. Stopped that and all day today it seemed like the nausea was gone. So happy! I hate that more than anything! We will see tomorrow.

My new therapy is just to continue to walk and do light housework and as I can do more stretch and bend a little more. I have been picking new places and a little different terrain and tiny bit longer walking. So far I feel like I am getting ahead of the game finally. It also seems to keep the swelling down. In between I elevate and rest.
Not as strenuous as I would like but progress is what I am after. Adding a little easy yoga stuff in too.

Way more information than you probably wanted or needed! So that's my excitement in a nutshell!
Today marked week 10.
Hope all is well. I do want to hear about your progress too.
Take care
Birdie

 

[Birdie53]

@Legin thanks! I need someone to blame. But you would probably want keep your distance -- I get mean when I don't feel well.

 

[Legin]

Chortle one thing to say two daughters one 20 other 18 I doubt you could beat what they have thrown at me oh and worked with difficult teens for thirty years

Legin THR Sep 14

 

[Birdie53]

@Legin you win! You have to be tough to have daughters! Only one son 25 for me. He was easy. No wonder you never complain about your hip-- just make fun of us!
Take it easy!

 

[Legin]

Hqve to be honest spent 4yrs of just me and the girls for 3 days a week was the best ever loved it and they are the best now me make fun hmmmm make fun of myself more but then a lot to make fun of.

Legin THR Sep 14

 

[Birdie53]

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?????
Here close to the eve of my 12th week of recovery. Was walking with little to no pain a little bit more each day. Suddenly I started having pain in my femur at the top of my leg and at the bottom above my knee and into my knee. So much that I can't walk without the cane. Also a lot of soreness along the scar and hip area. I really am more than a little scared. My aunt had same thing last year and it ended up being a fractured femur two weeks out from THR. going to the Ortho on Thursday. What do I say so he really GETS it? What do I settle for that day-- lets wait-- let's do X-rays-- cat scans? MRI, What? Am really afraid. This sets me back at least 3 to 4 weeks. I'm not going to cry but want to send happy faces!.
Birdie51!

 

[Legin]

Firstly rest I know you are thinking doh I know that. Also lets tag @Josephine for proper advice. Try not to panic all things are sortable take care

Legin THR Sep 14

 

[Birdie53]

@Legin Thanks! The support is always welcomed. Guess I freaked a little yesterday. It has been a week and a half and it hasn't gotten better. I am slowly losing all the progress I have made. Will tag Josephine. I am going to the ortho Thursday. I don't want them to tell me to wait to see if it gets better. You know?
Ok @Josephine please look at above message and tell me if it rings a bell so I might know what to be ready for?
Thx!
Birdie

 

[Josephine]

I think the best thing you can do when you see your surgeon is cry! If you are stoic and put on a brave face, they will assume it can't be that bad! The other thing is to make a list of where things hurt and when. A detailed list. It won't matter whether you give it to him or read it out but do have a list.

I'm going to ask you some questions and it would be very helpful if you would answer each one individually - numbered as I have done - in as much detail as you can then I'll come back as see where you are ....

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

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

3. what pain medications have you been prescribed, how much are you taking (in mg please) and how often?

4. what is your activity level? What do you do in the way of housework, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc., and

5. what kind of PT exercises and exercises at home are you doing? How much and how often? (and detailed details would be appreciated, please! **Reps, sets and sessions** and all that)

** If you're not familiar with this, it goes like so:
1 lift of your leg = 1 rep (repetition)
5 reps and then a brief rest = 1 set
5 sets and finishing = 1 session.

 

[Josephine]

Oops - forgot this one too!

Can you tell me the exact site of your pain using this chart?
Please note the instructions in the smaller image

 

[Birdie53]

@Josephine --Ok the crying thing I had on my list already. Don't think it will take any acting.have everything written down in my little book. He is used to my lists!
1. Posterior approach. This is a revision-- original 7 years ago.
2. Pain levels with meds about 5 ---without meds 8 or 9-- throbbing,stabbing,sore,swelling and stiff
3. Oxycodone 20-40 milligrams up to 8 a day. Right now taking one every 4 hours--also flexeril 2mg up to 3 day
Also have fentanyl patch 50 mcg changed every 48 hours,Gralise ( release form of gabapentin) 1800 msg day and cymbalta 60 mg day -- all these for fibromyalgia pain.
4. Up until about a week ago I was doing light housework some short shopping trips and walking with a normal gait and speed up to about 1/2 mile-- with little to no pain (11 weeks out) was also beginning to go to the golf course to putt.
5. No PT. Doctor did not want pt to mess with hip yet. He just wanted me to walk as much as possible. He said I had a lot of bone healing to do.
6. D-L5F E-L5F F-L5F G AND H L5F pain emcompasses knee a lot above knee (about 4 inches to knee cap)
So pain radiating about the entire length of my femur.

Was walking great one day and then the next night I almost suddenly could not walk without a tremendous amount of pain. It has been the same or worse since then which was about a week and a half ago. Probably should have tried to get in but thought it would go away and already had a scheduled appt for tomorrow.
I have not been doing anything since the problem started just limping around the house.

Oh yes and it is painful whenever I put weight on it or try to turn or pick up my leg like to get into the shower or bed or get up or down from sitting.

Thanks Josephine for your time.

 

[Josephine]

5. No PT. Doctor did not want pt to mess with hip yet. He just wanted me to walk as much as possible.

You're telling me you've never done any exercises at all? How interesting.

I make this as your site of pain and clearly is related to the quads muscle, tendon and on down to the knee.

I would have said this was because of exercises such as high marching on the spot and similar but since you didn't do any, I'm afraid I'm flummoxed.

 

[Birdie53]

@Josephine nope no PT. I assumed if things weren't going well by the time I reached a certain point he would order it. I am pretty athletic so he knew I would incorporate swimming and simple yoga and golf as he let me. Actually I was doing great. I was getting a lot of flexibility back and walking so much better than before the surgery and all the goals for doing it had reallyT been met well. Then whatever happened happened. Let me add one other spot to the really bad pain area.
CL5f CL6f DL6F
Sharp stabbing pains and also constant pain especially going from sitting to standing and toileting ,putting weight on it ,and walking and turning. Anyway this is all probably wasting your precious time since I am going to ortho tmrw but maybe it will help someone else later at some time when we find out what it is.

I will check in tmrw and update. Again your time is valuable and I appreciate it so much!
Not surprised that it is stumping you-- I seem to have a track record for strange health "things"

My biggest fear is that this will go on and on. It took almost a year of diagnosis and different therapies, doctors etc before the decision was made that I needed a revision. I am grateful it was not made hastily but I am running out of steam. Ok good night and thx!

 

[Legin]

Good luck with meeting

Legin THR Sep 14

 

[forbesy]

Hi Birdie

I have also went through a revision last week and am sorry to hear about your pain and problems, I really do hope things can be sorted out and you can be pain free. When confronted by the surgeon before my op he went through a list of things that could go wrong then got me to sign a form to say I understood this was a more difficult op getting the old replacement out to put the new one in.

Billy

 

[Josephine]

Like this? This is what I was expecting you to say last time. This is clearly Trochanteric bursitis and is very painful.
Someone like your GP should give you an injection of cortisone in the bursa area. It works a treat.

 

[Birdie53]

@Legin thx for the support!
@forbesy thanks for the support. Yes I had the same conversation with my surgeon. Since he was the one that did my first replacement we have a pretty good relationship. He did a great job of resolving the problems I had before the revision. So it is really a bummer to have everything halted suddenly. Moving on-- will see what's next today.
Thank you your support is really appreciated!

 

[Birdie53]

@Josephine actually it's the other way. From l4f up to l5f and then up to l6 f and pain radiating down thigh to knee.
He took the bursa out in another surgery thinking pain was coming from there so could it still be that?
You are so good. Going to write that down and mention it anyway!
Thx

 

[Josephine]

Well, if you have no bursa then obviously that's not quite it. BUT you still have the ilio-tibial band which appears to be the culprit - as it is with a TB anyway. Since the IT band and the quads are very closely related, it would seem reasonable to suppose that whatever the root cause is, it's affecting them both, as you can see here

 

[Birdie53]

I saw my surgeon today and spent quite a lot of time discussing my issues and both he and his assistant ( who has also been treating me for the last 7 years) listened separately and talked to me which was good because it gave me a chance to get all the information out to them. They seemed pretty concerned but after they took X-rays and we discussed them I felt better. The hip looks really good and the bone graft is already healed-- can already see the difference. He felt good about that and said it did not look like a fracture but said that due to what I had been experiencing they needed to treat it like a fracture to be sure. He put me on crutches and wants me to do no weight bearing for two weeks and then come back.
Considering how well he knows me and since he put both my first hip in and the revision I have a lot of confidence in him. He said I could work out on the stationary bike but that was it. So feeling a little better hopefully this will get better and I will be back on track again. I am at least a little less terrified
Good weekend to everyone and will keep posting hopefully only good news.