THR Pain popping out

[Allycat]

Wow! I wonder if anyone takes pics during the surgery? And if they did, would we want to see?? When I was complaining to my dad about the backless nightie, he said forget that, as soon as you are under, you're naked and just a piece of meat. Lovely!! Although a pic of me with my leg pulled out at a weird angle, or with my knee bent right up would be priceless!
Ally

 

[sissy46]

Cool! After I read your post, I dug out my op report and read it again in case I missed the box cutter part. My OS didn't use a box cutter, but I did get a corkscrew in the femoral head:rolleyes:

My op report was extremely detailed, 3 pages long.

He said there was end-state osteoathritis, osteophytes, and exposed bone. Ewwww, no wonder I was limping.

 

[dede62]

Allycat I think one of our mid-winter bonesmarties (maybe Nannieannie?) had pictures taken (something about a daughter doing an internship or something like that). Then I think it was brought up that during spinal anesthesia that you can talk in your sleep. That one worried me as I'm prone to talking in my sleep anyway, so Lord knows what I might have said. They might be sworn to secrecy, so I may never know.

 

[Poppet]

I have a sneaking suspicion that I was a chatter box in the OR... My OS nicknamed me Miss Perky....

 

[Giraffe44]

When I stand up for longer than a few seconds I find that I have shifted my weight to my no-operated side. If my legs are close together this is almost impossible to rectify. If I spread them out I can consciously shift my weight to the operated side but still find it difficult to distribute the weight evenly. Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do about it? Thanks for any help.

 

[sharonslp]

Hmm. I still have trouble just standing for more than a few minutes. I do spread my legs and get the weight evenly distributed, but in a minute or two I have to shift and move and then try again. Just standing gets me agitated. It isn't pain per se....but I am uncomfortable for sure. i need to walk or I need to sit.

Not sure why it would be so hard to distribute weight evenly for you, unless you have pain still. Let's call on the expertise of alexthecat and see what she says about this.

Sharon

 

[alexthecat]

It's actually very normal to stand with your weight unevenly distributed. Watch for this the next time you're waiting on line. You'll see people droop one side of the pelvis and take most of the weight onto that leg. After a few minutes they'll switch sides.

So, you're doing the first bit normally. The switching-sides thing isn't happening for you though. My guess is that your gluteus medius muscle, which is commonly impacted by THR, is weak. That would prevent you shifting your weight on the THR leg. You can strengthen it by doing side leg lifts and clamshell exercises.

You're very astute to notice this, BTW. I bet a lot of people have the same issue and never realise it.

 

[Giraffe44]

Thanks Sharon and Alex. I agree with you Alex about the leg weakness. It must be when I would normally shift the weight that I notice something's wrong. I'll try the exercises.

 

[alexthecat]

Keep us posted on that! Now that you've mentioned it, I wonder if other people will start noticing that they do this too.

Another exercise is to practice standing on your right leg. Just bend your left knee to get that foot off the ground and see if you can stand one-legged. You may find that your pelvis droops on one side. That's caused by weakness in the gluteus medius and should improve as you strengthen that muscle.