THR Proud member of Double hippie club

[GrumpyMCO]

Today began with a 330 am alarm for my 5am check in for 7am surgery.
Now I'm a proud member of the Double Hippie club.

Some discussions about general vs spinal block and/or nerve block between the Anesthesiologist and my Orthopedic surgeon were a bit concerning, but I got it all clarified when I spoke to the Anesthesiologist one on one.

Surgeon told my wife everything went great and I was back in recovery room around 930 AM.

I might have broke the record for joining the ODIC when I said I felt good enough to talk to the Physical therapist to go over my PT exercises. around 1230. He took me on a 50' walk to some.stairs and I became pale as a ghost along the way. Last time they only had me go around the recovery room. In hindsight I'm blaming him!

Back to the room via a wheelchair and first BP reading was 40/22.

IV back in and got some ice water and ginger ale to bring the BP up.

it was another 2.5 hrs until I felt good enough to leave. Unfortunately the pain killers wore off an hour into the 2.5 and I quicky had the wife ask for some more pain relief so it was getting pretty bad. They were out of Morphine so Dilaudid and Tylenol it was. Wow, the dilaudid was quick and effective.

I'm determined to
A) Not anger my wife by pushing too hard
B) Stay on the outside looking in on the ODIC, and
C) Not anger my wife by pushing too hard.

 

[mendogal]

I'm mightily impressed! It takes most of us a good few days to get up the nerve to join the ODIC!!!

Welcome to recovery and the development of your Patience muscle. (Don’t anger your wife!)

 

[GrumpyMCO]

I'm mightily impressed! It takes most of us a good few days to get up the nerve to join the ODIC!!!

Welcome to recovery and the development of your Patience muscle. (Tip: don't anger your wife!)

Well I have been told I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, so that is probably a contributing factor.

 

[djklaugh]

@GrumpyMCO It's wonderful to see you here on the recovery side (again). I like your personal "rules" for recovery. And for a refresher here, again, are the BoneSmart articles and suggestions for having a relatively easy recuperation.

Hip Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary.

2. Control discomfort:

rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
3. Do what you want to do BUT

a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

Activity progression for THRs
6. Access these pages on the website

Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications
Wound Care In Hospital

The Recovery articles:

Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery

Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then not to excess.

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.

 

[CricketHip]

My goodness what a busy day you’ve had.
Especially posting on your recovery so soon!
I’m impressed and also reminds me of my recoveries.
It’s so exhilarating to get through surgery day and even though you have already tiptoed into the ODIC you sound very positive.
So happy for you and let’s keep your wife happy also!!
I bet she’s a saint and will be super helpful.
Happy icing

 

[SurreyGirl]

Ice ice ice and don’t upset your wife

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Excellent advice SurreyGirl!
Spent first night on recliner snuggling with the pad of my ice machine.
Big dog played recovery partner again and was pretty active through the night, which wasn't a big deal as sleep was pretty sporadic. Pico bandage wont hold a seal in any position other than fully prone or standing, so batteries came out about 3am and I tried to have my wife apply more tape on the areas most likely to leak. Its still sucking every 5 seconds, batteries will come out again tonight. I guess.
My Orthopedic Navigator Nurse told me it's fine to turn it off if it's impacting your sleep, just try and maximize its operation when awake.

Started my phone app based PT. Yowsa, those supine heel slides are painful, I cheated with the leg lifter, will keep cheating until pain diminishes.

All in all not a bad day 1.

Day 2 on the left hip was the worst one, I slept pretty much the entire day.

So let's see how I goes!

 

[Eman85]

Started my phone app based PT. Yowsa, those supine heel slides are painful, I cheated with the leg lifter, will keep cheating until pain diminishes.

Why?

 

[myglasshalffull]

Happy 2nd hip is behind you, ice ice and more ice and no exercises please!
You are a veteran, get up, walk about, use bathroom, back and ice and relax.
You know better.
Otherwise ODIC here you come!
I wish you the best.

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Started my phone app based PT. Yowsa, those supine heel slides are painful, I cheated with the leg lifter, will keep cheating until pain diminishes.

Why?

I'm just trying not to do anything that is painful, but still work on mobility and the PT exercises. Using the leg lifter to pull the heel towards my hip for the heel slides seems to be less painful. That's probably just an issue in the early days of recovery when the leg is still really tight. It actually feels a lot better once I get a few reps in on the heel slides and the thigh muscles are more stretched.

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Happy 2nd hip is behind you, ice ice and more ice and no exercises please!
You are a veteran, get up, walk about, use bathroom, back and ice and relax.
You know better.
Otherwise ODIC here you come!
I wish you the best.

I appreciate the "re-calibration" on exercises! And you're are right, of course, I should know better. This time I did not have general anesthesia so I've been feeling a lot better mentally & physically.
I'm fortunate to have my wife here as well to "re-calibrate" my activity level. This morning she was looking at me and I could tell she had something she wanted to say after I came out from letting the dog outside. Finally she blurted out "What's Next?! Stairs?!"

 

[Eman85]

Experience should be the best teacher. I learned from my first and took the easy painfree route with my second THR. Guess which worked out better? guess which hip is actually stronger?

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Recovery Buddy is on duty

 

[mendogal]

Ooooh you have a Good Buddy there!
If you want pleasant pet distraction, you can contribute to this social thread on BoneSmart

https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/pets-and-our-recovery.20405/page-13

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Day 3 was a bit of regression from Day 2, but I expected ups and downs. 2:49 AM I was up and unable to go back to bed. So Hallmark Christmas movies it is with some Oxycodone.

I tried to make that dosage the last oxy, but by 5 pm I had rethought that strategy.

Based on the recovery guidelines and other posters feedback, I've nixed the PT exercises with the exception of the ones that cause no pain.

Looking forward to a relaxed weekend, icing and elevating with heel pumps and short walks around the house. This time around I have no desire to transition off the walker, but I am looking forward to walking outside.

 

[SurreyGirl]

Slow and steady does it! The first week is definitely the toughest but there is light at the end of all this…

 

[Mojo333]

Hi @GrumpyMCO
Back On the Healing Side, I see.
These are indeed the toughest days... were for me.
Your strategy sounds very smart to me...
In regard to the oxycodone, is that your last one.
I know I was given a one week prescription, and the doctors seem to want to limit it to one week at a time.
Mine was willing to send in another prescription if I needed it (and I did)
Staying out of pain and comfortable, short walks, lots of liquids (and stool softeners for the pain med consequences) and lots of Ice was the best strategy for me for the first weeks!
Hope your Saturday is a better day

 

[GrumpyMCO]

Thanks SurreyGirl and MOJO for the words of encouragement.

SurreyGirl - i actually married an Essex Girl I met while stationed in London with the US Navy, I was fortunate as she left her white handbag and stilettos in the UK when we moved to the US.

MOJO, I've got more Oxy, I was just being frugal with them as the digestive side effects are "annoying"

On the brighter side, I'm gonna leverage my recuperation to watch the Army Navy game today!

 

[Mojo333]

Good for you.... I don't have a dog in the fight ....So, Go Navy

 

[springs12]

@GrumpyMCO Welcome to the club! I did my right in June and my left in November. Right still has some tenderness, but is doing alright. The left hurts, but is tolerable and doesn't hurt anything like the right did. Crazy how that works. I don't know if you have muscle relaxants, or if you've talked to your surgeon about it, but I found with both hips, taking one at bedtime helped with pain management tremendously. I hardly took my pain meds aside from the motrin and tylenol at first. However, I was done with round the clock on both of those with this left hip after a week. The right was different. Haha.

I ask myself if the pain feels more inflammatory or if it feels like it is coming from my muscles being tight and pulling...if muscular pulling, then I take that muscle relaxant. Just a thought????

I hope you continue to recover well! I switched to a cane at 2 weeks, but I will stay with the cane until I can walk smoothly...probably around 10 weeks.