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THR Reanda on the other side!

Love your post, made me smile. It’s cute.

I wish you safe travels, Reanda, and hope you’re able to manage any pain or discomfort that crops up while away from home so you enjoy your time there. Tell us all about it when you get back. Stay safe! :)
@Reanda
 
Hi all, 5 months today. I survived my little holiday, and enjoyed it, although I was in some discomfort due to a fair amount of walking being required for excursions, but took walking stick and was cautious. I obtained Assistance at airport, being wheeled about past all the queues! (that was great fun!). The hotel kindly provided me with ice so I elevated and iced my hip each evening. The break did me good, and I'm glad to say that no bad repercussions seemed to have occurred. I've been back several days and taking it easy but have started up my walks again doing about 2 miles per day. Apart from 1 very sharp pain in hip when forced to run across a road with car screaming towards me... - which gave me the shock of my life and I had to sit on a nearby wall for a minute to recover - other than that, I'm not in daily pain just soreness and aching which can ease up as the day progresses, or sometimes it gets worse there's no ryme or reason.
But on the whole I'm not so anxious about something being wrong. I'm convinced that it's my muscles/tendons that are the culprit and are needing a long time to recover. I'm not expecting pain free living for some months, I think that's my time line. Not the way I had envisaged, and my plans for the summer will need a tweak, so be it.
Hope all your recoveries are going well.
 
Happy Five Month Anniversary!
Great news that you were able to enjoy your holiday without much pain. It’s good to hear that your anxiety has decreased since you have many more months to show progress and improvement. Patience is definitely key in this recovery. Wishing you a great rest of the week. Stay connected, we appreciate your updates!
@Reanda
 
I’m so glad you went, and that it worked out well. I can well imagine the fun of being wheeled past the airport queues! What were the other highlights? Did the Titanic exhibition live up to expectations?

I am sure that the break has done you good mentally, as you seem much more positive. I think you and I both have to accept that this recovery will be slower than we would like, but we are both getting there.

I’m going to send you a PM with a suggestion about physiotherapy.
 
The Titanic Exhibition... I would so like to see that.:loveshwr:

As Klassy said, re-setting expectations about recovery timelines can be frustrating, but I think giving our bodies additional time to let those prosthetics settle and soft tissue to adjust is a smart thing to do.
Klassy said:
I’m going to send you a PM with a suggestion about physiotherapy.
Click to expand...
I do hope you will keep the information on this thread, vs PM, as we never know how this information may help someone else down the line.
 
Thanks Layla and Klassy. Yes Titanic Exhibition was impressive, replicas of cabins and actual footage of embarkations, and mono-rail through a replica shipyard building the ship. The Antrim coast to fishing villages, eating fish just caught from the Atlantic Ocean. And monolithic Giants Causeway where I was lucky to get a seat on a buggy to go down the steep cliffside to view the spectacle. Plus Belfast itself with the 'peace walls' remnants of the 'troubles'.
It was a matter of mitigation the whole time, with lots of resting, sitting, and asking for help when needed, which people are only too willing to give I found. However I've cancelled another longer holiday booked for May as the stress of not knowing if I'm up to it is not worth it. I'll go to your PM Klassy - thanks.
 
Hi all, a little update as I continue to be patient with this recovery now 5.5 months. Boringly I still have some discomfort and aching, not too bad, but maybe I'm getting used to it, or maybe its a bit better, hard to know. On balance I feel some improvement because the last couple of weeks I've tackled things like mowing the lawn, and other gardening activities, which earlier in my recovery would have laid me up for days if not weeks! But nothing too bad happened other than being really tired and some extra soreness which lingered for a day or so. So this was a real test for the hip and required a fair amount of twisting and bending. But I'm needing to get on and take a few more risks now, so will just hope that the muscles around the hip which (Ive been told) are the cause of my soreness, will gradually improve providing I dont do anything too drastic. For me this a slow recovery but as long as I get there in the end I am choosing to be thankful for what I can do which is far more than I could do pre op. So its work in progress.
Hope your recoveries are going well.
 
Okay, that sounds promising. There's so much going on before, during and after a THR and the soft tissue can be slow and cranky. (kind of like me tonight!!)

I've heard several times from doctors, after a bad sprain, that it would take longer to heal than if I had fractured a bone.. Maybe if you visualize your hip as recovering from a bad sprain, it will be easier to give it some grace?
5 months is still a relatively short amount of time. I only mention it so you hopefully won't get discouraged.

I think maybe it's time for a visual: If you count each little train as a month post op, you will see where you currently are.

[Bonesmart.org] Reanda on the other side!
 
The Titanic exhibit sounds fantastic! I love exhibits like that. I’ve only been to two, both the traveling type, one was King Tut which I found fascinating and another was Jackie Kennedy’s wardrobe which actually put poor hubs to sleep on a bench while I stared at her clothes. :heehee:

You‘re probably wise to cancel your next trip to hopefully a later date. No sense in putting that stress on yourself, wondering if you’ll be able to handle it. Hopefully you can plan it at a later date once you’re further along so you can fully enjoy it.

It does seem you’re making decent progress and I like your patient attitude and the realization that you are improving, with the ability to do things you were unable to do before. You‘ll get there. I’m sure you’ve read here many times it can take a full year and even longer for some, well at 5.5 months you have time to go. Keep on truckin’ :wink::walking:
 
Thanks Layla. I'll 'keep truckin' - for sure...and keep attaching another carriage to the chuffing train - thanks CricketHip!
Not to jinx anything and I've been down this road before, but I seem to be improving.
Thats all I'm going to say now and will update in 13 days time when it'll be 6 months.
 
It’s good to hear your progress. It really is a workout for the patience muscles isn’t it.

I’m laughing at Layla’s report of the Jackie wardrobe exhibition, imagining a long line of benches to accommodate the husbands.
 
Well its 6 months since my THR. I always thought that by the summer I'd be well recovered and 'good to go' enabling me to do all kinds of things without pain or discomfort.
It's not exactly like that. I walk with caution and consciously think about gait and always try to practice heel toe walking. My gait has improved and I'm walking without a limp or swaying although my balance is not brilliant, it never was, so need to work more on balance for sure.
I don't run and don't walk too fast or too far. I'm still waiting to accomplish longer walks/hikes. If I try a longer walk of say 3-4 miles I need to sit down regularly and be mindful of discomfort and tiredness. Hills are difficult. I still get very tired, not nearly as much as in the beginning. My flexibility has improved even in the last 3 weeks which is reassuring as the new joint seems to be learning its job well.There's very little stiffness in the joint even when getting up in the morning. I can bend, touch my toes, squat, tie shoe laces, have baths.
I do these things cautiously. Nothing quickly. And I'm a speedy person by nature... . The reason for continued cautiousnsss is that discomfort exists most of the time at a low level but it doesn't take too much for discomfort to ratchet up to a more painful discomfort. Eg I picked up my grandson on his 3rd birthday 2 weeks ago and carried him a few paces, he loved it but my hip complained terribly for 3 days.
But in general there's some improvement and I have stopped getting stabbing pains.
A question : I still can't do a good stretch out of my operated leg. If I try a stretch, which I'm always wanting to do, it's painful deep inside the hip, feels like all the muscles are hurting. I use ice and heat which both help a bit, but only for short periods and this problem is not really improving. So I just don't stretch which is annoying. Is it really the case that muscles around the hip can take so long to repair and recover? It seems a long long time and I'm longing for it to go away. Would massage therapy help? Should I actually be resting as much as I am? I still havnt been swimming, which I could do but just not too keen on my local public swimming pool but that's the only one in my area so I guess I should go? I do like swimming.
One more thing, I'm finding it very difficult to lose the extra weight I put on. It's not a lot, but it bothers me and I'm not actually surprised as I do so much sitting around with feet up following any activities trying to be kind to hip muscles. When of course I'm dying to jump up and do another activity or long walk. I know that as soon as I'm able to do long brisk walks, that extra weight will soon go. But it's frustrating and another thing my 'patience muscle' has to contend with.
Good luck to all hippies out there.
 
If it makes you feel any better I have stiffness and soreness with both hips. With my right there are still certain positions that if I stretch it feels sore. I can do certain repetitive things that will cause different aches the next day. I know it's all old muscles that are set in their ways. The joint itself is great and causes no pain. The deep bone ache and sharp pains are long gone so it's a trade up to just have some stiffness and soreness. it would be nice to feel young again but I realize that's not happening.
We have our own Titanic exhibit here in TN, don't ask me why, it's not far from where I live.
 
This a brilliant update! Loads of positives to celebrate. Also lots of detail, which is good, because you can look back at your posts from a couple of months ago and marvel at how far you have come, and then in 2 months time you can repeat the exercise and marvel all over again.

I had a rummage in my Hip 1 diary, and found that at 6 and even 7 months I could walk well on the level, but not so well up, or, particularly, down hills. I was still going downstairs toddler style, my new hip was still clicking and I was stiff as anything. Healing was definitely continuing beyond a year for me.

The weight thing is hard. I was really disciplined, ate small portions of healthy food, did not drink alcohol or eat sugar for 4 months post op, but lately I seem to want to stuff myself, and I have put back the weight I lost. I think I have torn something major in my patience muscle.

My physiotherapist did some massage of my tight thigh muscles on my last visit and it really seemed to help.

I think you are resting the right amount ( except when lifting grandchildren!). Remember those stabbing pains? You rested, they left. Give them a little time to disappear over the horizon before you worry about too much rest.
 
I think you’re doing well, Reanda. Remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. At only six months post op, I’m sure you’ll enjoy more progress over the next eighteen months. Thanks for the update. Have a lovely week!
@Reanda
 
Klassy - thanks for your comments. The weight issue, I am much the same, I paid good attention to my diet post op eating healthily and (as advised by this forum) increasing my calorie intake a bit as our bodies need some extra for healing. Those extra calories do need reigning back in after a few weeks though, trouble is when you're feeling miserable with the constant waiting and being patient all the time, like you say, the patience muscle gives in and its tempting to snack whilst hanging around resting. I've read somewhere that 14 lbs is the average weight increase of people having a THR.
 
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