THR Recovery from June 11th LTHR surgery

Doing a little more at a time would be good, but we all tend to bite off too much too soon. I was a slow learner but one thing I did figure out was that quality was more important than quantity. Doing anything we label as PT whether it be walking or any other movements concentrate on form. I called it learning to walk again and since I considered it starting from scratch why not do it right. A new pair of shoes was important too for a good start with a clean slate. Shoes with a wear pattern will effect your walking. I constantly had to remind myself to slow down and stand up straight.
Thank you. All great points. Yes, I did a lot of reading of this site before I actually had my THR and one of the big ones was to start with new shoes so it was one of the first things I did and heel to toe walking to eliminate any potential limping from before surgery. I am currently doing around 5-8 minutes of PT exercises, leg swings sideway, backwards and forward on both sides followed by side to side step repetitions. I've learned not to walk immediately after doing my PT and give myself a break currently. My wife tells me that I'm walking well with no limp compared to before surgery so I'm very happy with it.
 
Day 1 of Week 6 post surgery today. Some things to share.

  • If you are taking extra strength Tylenol which I was up through the end of week 3, you might also have found extra strength Tylenol PM which I was using at night and continued to use post the end of Week 3. When taking it at night, I was taking 1000 mg (2) of Tylenol PM. This was working out ok up to mid this week (Week 5) when I started getting dizzy in the middle of the night and was waking up in the morning with the same woozy, lightheaded feeling that eventually started dragging further into the late morning. Very uncomfortable, similar to the symptoms of low blood pressure.
    • 2 doses of Benadryl which is effectively what this is, is a LOT of Benadryl and had not realized it. So I cut back to 1 nightly and I am not having the same after effects.
    • Still sleeping on my good side and have gotten used to it and sleeping on my back.
  • I had gotten nervous about doing 3-4k steps because it felt different than earlier in my recovery process.
    • DUH, I'm not on any pain relief of any kind during the day which is good but also means that it is going to feel different than when I was taking something for pain. 4k steps yesterday.
    • I'm going to keep my steps to 4k or under until next week.
  • I can now walk up the stairs with complete steps instead of up with the good foot followed by the bad foot. I still use the bad foot first coming down stairs and the shuffle. And I use the cane to do so.
  • Was able to do some strimming in the back garden yesterday to help the wife and without the cane. Our back garden is horrible and I had to get on to her for trying to kill herself with the lawn mower on a really steep slope. She just had a mole removed from her arm and was trying to do it one handed which is hard with 2 hands, never mind one. Working stability on the hip was interesting during that experience. Lots of small careful steps.
  • Still not confident enough to walk any of the dogs. Smallest is 50lbs, she would probably be ok and the largest is 150 lbs - Heck no.
  • Speaking of blood presssure, blood pressure is still down 10-15 points on both diastolic and systolic since surgery. This was an unexpected bonus. Last measure yesterday morning was 125/71 and its been consistently in that ball park. Woo..Hoo :)
 
Ok, I have a real question for all of the folks out there for the first time in recovery and this one is concerning to me. I'm on the last day of week 7 of recovery and thankfully I do have an appt scheduled with my ortho today as a previously arranged follow-up.

Everything is going very well on the surface. No pain but I am conscious of my hip when I start walking at first. I'm getting to the point where I walk without the cane more than with the cane inside the house. Outside when walking, I have a very light grip on the cane and mostly it is not really used for support at all. Its more psychological at this point but I do sometimes have to rely on it. I'm doing around 5-7k steps daily of which 3-4k of those are from a consistent walk session.

My blood pressure post surgery was practically perfect for 3-4 weeks 123-127 over 75-80.

Here's the bad part. Started getting dizzy spells in mid week 5. Thought it was hydration, it wasn't. Realized I was still taking 2 * 500mg extra strength Tylenol pm at night and that's a lot, stopped that and it wasn't that although it was not quite as bad. Start of week 7 (this week), realized Aspirin is an NSAID and they had me taking 325 * 2 of them through this week. Stopped that. Felt better but still have dizziness sometimes. It's not bad, I'm just super aware of it because I'm typically very clear minded. Was sick way back in my past and I know what "foggy brain" feels like.

BP is consistently now reading 150-160 over 100 using a wrist cuff monitor. Has me freaked out. I'm asking the doctor today and was considering visiting my physician but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this?
 
Hmm, no real answers for that question! Glad to see that you are seeing your Ortho Dr today and maybe he will offer some guidance. Even though I wonder if he is just going to recommend that you see your Primary Care Doctor for the dizziness.

For what it's worth, my BP readings are always high with the home monitors... will be interesting to see what the Dr's get when they take it today.

Keep us posted! Hopefully it's something related to your recent surgery and no big deal.
 
Hello @Kevininnc
Happy Friday to you. Wondering how you’re feeling today? Hopefully your follow-up visit
with your OS went well and you received some reassurance in regard to your blood pressure.
Wishing you a good weekend! :)
 
I'm wondering how the visit went also! Hopefully some good news and you are ready for a relaxing weekend.
 
Thank you for the best wishes.

As expected, the surgeon does not believe it is related to the surgery and this is another case of correlation is not causation. I'm going to keep an eye on it while I adjust my personal habits a bit.

On another note, the surgeon does not want to see me for another 8 months so everything has gone as expected which is really good news.

I'm now walking outside without using a cane. I carry the cane horizontally in my hand in case I have a sudden onset of weakness in my hip/knee leg or wherever but I've gone 4k steps without the cane in one go. I'm getting there. I'm in the middle of Week 8 post surgery now.

I actually mowed the front and back lawn on Saturday. I was nervous about the back lawn because it has a steep hill and in the best of health in 90 degrees it is a hard job. My wife has been attempting to do it during my recovery and hating it. I had no issues and my hip felt very stable pushing the mower up and restraining when going down the hill. And I was fine the next day and that Sunday was the first day I walked 4k steps without the cane.

Only task I have not attempted at this point is dog-walking because they are all big but I think I'm getting very close. I'm also still avoiding lifting heavy objects.

Question: At what point in their recovery have others started doing exercises like stationary bike?
 
Sounds like some positive news! That will help ease some of the worries, yes? Sometimes that is over 1/2 the battle. Well, at least for me it was.

I didn't bike, just walked.. a lot! But will say that when I had some physical therapy for my neck that was really troublesome during my recovery, the PT always started me on a stationary bike and I had no difficulty with it. I would need to go back through my notes but am guessing that I began the PT and bike at around 4-6 weeks.

That is wonderful about the mowing and it not causing any payback the following day. I found, as many others, that doing things slowly and waiting a day in between to add anything else helped to keep the ODIC membership away.
 
Happy Three Month Anniversary!
I hope you’re doing well. Please leave an update as time allows. We’d like to hear how you’re progressing. All the best to you!
@Kevininnc
 
This is week 17 post surgery. Life is pretty much back to normal although there are some things I have not started back doing yet.

Started back stair climbing last week and did 260 flights of stairs 3 days in a row Mon-Wed in around 39 minutes. Had a bit of sensation in the hip on Wednesday afternoon which prompted me not to do 4 days in a row. I did 4 days of climbing altogether last week. Cannot get more functional exercise than that.

Did the same thing this week and last Wednesday to this Wednesday, the hip is already stronger because yes, I am conscious of the hip but not like last Wednesday. I'll repeat the rest day on Thursday this week just like last week and will continue this way until I can comfortably do 4 days in a row etc.

Not biking yet and not back doing martial arts again yet. I am stretching again for martial arts pretty comfortably but have a good way to go. No jogging yet either.

Everything I have read indicates the hip will be as strong as it is going to get under normal circumstance 6 months post surgery so I'll hold off on the high impact stuff until then.

Otherwise, life is normal aside from having 30 lbs of blubber to lose :)
 

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