Become an Insider

THR Recovery in progress

Status
Not open for further replies.
I just did a rather extensive web search and can't find ANY consistency amid what's posted by U.S. medical facilities, orthopedists or societies of orthopedists regarding the necessity for "lifelong" hip precautions for those who have had posterior hip replacement surgery.

Medical opinions on this appear to be all over the lot. It's rather amazing.

BB
 
There are a million inconsistent rules floating around out there, and someone on this forum is breaking one of them every minute of the day. Which does not mean I am recommending that you ignore what your surgeon says. I do recommend you press him to tell you the reasons for the restrictions he wants you to follow. Are they specific to you, because of a specific issue you have? Or are they the generic rules passed on for decades now because it is better to be safe than sorry? Perhaps by breaking rules, the implant won't last as long....depending on one's age, there may a revision in the future. Perhaps by breaking rules, there is more risk of dislocation...but risk is a very relative term. Risk doesn't mean you will dislocate. And there is a huge difference between crossing your legs for a little while and going bungee jumping.

Everyone has to make their own decisions about this. And everyone has to listen to their body. In the early months, don't push it. We're all in a hurry to get back to our new and improved lives, but it's a much greater likelihood that overzealousness now will create soft tissue problems than dislocation. Later on, you'll all figure it out for yourself.

@Dmcfad2 I dance vigorously. And the pain you are referring to....it occurs to me to ask....have you bought new shoes yet? A lot of have found that wearing our pre-surgery shoes were the cause of pain. We maladapted our gait for a long time before surgery, and our shoes adapted right along with us. Now, you're adjusting to a new and normal gait, but your shoes can't make that adjustment. If you need any justification to go shoe shopping, this is it. No guarantee that it will resolve the problem, but the worst case scenario is that you still get a new pair of shoes.

Sharon
 
@sharonslp Sharon, I haven't worn any new shoes yet. I have a brand new pair of Nike's my husband bought me for Christmas that I haven't worn. I'm going to start wearing them on my walks to see if it helps. The rest of the time, I wear flip flops. I know that's probably the worst thing to wear, but I live in San Diego, after all! :SUNsmile: (I do buy flip flops with arch support in them.) I have a new pair of those, too, so I'll try both! I appreciate your suggestions. By the way, I took the Tylenol 1000 mg. regularly today as you suggested in my thread and it has helped with the pain a bit. I'm going to continue that for awhile, too. Thank you!
 
@sharonslp I am glad to hear that you can still "dance vigorously" with your hip! That gives me some hope. I'm not going to go out today and start a new dance class, but I just hope that over time I will be able to gradually resume my normal activities and not have to give up a lot of things because of this THR. I've already given up my all-time favorite activity which is running. That's a big enough adjustment for me, but didn't expect to have lots of other limitations as well.

@Dmcfad2 that's funny that you mention having pain because just the last few days I have been having increased pain, but for me it is outside of the thigh, in the area of the incision. I think it may be related to swelling for me because I have also had increased swelling. When I'm swollen even the low impact of walking hurts with each step. I'm guessing it's just because I've been doing a lot more between going back to work and being more active at home. I believe my approach was anterolateral also--my surgeon made the incision on the side but approached the surgery from the front...is that what anterolateral means? I don't know how normal the pain is at this point, but I definitely still have some. Not sure whether or not we are having the same type of pain though. I am hoping that as I gradually become more active and get back into a routine, both the exercise and diet will improve. It's been hard for me to get very motivated about diet since the surgery, and I think, like you, that it's because I'm not getting much exercise.
 
@mommyof3 I still have a lot of swelling in my thigh, knee and calf, too. It has been there ever since surgery and has only gotten a little bit better. I was thinking that it might be related to my pain, also. I am sorry you are having pain, but it does make me feel like I'm not abnormal! LOL!

I wanted to tell you that I had to give up running about 18 months ago and it was a hard one for me! I used to do half marathons and I loved it. When I quit running, I started spin classes and that was giving me my endorphin rush. I am looking forward to getting back to spin. That is my goal right now.
 
I hit my 6 week post op mark yesterday. Its going very good. Off pain meds as of two weeks ago, driving, riding a bike for 30:00 a day, still doing PT 3x's a week. I did 7 straight days at outpatient PT, the day after I got out of the hospital, and it was really hard, but really paid off. I just want to wear lace up shoes again, so tired of wearing loafers. Good luck, after reading other folks stories it seems we all heal at a different rate.
 
I'm now about 3 1/2 months post THR and have been doing well. I'm pretty much doing everything that I did before the surgery with the exception of running, and putting in full days on my feet at work and then coming home to full evenings of toddler-wrangling...which is more challenging than a day at work. Pain has been manageable with occasional incision pain after being on my feet for long periods of time. Taking Mobic daily and an occasional hydrocodone if I'm really uncomfortable.

My question is that about a week ago I started having a new sort of pain in my hip. It's not the same joint pain that I had pre-surgery, but quite uncomfortable. It is in the upper, outer thigh, centered around the middle of my incision, sometimes moving into the back of the hip as well. It also seems to be focused around the same area that I have a sort of popping/snapping sound. I can feel, hear, and see some sort of muscle/tendon snap back and forth when I due an abduction motion, climb stairs, or sometimes just walk. It's feels very irritated around that area and I'm not sure what to do besides icing--I'm already on an anti-inflammatory. Any thoughts on what this could be or suggestions on what might help? I'm tagging @Dmcfad2 because I saw you had some pain that sounds similar?
 
@mommyof3 Sorry you are dealing with this issue. Mine is a little different then what you describe. My noise/feeling is inside my hip at the joint. I can actually make it happen by moving my pelvis forward. My doctor determined it is the ball moving in and out of the socket. He called it shucking and said not to worry about it, that it would probably go away eventually. I did a lot of walking today and really noticed it. It doesn't hurt, but is annoying and I think it makes it harder for me to walk properly.
My other issue is thigh pain, which is unrelated, according to my OS, but I still wonder about that. My 3 month X-rays looked good. He thinks that is from it band tendonitis. This pain moves around my thigh, sometimes in front, sometimes in back, but it is always there. My pain is getting better, but I still find it uncomfortable to walk too much. It has been like this for me ever since my surgery. I am beginning to wonder if that's just how it's going to be for me. I am almost 4 months and still having issues. I hope you figure out what is going on with you. Good luck! Keep us posted.
 
I'm back with one problem solved...and now another new one.

About a month ago I wrote about having thigh pain and after seeing the OS last week, was diagnosed with greater trochanteric bursitis. this was GREAT news to me because I thought maybe the pain I was having was as good as I was going to get. He thought it was fairly inflamed and wanted to go ahead and do a cortisone injection. it helped a lot very quickly, and I was feeling minimal pain for the first time in years!

But then the next day I went for a walk and a new pain started in my groin area of that same leg. It feels like a stabbing pain. I hobbled around for a couple days, barely able to put weight on it or lift my leg. It is a bit betterr now (i can walk now). It sounds me a lot like the description of iliopsoas tendinitis. But I had not had pain there since before surgery...until the cortisone injection for the bursitis. Now I feel like I'm worse then where I started. Are these related in anyway? does it make any sense that treating one would irritate the other? Or just a coincidence? I feel like it has just been one thing after another!
 
Yay for the shot helping the bursitis, but boo for a new pain. In the first year or two, soft tissue pains can be a moving target. It's much too easy to bring on a bout of tendonitis because we get so giddy when we have a day or two of zero pain that we quickly overdo and strain something. Most of the time, if we just retreat to basics for a while....rest, ice, maybe pain meds, avoid the actions that strained the area....we get back to safe ground and progress from there.

But whether the shot itself contributed...??? I've never done cortisone shots for anything. I'm tagging @Josephine because I know she has had them; quite successfully. Let's see if she thinks there could be any connection.

Sharon
 
mommyof3 said:
was diagnosed with greater trochanteric bursitis
Click to expand...
It's just Trochanteric bursitis
mommyof3 said:
But then the next day I went for a walk and a new pain started in my groin area of that same leg.It sounds me a lot like the description of iliopsoas tendinitis. But I had not had pain there since before surgery ... until the cortisone injection for the bursitis.Are these related in anyway?
Click to expand...
Well, there's no rule that says you can't develop another condition at the same time! Interestingly, I once had trochanteric bursitis and piriformis at the same time (that's no picnic, let me tell you!) I had a shot in the bursitis and it resolved the piriformis too. Though you could say I was just lucky.

For that reason, I'd say you've been UNlucky to get TB and IPT at the same time.
Here's some stretches you could try Iliopsoas syndrome
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Corganics CBD

Members online

Total: 932 (members: 1, guests: 931)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom