Hi,
glynis ... your BoneSmart compadres are cruising with you in spirit, making wisecracks about all the fun details for THR recoveries. It sounds like a wonderful trip and I hope you'll check in if you have time to let us know all about it. It is indeed mysterious how recovering from this surgery has often been described in such "easy peasey" terms. I suppose we can blame the orthopedic surgery world for some of that? But what I can't understand is when patients describe it that way. Take, for example, the comments that crop up whenever there's a glowing and glowingly underreported newspaper article about the miracles of THR and TKR (again, lumping the two in the same category--when we all know that a TKR is quite a bit harder than a THR). The comments seem to mainly run in the "I'm walking on water" camp, as if the patient either has no memory of the twists and turns in the recovery road or didn't experience them.
I had an unplanned six-month checkup with my OS last week. Thanks to the good thinking of
LeeApril26, I think it was, I made an appointment with him about an "issue" with my other hip and scheduled X-rays for it. Which was all legit, of course. I really did/do have concerns. But he acted like I was there as well for a six-month review, of sorts, for the op hip. So it was reassuring. He had told me at six weeks that I needn't come back for a full year, and I was aghast at that. So LeeApril I think it was suggested that I cook up a reason to go back, since the OS said of course I could come back sooner than one year if I had "issues." Anyway, for any of you whose OS also said "don't come back for a year," don't take that as the last word.
The good news is that my other hip's joint space is well enough preserved that he does not think I need it replaced for now and maybe not for a while. When pressed, he did say he thought someday it would have to be replaced. He said he wants to see me in six months for both hips, so it will be Xrayed again at that time. I then asked him why I have persistent pain on the outer hip area, always when going up stairs. He said he didn't know, but ruled out trochanteric bursitis, though he did say it could be trochanteric tendonitis or tenderness. He also thinks my lower-back pain is stemming from the back and not either hip and I have to get the back problems resolved first and foremost. So I am seeing a back specialist the OS recommended and who is with the same hospital. MRI and X-rays. Hope to get some solutions.
On a much better note, the last week was a low-pain week and I didn't even need any OTC "pills" (Tylenol or Advil). No ice or heat, either. I did much more walking last weekend, over hills and dales--well, city hills and dales, that is; in the park--and achieved a walking milestone that made me quite happy. It isn't a straight road--I'm not walking miles nonstop with zero pain. I walked half a mile up a hill; stopped and sat; walked 1.25 miles around a gravelly path; stopped and sat; walked a half mile down a hill and stopped and sat; walked another half mile, went into several stores, lugged grocery bags home. Not pain free, but not horrible pain. That's how it goes. It feels pretty like a change in endurance and ability and strength, but with what I think are logical limitations of a 60-year-old overweight, out-of-shape broad who has "other hip" problems on the horizon and back problems.
I'm a reactor: If I have a good or better week, my spirits soar and THEN it is easy for me to feel up about things. When I am having a lot of pain and cannot "ambulate" well or for long, I do not feel up and buoyed.
I am feeling pretty darn upbeat and optimistic about things ... because I'm having a good, low-pain week.
Hope some of this helps someone, somewhere in their quest to understand the twists and turns of this recovery.
And understand that other factors that have nothing to do with your hip--such as a bad back that's bad because it's bad--can limit how euphoric and hopeful you feel about the recovery of your operated hip.
Poppet ... I tried but was unable to post on your recovery thread, so I will tag you here. I thought of you, anyway, wondering how you are doing with various things, your health, your husband's health, the weather, your job, etc. And I thought of you again because I saw three instances in one week of people walking around on city streets with what looked like Nordic poles. Wondered if that is now a new trend. One woman definitely had a pre-op pain look about her and I felt for her. The others looked pretty hale and hearty. I hope you are doing okay. Please let us know. It's hard to know where to post directly to you. I've enjoyed reading your health and nutrition articles, too. Thank you for all you do.
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