THR THR progress update 24 days post-surgery

Starmarie

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Hello there,
I’m new here. Glad to find this website! I had a RTHR on Aug 2 and feel I am doing quite well. Today is Day 16 post-op. Last week after my 2 week post-op with the OS my PT cleared me from the walker to a cane. I was glad at the time, but even with great gait training with the cane I am finding it difficult to walk due to pain when I put pressure on my surgery side. So, I went back to the walker for more support. I’m now using the walker mainly to get around my house and the cane in some areas where I can. I also started having a lot of middle back/back of shoulder area pain which I figured was due to the way I was walking with the cane.
My PT has been wonderful, only having me do minimal exercises, mostly to get my surgery leg lifting in preparation for my stairs eventually.
So, my question(s): Is walking with pain upon weight-bearing somewhat normal? Do I keep walking while I feel this pain or do I rest it? I’m only walking indoors a bit, maybe 500-600 ft (PT measured) and doing household tasks like easy food prep/showering/feeding cat. Thank you in advance for any tips/advice!
 
Hello, I'm three weeks out now. I wasn't allowed to take a walker home from hospital and was issued two sticks instead. I'm now off both in the house but take one with me if walking outside. No physio available for me which is OK so far. I focus on walking heel toe and not limping. Doesn't always work but, hey, it's a start!
I find that if I sit for too long my hip hurts for the first few steps but eases off if I walk further. It's almost as though I'm 'oiling' the joint by walking. I'm sure that's not it but that's what it feels like!
Good luck.
 
:wave:@Starmarie
:welome:to Bonesmart and congrats on your new hip.
These are early days and in order to get that new hip placed.... Here is a lot of trauma to soft tissue like muscles and tendons.
I particularly had pain at incision site and some very sore quads especially the first month.
So much so it, took me a bit before I realized that my actually hip pain was gone.
You are doing just fine with short walks and using your walker a bit longer....and will find things will keep improving so you can do more.
Regarding shoulder pain...Make sure your walker is proper height and when you get back to your cane, make sure it is as well.

My PT has been wonderful, only having me do minimal exercises, mostly to get my surgery leg lifting in preparation for my stairs eventually.
I hope these exercises are standing exercises.
I was able to do stairs toddler style right after surgery and marches were helpful.
Lifting my leg from a lying position was hard and unhelpful.

Take your time, relax, and know that down the road, you will be pain-free and loving it.

I will leave our post op guidelines below.
All Temporary, so hang in there.:friends:
 
I will leave you our Recovery Guidelines. Each article is short but very informative. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Just keep in mind all people are different, as are the approaches to this recovery and rehab. The key is, “Find what works for you.“ Your doctors, PTs and BoneSmart are available to help, but you are the final judge as to the recovery approach you choose.

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
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

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

6. Access to these pages on the website


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.
 
Thank you Mojo333. Yes, the exercises now are standing leg lifts, seated leg extension and toe taps at the bottom of my stairs. My in-home PTA is really good at correcting my walking form.

I’m glad I found bonesmart because my OS office is trying to push me to outpatient PT with their group and I’m really feeling that no more PT is the right choice for me at this time. I have 2 sessions left with my in-home PT and then I’m taking everyone’s advice here and just focusing on walking.
 
I find that if I sit for too long my hip hurts for the first few steps but eases off if I walk further. It's almost as though I'm 'oiling' the joint by walking. I'm sure that's not it but that's what it feels like!
Good luck.


yes, I have the same thing, start up pain from sitting too long. But still better than pre-op start up locking when sitting too long.
 
I have 2 sessions left with my in-home PT and then I’m taking everyone’s advice here and just focusing on walking.
My hip was my third joint replacement and I had finally figured out formal PT didn't help me, it hurt me. Walking was all my hip needed to heal fantastically.
 
Hi there @Starmarie . Sounds like you have a good idea of what you need and what your body does not need. Stick with that gut reaction for now. IMO the Bonesmart approach to recovery is tops. It has served me well, through all my replacement surgeries. I now have my "4-pack," in place. The 4th, right hip, was done July 29th, about a week before your THR.

I have just 1 more in- home PT visit left, that will be tomorrow. I don't think I will require outpatient PT, so for now I have not called to get on the schedule. PT came Tuesday, and I thought we did very little. 2 hours later, OH MY I needed pain meds. We did 3 side steps to the right, 3 to the left. And she checked my balance, by having me stand toe-to-heel, first with one foot in front, then the other; and then let go of the kitchen counter for a few seconds. I wasn't too wobbly, either way. But something in those little work outs REALLY annoyed soft tissue. I was very surprised by the jump in pain.

At this point, I can do what needs to be done. I can manage my cellar stairs to do my own laundry. I am slow, and it isn't pretty or graceful, but I go slow and controlled. I can also manage going out the 2 steps to my fenced in back yard, to sit with my dogs. (Rather than going out the garage and walking around the side of the house, there are no steps that way.) Those are both important for me, as I live alone. Being able to do my own laundry rather than asking a friend to come in for 2 hours, that is a big thing for me.
 
I agree @Freedom. Just doing the laundry and hanging it all up logically is a big job for me. I need my handy gripper to help too. It takes ages but OH is impressed. Also the dishwasher and putting away all the crockery. Why do we keep it in such random cupboards and inaccessible places?! Must have seemed sensible at the time. All good exercise with lots of bending and stretching involved.
My Fitbit keeps me moving and recording progress.
Keep on keeping on everyone!
 
Hello there,
I’m new here. Glad to find this website! I had a RTHR on Aug 2 and feel I am doing quite well. Today is Day 16 post-op. Last week after my 2 week post-op with the OS my PT cleared me from the walker to a cane. I was glad at the time, but even with great gait training with the cane I am finding it difficult to walk due to pain when I put pressure on my surgery side. So, I went back to the walker for more support. I’m now using the walker mainly to get around my house and the cane in some areas where I can. I also started having a lot of middle back/back of shoulder area pain which I figured was due to the way I was walking with the cane.
My PT has been wonderful, only having me do minimal exercises, mostly to get my surgery leg lifting in preparation for my stairs eventually.
So, my question(s): Is walking with pain upon weight-bearing somewhat normal? Do I keep walking while I feel this pain or do I rest it? I’m only walking indoors a bit, maybe 500-600 ft (PT measured) and doing household tasks like easy food prep/showering/feeding cat. Thank you in advance for any tips/advice!

I am 3 weeks out from my THR. I stopped using my walker 4 days after surgery… only used the cane for maybe three or four days after that. I am doing walks in my neighborhood…several a day, yesterday I did a little over 3 miles. I can honestly say that each day I have less discomfort. I no longer take any pain medication, even though there is some slight discomfort still on the surgical side when walking outside. But it’s very minor and not worth taking any medication to me. (I realize that is a personal choice). I do see improvement every day. I hope that you will as well.
 
Hello there,
I’m new here. Glad to find this website! I had a RTHR on Aug 2 and feel I am doing quite well. Today is Day 16 post-op. Last week after my 2 week post-op with the OS my PT cleared me from the walker to a cane. I was glad at the time, but even with great gait training with the cane I am finding it difficult to walk due to pain when I put pressure on my surgery side. So, I went back to the walker for more support. I’m now using the walker mainly to get around my house and the cane in some areas where I can. I also started having a lot of middle back/back of shoulder area pain which I figured was due to the way I was walking with the cane.
My PT has been wonderful, only having me do minimal exercises, mostly to get my surgery leg lifting in preparation for my stairs eventually.
So, my question(s): Is walking with pain upon weight-bearing somewhat normal? Do I keep walking while I feel this pain or do I rest it? I’m only walking indoors a bit, maybe 500-600 ft (PT measured) and doing household tasks like easy food prep/showering/feeding cat. Thank you in advance for any tips/advice!

I am 3 weeks out from my THR. I stopped using my walker 4 days after surgery… only used the cane for maybe three or four days after that. I am doing walks in my neighborhood…several a day, yesterday I did a little over 3 miles. I can honestly say that each day I have less discomfort. I no longer take any pain medication, even though there is some slight discomfort still on the surgical side when walking outside. But it’s very minor and not worth taking any medication to me. (I realize that is a personal choice). I do see improvement every day. I hope that you will as well.

Thanks for your response. You are doing really well in recovery. That is so great to hear the amount of walking you are doing. Out of curiosity, did your surgeon use cement with your implants?

I’m “almost” without my cane now mostly while at home but still walking indoors with my walker for gait and form because I seem to be leaning too much on my non-op side when I walk with the cane (Because I have pain deep in the hip). I was not able to do much exercise for about a year pre-surgery so I feel like my body has to build up strength again.
I love your progress. It’s truly amazing. I hope to be back at it outdoors soon…well, when it’s not so blazing hot out here in south TX.
 
Thanks for your response. You are doing really well in recovery. That is so great to hear the amount of walking you are doing. Out of curiosity, did your surgeon use cement with your implants?

I’m “almost” without my cane now mostly while at home but still walking indoors with my walker for gait and form because I seem to be leaning too much on my non-op side when I walk with the cane (Because I have pain deep in the hip). I was not able to do much exercise for about a year pre-surgery so I feel like my body has to build up strength again.
I love your progress. It’s truly amazing. I hope to be back at it outdoors soon…well, when it’s not so blazing hot out here in south TX.

Yes, I know what happens when we stop doing things - especially when we get older! My surgeon gave me some good perspective on that. I am a pretty active person, and I guess I am just stubborn enough that I did not want to wait until I couldn't do things anymore...so I know that helped with my recoveries as I did not have much muscle loss to deal with.

I have never heard of using cement...not really sure if he did or not but I have not heard it mentioned.

Probably the best thing for me, this second time, is that the PT lady told me that my doc didn't want us taking the percoset, unless we REALLY needed it. So I didn't, and LORDY that was a blessing. The first time around I took it every 4 hours, like clockwork, and besides knocking me loopy, I was completely miserable in the constipation department - ugh! I took Meloxicam and baby aspirin, and Ex Strength Tylenol, and that has been all I needed. I have been somewhat impatient I think, as I know I was back in the gym last time, 16 days after surgery, and this time, I did not feel ready at that same time. But it's fine - I am 7 years older LOL so I have to remember that. I did get on the exercise bike at home though and that felt great. No issues at all. My PT at home was good, I was released completely at 2 weeks and a day, so I really can't complain I guess.

I definitely do still have soreness....when I stand up from the sofa, or get out of bed, or the car, I feel like I have to stand for a couple of seconds before I move. I do think that it is better though...so I am sure you will see improvement every day.
 
I really only experience any soreness just after I stand up too but it wears off as I walk about. I don't take any pain meds either and had refused any Opioids after the op at all.
I'm off sticks completely indoors but do take one if I'm going out. More a matter of confidence than anything else. I do worry about limping so make a special effort not to by consciously remembering to walk heel toe, heel toe.
I'd been trying hard to maintain my fitness level before the op and having lost weight found it was much improved. I'm keen to get back to that but in a natural way via walking rather than by gym equipment or bikes both of which I detest!!
We are in a fourth floor flat and I used to make a point of always using the stairs. Currently, I do use the lift but aim to get back to stairs asap.
 
I am continually amazed at how much easier this recovery is, compared with the prior 3. With those, I was advised to push off surgery as long as possible. I did that -- for 8 years! And recovery was horrible. With this one, as soon as the hip started impacting my life, I got things moving to have the surgery. This recovery is so much easier, and the surgeon as well as in home services (nurse and PT) have told me it is because I got in right away.

@Starmarie you are really doing well. You seem to know what your body needs, and you are doing that. One of the hard things for me was and is, to push myself enough to gain some improvement, without pushing so much that I join ODIT. ODIT = Over Did It, a club many of us end up joining at some point. Many of us join a few times! It's hard work trying to find that balance. I have a very low pain tolerance, pushing myself AT ALL is not something that interests me. Hang in there, read, ask questions, and most of all, let time heal your body.
 
@Starmarie One of the hard things for me was and is, to push myself enough to gain some improvement, without pushing so much that I join ODIT. ODIT = Over Did It, a club many of us end up joining at some point. Many of us join a few times! It's hard work trying to find that balance. I have a very low pain tolerance, pushing myself AT ALL is not something that interests me. Hang in there, read, ask questions, and most of all, let time heal your body.


Love the ODIT. Yep, I’m an offender of ODIT. Already hurt my hip flexor trying to conquer my stairs too early. Had to go back to the walker after that. Lol. I have to remember that pain means don’t do it.
 
I am so excited to report my progress after my THR on Aug 2. Hoping this info will help someone else in some way.

Yesterday was Day 24 post-op and I finally feel strong and stable enough to ditch the cane! I am getting around my house doing all things with ease. I still feel that I will carry the cane when going outside of the house for a little longer.

I have a 2 story house and 14 steps up. I used my surgery leg on 2 steps today. I am being very careful because I have already had a setback in week 2 while doing standing leg lifts and sort of injured my hip flexor. My PT recommended starting with a few stair steps a day and adding more each day because it is easy to give yourself tendinitis by overdoing it early on.

I bought an amazfit fitness tracker just for the purpose of tracking my daily steps. Love this little tracker and it was $32. The only thing is it won’t track steps with a walker or holding onto a shopping cart. I guess it needs the arm motion to count steps. I am getting about 3000 steps a day with all activities, about 1.5 miles. I haven’t gone out to purposely walk my street yet because it over 100 degrees heat index in south TX. I do get quite tired after being on my feet for 30 minutes or so and need to rest with legs up. And I did quickly venture into the grocery store and my surgery leg swelled up quite a bit, esp my knee.

I also found a way to correctly sleep on my non-surgery side without pain. I bought a much too expense Tempurpedic body pillow, but it doesn’t collapse in the middle so my leg stays level with my hip and the pillow is long enough to also have my lower leg and foot completely on the pillow too. it was so nice to not sleep on my back all night. The pain from sleeping on my back for 3 weeks is worse than the surgery pain.

But I feel great, making progress!
 
@Starmarie You will notice that I merged your newest post with your original recovery thread. For several reasons, we prefer that you only have one recovery thread:
  • That way, we have all your information in one place. This makes it easier to go back and review your history before providing advice.
  • If you keep starting new threads, you miss the posts and advice others have left for you in the old threads, and some information may be unnecessarily repeated
  • Having only one thread will act as a diary of your progress that you can look back on.
Please post any updates, questions or concerns about your recovery here. If you prefer a different thread title, just post what you want and we will get it changed for you.

If you need an urgent response to a question, just tag a member of staff.

Many members bookmark their thread in their computer browser, so they can find it when they log on.

Sounds like you are doing really well with your recovery! Long may it continue!
 
Yes sounds like you're doing really well. My Fitbit has been a real blessing. It counts my steps, reminds me to do 250 steps each hour and also measures the time I'm asleep.
I don't use my stick at all in the house. I take if out for a walk but don't really use it then. I'm doing 4500- 5000 steps a day. We live in a flat with a lift but there's a nice flight of steps in the garden with fairly shallow steps so I aim to go up them every day. As time goes on I'll be using the stairs inside and avoiding the lift but right now I'm happy to use it as our flat is on the fourth floor.
I do have a body pillow but find using pillows in bed too hot. I'll just have to wait till I can turn over and sleep on my front which I always did before the op.
 
You are turning the corner @Starmarie :yay:

Just try to keep remembering that slow is best. I know you are well aware of that and many of us would think we were being slow and cautious and then something happens where we get carried away, right into the ODIC and it can be so frustrating.
I love the sound of your Tempur-pedic body pillow, I use a firm King Sized pillow and am debating getting a body pillow, too because my once firm pillow isn't firm any longer. Our Forum Advisor @Layla loves her body pillow too.
Aren't those fitness trackers super duper?? I got one for my first THR in 2015 and haven't been without one since.. loved seeing my steps add up and could use the info when my hip was grumpy at the end of a day and back it off again.

So happy to see your post and yes you ARE making progress.
 
Well done, @Starmarie ! Makes you feel good, doesn't it, when you see progress?! HOORAY!!!

Using a body pillow is a great way to start side sleeping. Glad you got one! Keep up the slow and steady progress.
 

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