THR 2 Months after THR - still some pain

[Tragically hip]

Hi everyone. Surgery yesterday went well. I had a sedative and a spinal, and next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery. Had a fair bit of pain and nausea over night, maybe due to the drugs, so I’m going to see if I can get by with just Tylenol plus Celebrex.
My surgeon told me everything went smoothly, but that my hip bone was “deeper” than he expected — a nice way of saying I have more fat on my hips than he thought! So the incision is fairly deep. Ice, here we come!

 

[sistersinhim]

Good that you are through this surgery and on to the recovery stage. I will leave you your very own recovery articles. These are short and you shall find them very helpful in your recovery journey.

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
elevate
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

BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

Activity progression for THRs

6. Access these pages on the website

Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications
Wound Care In Hospital


Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery

Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key
Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

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 the 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 the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.

 

[Mojo333]

Hi @Tragically hip
Good to see you on the Healing Side. The first days were the especially tough bits of my recovery so try to do just roll with it.

Had a fair bit of pain and nausea over night, maybe due to the drugs, so I’m going to see if I can get by with just Tylenol plus Celebrex.

Nausea often is a side effect of the anaesthesia and is a common complaint by members. They had to do some tweaking of my pain meds the first 12 hours to get it right and often nausea meds can be prescribed to help.
I never like the way I feel taking pain medication but it was necessary for me especially early weeks to be able to stay comfortable and stay mobile.

All temporary, new hippy pal.

 

[Tragically hip]

Question of the day: do I need to worry about blood seeping through the wound dressing? I can see a few spots, new or larger since yesterday. It’s a waterproof dressing and because of COVID there’s no home care or anything. I don’t see a medical professional again til day 14 when the stitches come out. I’ll be changing the dressing myself at day 7.

Other than that, all is going well. Trundling around the house a bit with the walker, doing lots of reading!

 

[Going4fun]

Usually a few spots seeing out do not indicate a problem.

You can always put in a quick phone call to your surgeon's office and check in with a nurse.

 

[Tragically hip]

Here I am at the one month mark! I feel pretty lucky -- I'm getting around with my cane, and am off all pain killers, back to work half-time this week.
But ... I guess I've hit the frustrated, disheartened part of the journey. Progress seemed pretty fast in the first 10 days, and the improvements are much more gradual now. There's still pain in the joint, and I only sleep a couple of hours at a time. Of course that's all I slept before the surgery, so it's nothing new. I was hoping for glorious blocks of 6 or 7 hours' sleep though! I took a vacation from physio yesterday, because I wonder if the step-up exercises are increasing the muscle soreness. It's rainy here -- a little sunshine would help ease the gloom!

 

[Jaycey]

You are at the stage I call the one month slump. Things seem to progress at a pace in the first weeks. Then at about 4 weeks out it feels like recovery slows to a crawl.

In truth you are still very much in recovery mode. Lots of soft tissues healing. If any exercises are making you sore please stop. You are not in training for anything.

Sending you a bit of sun from a very sunny East Yorkshire!

 

[Tragically hip]

My new hip celebrated its 2-month anniversary this week. Things are mostly going well - walking without a cane most of the time and back to most of my normal activities at work, house and farm. I still have pain in the hip, especially when I get up after sitting for a while. It feels like it’s in the joint, but maybe it’s just muscles? I feel like every question in the forum comes down to “is this normal? Should I be worried?” Also I still can’t sleep on my side for longer than half an hour of so — it just gets too sore. So… is this normal? Should I be worried?

 

[Pumpkin]

@Tragically hip
Pain in your hip at 2 months is normal in this year long plus recovery, though most start feeling a lot better at 3-4 months.
You should not be worried, your hip is still healing, with time these aches and pains will disappear.

You'll notice that I have merged your newest thread 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.

So 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'll 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.
How can I find my threads and posts?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Eman85]

You no longer have to worry about pain in the joint, your joint that had feeling is long gone! Pain and stiffness is very common, my left side is stiff every morning until I get moving. Pains come and go but nothing like the pre-op joint pain. Sleeping on the side can feel odd for some time. I had it where when I first slept on my non-op side it felt like the operated side was pulling. Time is the only cure for some of it and I don't think all of the oddities are going to go away, but it's still better than how it was before.

 

[Tragically hip]

Thanks @Pumpkin for fixing my thread — sorry about that! And thanks to both of you, Pumpkin and @Eman85 for the reassurances. I guess after living with the joint pain for 10 years, a few months is not too much to ask for recovery, right? Hard to be patient, but you’re right, it’s way better than before surgery — no more locking up, no more constant pain. My friends and family all say I’m doing well. Have a great evening both of you!

 

[Mojo333]

I know, it seems hardl but it really is a Process...
How you are, ain't how you are going to be.
Still early days after you had years of hip deteriation and a Major Surgery to correct....
Patience is prescribed in Massive doses!

 

[Going4fun]

You're back to most of your usual activities at work, house AND farm?

Now, I don't know your exact activities or schedule, but strikes me as quite a lot to be back to normal in all three of those areas after two months.

Could easily be that you're doing too much. Which would lead to pain.

 

[Eman85]

That's exactly the right attitude, it's way better than it was! I don't expect to have no reminders of the surgery after all it's a big surgery and they put man made parts in us. I'm grateful to have lost the deep pain and be able to function.

 

[Layla]

Happy Four Month Anniversary!
We haven’t heard from you in a while. Hopefully that means you’re doing well and enjoying life. Say Hi next time you stop by…we’d love to hear from you.
All the best!
@Tragically hip