THR Xtina16405 recovery thread

[CanukTriMom]

@xtina16405

What!!!? This is only your first visit to the club and you are 6 weeks post op...Wow that is actually remarkable as most of us were in that club on a Week 3! You did really well to hold off that long.

It is all aboutbalance....nothin wrong with testing the limits now and then!

Cheryl

 

[xtina16405]

Yes @CanukTriMom. I have been good. Much has to be credited to my watchful father. Since my surgery he has been by daily. And he is on me if I am overdoing it. So last week got me. I have been feeling great and I didn't hate life until the next morning. I am sure there are more to come.

So week 7 is today. Wow. I can't believe it. I still have a scab at the end of the scar. It is taking forever to heal. It is where the doctor ended the cut, I believe. I am trying to be patient. So no baths or swims. Hopefully soon. Not much to report. I feel great. There are moments where my hip feels heavy. Otherwise it feels really good. I am walking about 1.2-1.5 miles on my walks. I try for two a day. I am great about getting one in, but depending on the day I may or may not get the second one in. Doing my PT exercises. So strength and range of motion are improving. I have attempted walking stairs normally. Still difficult. Driving and sitting in car is easier. Happy about that. Just focusing on healing, strength, and building stamina. I get tired after doing things.

I hope all my BS friends have a Happy Thanksgiving. So much to be grateful for this year. This forum and all the support from everyone is one of the top on my list. Thank you for helping me get through this process. This is a true blessing. Thank you all.

 

[LaxMom]

Happy 7 week anniversary and happy Thanksgiving, @xtina16405 ! I am thankful for you being my hip twin. So happy to see how well you are doing.

My hip gets a bit sore each day sine it is now pulling the load in its new role as the "good leg." But is still feels pretty great and the ROM is very good.

Here's hoping things continue to go well for you.

 

[xtina16405]

Week 8. How fast the time goes. It feels like yesterday I was cringing at the thought of walking upstairs.

I go to PT this week on Friday. I really have not been very good at doing the PT exercises. I have read Josephine's message "a hip really doesn't need much exercise except walking" so I am a great walker. I have been walking twice a day. My morning walk is 1.5 to 2 miles. My afternoon walk is 1 mile. I decided to venture to the gym this week to ride a bike. I still am unable to start swimming because the scab at the end of the scar is still with me. Looks much better so one more week I think will do it. It was nice to ride the bike. Something different than walking. I felt good too.

Some pain has hit me the last couple days though. It has been raining in So Cal (much needed). The outside of my knee and my quad in between my IT band and top of quad muscle. So painful. I haven't been needing the pain meds. But started to take them again with this new pain. I have massaged it with the roller and that helped some. But so painful. It wasn't from bike because it started before that. I think it is just a reminder that I am still healing.

At 8 weeks, I feel great overall. I am stronger. I walk without any aids. Stairs are not an issue. I can use a regular toilet and am not afraid that I will not be able to get up. My range of motion has improved. My abductors are stronger. I can sleep on either side. I sleep through the night. I can walk without a limp. I can walk without pain. My stamina is improving. I don't need a nap in the middle of the day. I can accomplish household tasks with much ease. Driving is comfortable now. It is amazing how far I have come.

I do have one concern. The new hip still feels a little foreign. When will it feel like a regular hip? Or will it always feel foreign? It is hard to explain how it feels. I want it to feel like my left hip feels normal. So how long does it take for the new hip to feel a normal part of my body?

 

[LaxMom]

Wow, you have come so far! Great report!!!

 

[Gilly]

@xtina16405 great progress, I can't wait to be where you are. I'm nearly 3 weeks out and struggling a bit with the restrictions, especially driving. Once I get clearance I'm going to take up swimming as well..I can't wait...

Take care...

 

[xtina16405]

@Gilly I felt the same way about driving. So frustrating. At 3 weeks I remember I had a meltdown to my dad that I needed to get out of the house. I was very grateful he was retired and we live close so he would get me out. It goes by fast.

 

[CanukTriMom]

@xtina16405

Sounds like things are going really well with your recovery. As for the muscle pain, I am thinking you are overdoing it on your walks. Perhaps a couple days off with ice and nothing but rest is the ticket. I think it was @MajorHeidi that experienced something similar to what you are feeling now....hers turned out to be bursitis from over activity from walking. Now I agree walking is good but at this stage you really need to get back to the Physio exercises even if it is just doing them once a day. Walking strengthens some muscles but you still need the strength training that Physio provides for the other supporting muscles. As for your hip feeling like your real hip, comes with time and getting all those muscles around the hip nice and strong.

Check in with your Physio regarding the muscle pain. Might be helpful to get a few specific exercises for the trouble area. Also did you buy new shoes before all this marathon walking? If you haven't, you need to as you are walk g differently than you did before the op.

Hope this helps! Tag @MajorHeidi and see if your pain is similar.

Hugs from snowy Canada

Cheryl

PS. Love your new avatar!

 

[xtina16405]

@MajorHeidi i need some advice. Canuktrimom said you had some knee issues after the hip replacement. I have pain in my outside of my knee to the middle of my knee. It goes up between the IT band and the middle of the quad. It isn't on the side or middle of the leg. Kind of hard to describe. I have been walking about 1.5 - 2 miles a day. Canuktrimom said I may be walking too much. Once I get outside it feels good so I just go. Any help would be appreciated. I have iced it and nothing helps. I know I am still healing. I would love some relief. I appreciate it @MajorHeidi.

 

[Was_86]

I did acupuncture yesterday for my operate thigh. It was a wonderful feeling. It took a lot of tension out of the muscles. My knee still hurts but the muscles feels softer.

 

[craftdee]

Hi @xtina16405 Those muscle issues can be a real pain... I know not funny, still I try

I had SERIOUS discomfort in the IT band, Quads and IlioPsoas generally, the quads and IT band were making me miserable... I had a Physio in the Home come in and she showed me some acupressure massage that helped... a bit... then she asked if I'd ever had acupuncture (Physios call it "dry needling") I said I hadn't in the tone that conveyed the reason I hadn't (that I thought it a load of hokum) but as I was desperate I'd give it a go. WELL, she found nine trigger points on the quad and four on the IT band. When she tapped the needle (they're like hairs, so they don't hurt at all!) into the third spot on the quad it was like a mini balloon bursting; she said it might take ten minutes or so to work, nup, it was all but GONE then, and I haven't had it back.

The points in the IT band weren't as spectacularly effective in that it did take a few minutes, but they were 90% relieved as well. It sort of "breaks the pattern" of nerves reacting to muscle, like pressing a reset button is how the physio described it beforehand, and it means providing you don't keep on overdoing it you can stay out of that pattern. All I can say is, like @Was_86 it worked for me and I won't hesitate to use it again if I get that "tight". I got some good stretches from the Physio too, better than the ones the hospital Physio gave me, and using those seems to have kept the problem from developing again.

I stopped all of the exercises for a few days, and I'm ambivalent about whether that was the way to go. I was developing some real strength back in my glutes but that seems to have stalled a little, so perhaps walking isn't quite enough to redevelop them. I so wish I was like you, but stepping up on my operated leg still feels pretty odd and uncomfortable; not in the hip but in the buttock (though maybe it's just that my hamstrings are tight now, sigh, so I've got some stretches for those that seem to making albeit slow progress) I keep reading about all these people who are walking and climbing stairs without any discomfort - I'm an overachiever so it's narking me right off that I'm not one of them and I'm still on restrictions so I can't "sleep on either side" or in fact ANY side (technically.. I may "slip" onto my side in the mornings, luckily I "slip" with a pillow between my knees) Still I'm glad that there are some Posterior Approach success stories, I was starting to feel that it was definitely the short straw recovery wise. I guess I just have to be patient... AGAIN.

Hope you solve your pain issues
Donna

 

[MajorHeidi]

@xtina16405 Hi there!
Just saw your post....
I have been doing PT since having some groin pain (which OS surgeon xrayed and said the back xrays
show Lumbar 4/5 arthritis which can lead to referred pain in the groin). oh my
My knees don't hurt in general; but when I do stairs they grouch a bit....
I assume that is my quads.
At any rate, the PT for lower back pain has eliminated the hip groin pain. (whew: it wasn't something gone wrong
with the hip replacement. Yay!
PT is good!

I am unsure of what is leading to your pain in the knee area; Possibly a change in your gait?
At any rate, everything in the body is interrelated and you fix one thing, and then the next thing barks.
Ha....

TGIF!

 

[craftdee]

Just read your comment on the OA in your Lumbar 4/5 being possibly connected to referred groin pain @MajorHeidi and a little light went off in my head I've got a fair bit of OA in my spine... doesn't generally bother me that much as your spine doesn't "move" as much as your hips and knees, but 4/5 is the trouble spot (I think that's the case for everyone !) I've never made the connection to the groin pain I'm experiencing; I may ask my OS on Thursday what his thoughts are, but it makes sense and does settle my mind in the same way it did yours... no horrible rare hitherto unheard of complication of THR I'll just concentrate on settling the lower back issues and see if the groin settles too, hopefully it will. My knees are exactly the same as yours too... absolutely fine if you're going in a straight line on level ground, stairs are a bear!!

How right you are about fixing one thing only to set up another... I said to my hubby yesterday, my body is a well oiled machine; the problem is only one bit's well oiled at a time

Hope you're feeling better @xtina16405, pain's no fun... and girls just wanna have fun

 

[xtina16405]

@Was_86 @craftdee @MajorHeidi .... Thanks for responding. I am going to call my acupuncturist for sure. Didn't even think about that. I did it presurgery to help with pain. Some chi on my life may be good.

I have done the accupressure massage and my roller. It gives small relief.

I love all the help and am so grateful that we are all here for each other. I hope you have a great weekend.

 

[CanukTriMom]

@xtina16405

Let us know how the acupuncture goes...did you change your shoes to new ones after your new hip? I had some back stiffness when using pre surgery gym only shoes that I had worn maybe a couple of months and not outside. New shoes and stretching followed by heat on my back fixed me up in no time!

Hugs from snowy Canada

Cheryl

 

[xtina16405]

@CanukTriMom i have new shoes that I wear daily. I love them. Sketchers go walk 2. Slip on tennis shoes since I still have 90 degree restriction so no tieing the shoes. The other day I did put on a pair of Clarkes that I wore presurgery. You could tell I walked differently in those. I am probably going to have to replace all my work shoes . Why do we love shoe shopping? I have been stretching. I am going to give the heat a try. I want to take a bath or sit in the spa. I still have a scab at the end of the scar. It has been 9 weeks and still there. Ugh.

I will use my heating pad. I know it is all a process. Patience is a virtue right?

I hope all is well with you. I don't live near snow. But CA finally got some good rain and snow in our mountains. We need the rain so badly. So happy.

I will let you know how acupuncture goes. I am calling tomorrow. :santaclap:

 

[CanukTriMom]

@xtina16405

Kristina

Thanks for the lovely birthday wishes! I had a great day! How did the acupuncture go?

Cheryl

 

[chestnc]

Hi @xtina16405, decided to stop by your thread to say hello (since we bump into each other in the social room) and see where you are in the recovery process and wish you well. Sounds like you are doing very well. I am at 14 months and knee has started back to feeling like it is not mine again so I have been more diligent about doing the knee exercises as I had done while recuperating. Hope the acupuncture works well. Have a good pain-free day and a great holiday.

 

[xtina16405]

Well I thought I would update my thread.

Week 10. Amazing how quickly time flies. I am feeling good majority of the time. I walk daily and still focus on my gait. I feel like I resort back to limping at times. No reason to limp. I have a new hip. I don't have that forgotten hip at all. I know I have a right hip.

Sleep is good. I sleep through the night most nights. What a great thing. Before surgery i would wake up every hour or two because of pain.

Mornings. I am stiff when I wake up. Once I get going I am good.

I walk about 2 miles a day. I live in a very hilly area so I have been avoiding the hills. I contributed the hills to my soreness I had been feeling. Took the hills out of the walk and the soreness has gone away. Not completely but much much better.

Evenings. I am tired by evening and muscle sore. During the day, I can now walk up and down stairs alternating legs. In the evening or when I am tired, cannot do alternate legs. I pay attention to this.

I still have a darn scab on my scar. It is at the end of the incision. I can't swim or bathe until it falls off. This is frustrating me because I really want to be in a pool and weightless to see how it feels.

So many things are getting easier. Getting dressed. Shaving legs. Walking stairs. Range of motion. Getting down on ground and getting up. Sitting on a regular toilet seat.

Still have 90 degree restriction. Can't tie shoes or put on socks without sock contraption. Still need to hang on to something when sitting down. Have to take a moment when getting up after sitting for more than 45 minutes.

Overall, feeling pretty good. Haven't done acupuncture yet. This week was busy with my mom. We had lots of appointments for her. Hopefully next week before Christmas I can get in for acupuncture.

I am so grateful for my BS family. I have learned so much from all of you. Thank you for opening up your hip stories and life to us. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your families and may your day be full of laughter and love.

 

[xtina16405]

May the blessings of Christmas be with you.
May the Christ Child light your way.
May God's holy angels guide you,
And keep you safe each day.

Merry Christmas to all my BS friends. So blessed to have you in my life.