New Hip Day

Lilymary

@Crookrise , my physio and surgeon both said groin pain is fairly common, mine is a lot better than it was, but it still hampers my exercises a bit. I’ll give the massage a go though. i plucked up the courage to roll onto my good side briefly last night for the first time (which is how I used to sleep) and am pleased to report nothing dropped off or left me in agony, even if things did feel a bit odd. My operated hip is still too tender to lie on it, but it’s a start. There is NO WAY I’d have watched the video of hip surgery! not even at this stage. There are some things we’re better not knowing about!

@Cazbaz , to be honest apart from assessing the wound and having the nurses put a better dressing on it, my consultation wouldn’t have lost much clinically speaking for being done over the phone, as he was mainly looking at the X-ray. It did make it easier for me to ask questions, as conversations are always easier face to face, and having the xray in front of us did gave me the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, which in turn helped me understand why my body is still grumbling. Sorry to hear about your dropped foot, hopefully the physio will sort that. I remain slightly peeved at the lack of physio guidance provided by the hospital (and which I forgot to mention yesterday 🙄) - there must be so many who son’t have the resources to have a private physio, and doing the right exercises can make such a difference. It doesn’t take much to at least go through a proper exercise sheet with the physio before discharge. I was only given two exercises to do, neither of which were much long term use, just for immediate post op. But then as my physio said, the NHS has found that everyone’s pretty much in the same place after 12 months, with or without physio, but getting there sooner rather than later has to be worth aiming for.

A few more minor positives to celebrate, I can go upstairs (slowly and carefully) without my crutch now, and putting very little weight on the bannister, and can swing my leg out of bed without needing support from my good leg.

And yes, cake should be handed out on the NHS!

Lilymary

One more thing, I think I mentioned before that my operated leg is slightly pinker from hip to toe than my other pasty white leg. I queried this out of curiosity with the surgeon and he didn’t seem to have come across this before, and suggested it might be a reaction to the pre-op disinfectant they use (they do the whole leg, then use iodine on the hip). I wasn’t convinced this would still affect me after six weeks, so I googled it. Quite a few other people have reported this, the thinking being that it’s the body increasing the blood supply to the injured limb to aid repairing damaged tissue. This wasn’t backed up by any actual medics commenting, but that had been my suspicion too. It doesn’t concern me, I was just curious.

Cazbaz

Medical day today, consultant phoned me asked a few questions and said he was more than happy with my progress (how he can tell over the phone I don’t know) and I could now sleep on my side, best news for weeks, he wouldn’t discharge me yet due to the pain and numbness I’m experiencing in my lower leg but he was 99% sure it was due to slight nerve damage and would get better, 30 minutes later my GP rang responding to a request for a call I made 2 weeks ago, he also believed numbness etc. was due to nerve damage and there would be some pain as the nerve regenerated apparently and his advice regarding the skin on my leg shedding like a snake was to moisturise and to keep hydrated, well feel as if all the hard work exercising is paying off so as a treat I’ve dispatched hubby off to the local patisserie to get me a supply of gooey creamy cakes (I blame Lilymary)

stickywicket

Re numbness @Cazbaz - this is different as I seem to remember you mentioning a droopy foot associated with yours but, in case it's of use, after my first TKR I noticed one side of my leg, the length of the scar, was numb. It seemed odd but not a problem. I was told it was due to cut nerves and would sort itself out in time. It did. It was quite a long time but that didn't matter as it wasn't causing any problems. It was odd, though as I'd complete feeling down the right side of the scar and virtually none down the left.

Cazbaz

Hi @stickywicket, yes my foot was droopy but that is righting itself very slowly, the numbness is on the operated leg but from the knee into the foot, I was worried it was foot drop but the surgeon said if I can move the toes and flex the foot at all it is more than likely to be damaged nerve and would right itself but could take time, he is contacting me again in 6 weeks, he did say as the hip was totally seized it was possible a nerve was stretched, just hoping he is right. Even though I can flex my foot I do struggle putting shoes on, barefooted I can walk normally and quite quickly but can’t go for a long walk with no shoes on, I need to be somewhere hot so I could walk along the beach😂😂hope Mr SW is still making good progress

Lilymary

@Cazbaz leave me out of your confectionary choices! 😂

Pleased to hear your consultation went well. I've got various bits of numbness in my operated leg, which seems to be changing, so I'm just leaving it to sort itself out. tbh would prefer a bit more, as I had hoped it would cancel out the long term sciatic nerve pain along the full length of my leg, but that's still there. It only bothers me if I poke it though so maybe I should just stop poking it? 😂

I'm starting to try sleeping in other positions, my hip's mildly grumpy about it, and I'm scared of doing any damage, so I plank myself when I turn over to avoid stressing the joint, and it's hardly a relaxing process!

I'm starting to notice small improvements, eg I don't panic if I wander a short way across the room without my crutch (not so long ago I couldn't even stand up without it), my sideways lurch isn't quite so dramatic, my hip doesn't wobble around as much as it did (hard to describe that one), getting in and out of bed isn't a logistical drama, I can get up and down stairs using the hand rail a lot less and the crutch hardly at all, and the pain in my groin is slowly reducing. I confess I haven't done my exercises for the last few days, I was a total zombie yesterday after an awful night's sleep and got caught up in other things today, but have managed a short walk both days and quite a bit of housework, which almost counts.

Onwards and upwards, with the odd sideways wobble.

stickywicket

That's a lot of 'small improvements' @Lilymary and they certainly mount up and will continue to do so.

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, do persevere with the exercises. They're far mor important than housework right now and, on the one occasion when I had horrible sciatic pain, it was the physio's exercises that pulled me through. She said if you can catch sciatic pain early with exercises you can get it sorted and personally I couldn't believe the difference six weeks made. I've never had it since.

@Cazbaz - re shoes. I have a long shoehorn with a little hand at one end (intended as a backscratcher. Just google it.). I angle the 'hand' into my shoe, lift it far enough to get my toes in then bang my foot ón the ground tó get the rest of my foot in. It works for me. Or, you could just 'sand' your floors😉

Cazbaz

Hi@stickywicket, last night was first night lying on my side, sheer bliss🙂 although nerve pain was not very good, it seems if I have pain at night the next day I can flex my foot more and not so numb, it’s really weird, I have one of those shoe horn/back scratcher things, I can get my foot in alright but because of the bit of nerve damage I can’t flex my toes right down at the minute so shoes just feel so uncomfortable but things are improving every day so hopefully the problem will resolve itself, I do make sure I do all my exercises and steps every day either in the house or on the patio, only problem doing it on the patio I’m forever having to wash my feet😂😂x

Cazbaz

@Lilymary, you are certainly making progress, I’m trying to catch you up, I’m going upstairs much easier now, exercises are easier to do and I can get to my treats cupboard in extra quick time,😂 I’ve started to bend down a little bit now but not confident enough to go right down, I always think I’m going to damage new hip, my next goal is to comfortably wear shoes and go to the garden centre to get my plants, I have visions of me walking round with bare feet, they will think I have gone nuts😂cakes were delicious, all gone!

Lilymary

@stickywicket , will do, my physio said the same.

Lilymary

Six weeks today post surgery. Celebrated by climbing into the bath and finally having my first shower 😆

Lilymary

@Cazbaz , half way bending is enough. I’m avoiding getting down to my feet, despite my shower achievement today. I did below the knee by climbing back out of the bath and sitting on a perching stool, with various careful contortions so that my lower legs were hanging over the edge of the bath so I could wash them with a long handled brush and shower hose. A bit brutal, but did the job. And easier than having them in a bowl of water on the floor and playing footsie with a soapy sponge 😆

my physio has passed on some resistance bands for my exercises. It’s going to be a while before I’m ready for those!

stickywicket

Mr SW has no idea how lucky he is having me😁 ie me with my walk-in shower with safety seat and hand rails. He's been in there every mórning since he got home and, frankly, reading your post, Lilymary, that could have saved our marriage😉

Seriously, I empathise. I can't use our son's shower in California so, when there (which hasn't happened for 2 years now with the pandemic) I just use my long-handled wash stick and the washbasin for a month unless we go somewhere and stay in an hotel with a disabled shower. Bliss!

You could have come and used mine. You'd only to ask😁

Lilymary

@stickywicket I’m on my way! I managed to use the shower in hospital before I was discharged, with the full array of seats, grab rails, accessible controls etc. it was heaven even though I was so very wobbly then. Felt like a newborn giraffe tottering around trying to work out how to use its legs. Looking back from a six week perspective, the whole hospital thing was an extremely surreal experience.

Lilymary

Update, 6.5 weeks on - did my longest walk to date (about a mile) on both crutches just to be safe, to do a bit of birdwatching. And a short walk in town on one crutch to get my second jab (AZ, no ill effects). Walking box ticked today.

Also now starting to use resistance bands for my physio exercises. Possibly a bit too early to say how well it’s working, but I can now lift my dodgy leg into bed without a helping hand (foot) from my good leg or yelps of pain, and the lateral leg lifts are getting wider. I’m also using only my bad leg to go up and down stairs, slowly, to make the muscles work harder (when I remember!)

I’m also finding myself wandering off across the room without my crutch. Perhaps not an entirely good thing (I do go back for it when I realise), but it doesn’t make me panic or fall over. I am starting to trust my new leg, even with the sideways wobbles.

Still need a special dressing in the last remaining bit of collateral damage to flesh midway down the incision (the hack saw skipped 🙄😅), but it’s not infected, just deep and slow to heal.

Still have some groin pain and tenderness along the incision and in the gluteal muscle (I have my very own home grown pain in the xxxx), but those are also abating.

And a final point, as I write, I’m watching a tv documentary about surgeons of various disciplines trying to get theatre time and ITU or HDU beds for their patients, all of whom are in great need of surgery to manage severe and chronic pain or neurological problems, but who have had surgery repeatedly cancelled at the last moment due to lack of beds. Their empathy and concern for their patients and their ongoing suffering if surgery is delayed is very clear. They’re no happier about the crisis in NHS waiting lists than we are, and are doing their best to advocate for us to get us back out in the world again.

Cazbaz

@Lilymary gosh can’t believe I’m 7 weeks post op. its gone so quickly, I have never exercised so much before but it has been so worth it, I’m still doing my exercises but the physiotherapist phoned me yesterday and he was very happy with my progress and now wants me to go online and partake in their exercise class twice a week, no time for housework etc😂like you I’m walking without sticks in the house but have been advised to use 1 stick outdoors owing to my persistent nerve problem. I don’t know if you are the same as me but some days I do overdo things and suffer the next day, off to feed the birds now, oh the excitement of it all🙂

Lilymary

7 weeks in, I’m seeing tiny improvements every day, but now feeling absurdly anxious about clawing back elements of ‘normal’ life, such as driving, working and being generally more independent. At least pre-op I knew what my limitations were (oddly the awful pain had less impact on my mobility than this bedding in process). This is so much more of an unknown quantity, and the consequences of overdoing it or getting it wrong are potentially so much worse. I really don’t feel ready for this.

stickywicket

Well done both of you and just a quick heads up.

Mr SW has started to get some pain in his other hip, the right one which was replaced just before lockdown. This is since he started driving again and almost certainly due to our car seats. They are of the variety that turn up at the edges and caused him problems long before that hip became bad.

He is nattered and talking of asking for an x-ray. I'm trying to persuade him to try to sort it himself by (a)using a cushion and (b)using ibuleve gel when it hurts, which is always after driving though it can persist.

You guys are female and therefore sensible😀 but I just thought a prior warning might help.

Lilymary

@stickywicket , I had this problem with Mr LMs car seats, they also turn up at the sides, so we packed it out with a foam wedge cushion, and another softer cushion on top. Total agony on my hip before we did that, as side of seat was pressing directly onto my hip. Mr SW may need to lower the seat a bit to compensate. Or shave a bit off the top of his head. 😉

Cazbaz

@Lilymary I totally agree with you before my op. I knew what I could do and what not to do now every time I try to do something and get a slight twinge I panic in case I have caused some damage to my new hip, it’s sometimes hard to remember not to bend, not to twist etc. etc. I’m pleased you are getting on well.

Lilymary

My crutches got hurled across the garden today, where I would happily leave the dratted things. Sorry if this isn’t very cool but I prefer to be frank and honest about how this process can make one feel

stickywicket

Nowt wrong with a spot of crutch throwing, as long as you have a good aim and the neighbours don't have a greenhouse.

I like your Plan B, Lilymary. I might have to put it into action. Mine has now arranged his first golf session - a 40min drive away so his 'old new hip' will probably be playing up before he gets there though he has conceded a cushion might help.

duffer

some of the recent comments - shaving a bit off the top of someone's head and throwing crutches away made me laugh and my goodness my osteo has the need to laugh sometimes. Thank you for cheering me up no end! Helen.

No worries @duffer - problem dealt with xx Yvonne

Lilymary

You’re welcome @duffer , sorry to hear your OA has been getting you down. I confess I haven’t felt much like laughing lately either, but crutch flinging was very therapeutic. I think the neighbours were a bit shocked though. I’ve also had a few bouts of butter-fingers when posting on this site.

@Cazbaz i’m awful for forgetting the “don’t bend” rule. I think I’ve probably tested that one to its limit and got away with it. I do mostly remember to stick my operated leg straight out behind me when bending for the umpteenth time to pick my wretched crutches up off the carpet/lawn/concrete, but I suspect there have been many occasions when my physio would have rapped my knuckles (as they dragged across the floor - lol). However, having seen first hand from about 6 feet away someone's hip dislocating, and propped her up till the paramedics arrived and administered lots of drugs, and then I felt it pop back in against my foot that was supporting her, I’m probably more nervous than most about following her example, and if my hip sends me alarm signals, I listen.

I’ve had my surgeon’s letter after my review, I have an irritated psoas (which is the muscle that raises you upper leg towards your chest), and Trendelenberg syndrome (dysfunction of hip abductor muscles) which accounts for the groin pain on lifting my leg and my wobbly gait. Where they nicked my flesh next to the incision when “preparing” (aka hacking through) my femur hasn’t healed after 7 weeks, still applying surgical dressings. Not impressed with my body right now, still behaving like a drama queen.

Anyway, I’ve continued plodding round the village and doing my exercises, managed a bit of light gardening, still seeing tiny improvements, but my goodness it’s slow. In fairness, I’ve always lived life at this speed in many respects, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. 🙄

Cazbaz

@Lilymary I’m glad I’m not the only one forgetting the no bending rule, I have no idea when you are allowed to bend or twist, I assume it boils down to your own common sense, sorry to hear you still have a couple of problems, will they resolve themselves? My incision is not too bad just a bit lumpy so I am gently massaging it, I sometimes think I have been left to my own devices but I suppose it’s all due to the pandemic. I’m still hoping this numbness is going to improve as it is so aggravating. I’m just about to do my first exercise class of the week via utube, I spend most of the time muttering and swearing, good job it’s not live. Like you I’m still walking, setting myself little goals along the way ie garden centre, coffee shop, sweet shop and cake shop, everyone needs a little perk.