My 2nd hip op done - tiredness & pain

anxioussarah

Hello

I had my 2nd hip op (right one), on Wednesday 4th dec - I had to have the spinal and the General anaesthetic! Then had low blood pressuregot home yesterday but feel so tired all the time and sore ( especially in bed ) not able to attempt exercises yet anyone else experienced this ? Thanks you

distantshores

Hello I had the same op on 26 November and also had GA and spinal block. I think it takes a while for the anaesthetic to leave your system. Also if you are not sleeping much then you will feel tired.

As for pain - much worse than I expected as I didn't really have pain before. I have been forcing myself to do the exercises as I think it is important even if you can only make a very small movement it is something. Are you walking around a bit on the crutches/walker?

To be honest at 11 days post op I don't really feel there has been the amount of improvement I expected and there is still a lot of pain and I am beginning to wonder if something has gone wrong. As it is only a few days after your op I think it must be normal to still be in a lot of pain. Hopefully it will soon pass.

Nurina

Hi. Why did you have General Anaesthetic with Spinal? Usually it's sedation and spinal or General Anaesthetic. It takes several days to eliminate it anyway. I had very low blood pressure too and it looks like everybody has it but nurses make it look like it's an unusual thing and it's scary to see their faces looking at the machine. Between the low pressure and the codeine, I was almost knock out for the first week.

I feel pain when I do my stand exercises and my leg gets swollen so and I'm not very focused on them. I do very small lateral lifts and squats, that's it, 2 minutes. I do seated exercises moving my ankles and bending my knees and very small exercises on bed. I'm more focused on trying to get used to my home, chairs, kitchen, stairs, bed because next week I'll be on my own. I will make more exercises when I'm more recovered of feel more confident.

@distantshores What painkillers are you taking? It's still early days so I suppose it's normal. There are too many factors that can contribute to the pain. I had much more pain with my first surgery so it's difficult to measure pain even coming from the same body. Have you got an appointment for the physio? They are very helpful and they can help you to adapt exercises to your pain.

distantshores

@Nurina I am taking paracetamol and ibuprofen. I really can't take codeine. I have a private physio coming to the house on Monday so will ask her what she thinks. I think the pain is mostly coming from a muscle at the top of the thigh (possibly ilios psoas based on images of thigh muscles I have looked at) and the hamstrings on the operated leg. Everything is really stiff and the leg feels like lead but this is probably normal. Maybe because I didn't have much pain before I was not expecting the level of pain afterwards.

I am doing the exercises and moving around the house. I also do seated exercises. I think I will put my step counter on tomorrow so I can begin to keep track of how much I have doing.

@anxioussarah I also had GA and spinal block - I think that is what I had as I didn't ask but I was completely knocked out which is what I wanted. Let us know how you get on.

Janlyn

@anxioussarah I'm so glad to hear it's over for you but sorry you're having a tough time. I imagine the general anaesthetic will take some time to leave your body and make you feel rough. I hope you're feeling better soon and can get some rest. To not feel comfortable even when lying in bed much be awful. I wouldn't worry too much about exercises until you feel you can. I really struggled for the first few days but once I could do them I quickly caught up.

@distantshores I hadn't realised you'd had a general anaesthetic - that will really have made a difference, I think, and I can understand you feeling so down. As @Nurina says best to talk to your physio on Monday and get some proper advice. What you say makes perfect sense and I am sure your physio will explain but thigh muscles were my main trouble for some time too. They'd just not been used properly for so long. I had the stiffness and heaviness in my leg too combined with very swollen ankles. Over a couple of weeks it all settled down though as I really hope yours does.

A good idea to put your step-counter on, it can be really motivating, although also disappointing if you don't get many steps. Mine didn't count properly at first as I was walking so awkwardly. But at almost 12 months I'm averaging well over 10,000 steps each day so I'm happy with that.

NanaAnna

Morning all, I'm really pleased to have found this forum. Reading your experiences and advice is so helpful in accepting that this is a long recovery process for most people, so THANK YOU. I had a L)THR on 27/11/24, having had the R) one done a year ago. This time round is easier in many ways because, knowing what to expect, I'm way less anxious. However, the tiredness, weird pains, swelling and the 'heaviness' of the operated leg are the same and I scale back my expectations on a daily basis - every day is different. This time I am taking the pain medication (Tapentadol) more regularly and I intend to take it for longer, even though it makes me feel dopey. Last time I came off it too early, making the physio so much more difficult and I've decided there's no need to be a stoic after such major surgery. I'm really looking forward to learning from these forums and I hope you're feeling better today @anxioussarah. Go easy on yourself.

PeterJ

Hello @NanaAnna and welcome to the Online Community, it's good to have you here. I'm glad that the pain meds are working for you - I put in a link to the NHS fact sheet on Tapentadol for further information.

Best wishes

Peter

Nurina

@distantshores So then you've had Spinal block and sedation. With sedation you are sleeping during the procedure but it's less dangerous than a General Anaesthetic and faster to eliminate.

It's normal to have feel the leg very stiff. I'm happy my 2nd is much better than the 1st which I couldn't bent for weeks. All the muscles and ligaments around the hip have suffered a lot, before and after the surgery and they have to recover.

@NanaAnna I've had my other leg done 10 month ago and I agree it's "easier" but not "easy". I'm more relaxed because I know what to expect and I know I'll be fine very soon.