Hello everyone- wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Bonne Année. I am back from the clinic with my new hip. I had my op last Wednesday and came home Monday. The surgeon told me he had had a hard time getting even the smallest prothesis in as I have such little bones and now my right leg is slightly longer than the left. He will correct this when he operates on the left hip next year. Boo hoo 😭😭- I had hoped that with the pressure off the left I could get away with one op but it seems the left is buggered too. I mobilised very quickly - according to the nurses- and walked 3 times in the corridor the next day at first with a walking frame and then crutches. The crutches supplied were hopeless as I have such short forearms but now I'm home I am using 2 ordinary walking sticks. It's a bit painful and one of the worst things is having to sleep on your back. I wake up very stiff every morning from being in the same position too long. I am making do on one Tramadol a day rather than the 3 prescribed . I start my physio on Monday with a Dutch lady who wants to speak English. This seems very unnatural as I am used to only speaking to medical professionals in French! It was a bit lonely in the clinic with no visiting allowed and on my corridor walks I never set eyes on another patient . And -cherry on the icing -my heart has behaved! Commiserations to those of you imprisoned in tier 4 and unable to continue with Christmas plans but at least it' s not a no deal Brexit. Let's hope 2021 is a better year.
Home with new hip!: Hello everyone... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Home with new hip!
Wishing you a speedy recovery Auriclaire and hope you'll have someone waiting on you over Christmas.
Jean x
Thank you Jean. My husband is but I have to admit to taking pity on him and sneakily doing the washing up yesterday when he went out to fill my prescription and do some shopping. Joyeuses Fêtes.
Glad to hear it went well. Take it easy!.
Thank you Bob. One of the advantages of a walking frame or 2 sticks is that it is difficult to carry stuff so household tasks are difficult to perform though I did help my husband make dinner last night. I did not trust him with the delicate task of sautéing the liver.
Sautéed liver .... ewwwwww! I just mentioned that to my European husband ... “may l sauté your liver darling ...” he said many in Europe love liver. I remember my mother cooking it when l was a child ... l said ewwww, l’m not eating that ... then and now!
I cook it for only 3 minutes in a hot pan with a little knob of butter and a teaspoon of hazelnut oil. After 2 minutes I add a good slug of port and cook another minute. Any more and it is overcooked and tough as old boots in my opinion!
Hip, hip hooray......I guess buggered must be a medical term I've not heard of before.....😇 Take it easy, good excuse for being waited on hand 'n foot......best wishes.
Thank you. Unfortunately you are supposed to keep getting up and walking , doing painful exercises to strengthen the quads etc so total lazing about not an option!
Sounds very positive Auriculaire - best wishes for a good recovery and a happy new year.
Thank you Finvola. I will be over the moon if I can climb on our motor bike by the end of April! Have a good Christmas.
Why didn’t I marry someone like you.....my missus hates motor bikes!!
That's a shame. My husband has been a biker for nearly 60 years. I had only been on a bike once before I met him and wasn't that keen. But I love the bike now. Also it's the only way I can travel comfortably as I have a bad back that car journeys exacerbate. This year we bought the latest Honda Goldwing - bagger version. It is really a souped up Pan European and so smooth.
Wow....a fast armchair on wheels, how decadent......enjoyyyyyy!
No the bagger has no armchair. It is a normal seat. But long. I can get off side saddle which is necessary since I can no longer stand up on the pedals after damaging a tendon behind my knee getting off a BMW in a showroom.
😩😳
Wonderful bike...I have a Honda Gold Wing Esplinarde fully loaded. It's very spoilt, only comes out in dry weather lol. Merry Christmas and wishing you a speedy recovery. Cheers Roy
Thank you. We had an F6B till July but my husband wanted automatic transmission for the tourer( which he had on his 2nd little "shopping and squash" bike). Before that we had a Pan. I never liked the F6B as much as the Pan. Despite modification the seat was a bit too wide for me and the ride was not as smooth . We have had to modify the seat on the new Honda a lot as it was an instrument of torture for me but now we've got it more comfortable than the F6B seat . And the ride is smooth like the Pan! Merry Christmas and happy biking in 2021!
So glad to hear that you’re out of hospital and on the road to recovery. Hope you feel much better soon.
Thank you for all your help and guidance this year.
H xx
Thanks Hilly. I hope I continue to progress so well . The main fly in the ointment is having to go through it all again next year with the left hip. But at least I'll know what to expect.
I have had two total hip replacements and a hip revision, painful but amazing implants. Good luck, don’t expect too much too soon, hope you get lots of support.
Thank you. What is a revision? Does it mean having it done again? How many weeks were you on crutches/ sticks for?
Different experiences, different teams. Twelve weeks first one, about two then sticks for second. Revision is a big op, replacing an implant. ☹️
Why did you have to have to have the revision done ? Was there something wrong with the prosthesis?
Best wishes for a speedy, smooth and uneventful recovery!
Thank you!
Well done Auriculaire. I had both hips replaced eleven years ago(where has that time gone?) After the first one I was back riding my motorbike, an R1 within ten weeks, my advice do as much walking as you can manage to strengthen those muscles and you'll soon be swinging your leg over!
Thank you. That's really reassuring. For all of this year I have had to take Izalgi ( a mixture of Paracetamol and opium powder) just to climb on the bike and one or two journeys were downright painful despite the painkillers. Lifting up the left leg as far as the pedal has been a problem and that will continue till the left hip is done too. It's a bit better with the new Honda as the pedals are so low. No way I could get on our old BM now! Merry Christmas.
Glad all went well and you are home. French I would be useless with, Dutch I could get by. Take it easy and enjoy your Christmas. xxx
Thank you. The smell of roasting capon that my husband is preparing is creeping into the bedroom ! Merry Christmas.
Hello Auriculaire
Funny, isn't it, how you only feel one hip until it is done, and then you suddenly realise the other one hurts too. I had both mine done a few years ago and it was like a miracle!
I am a bit concerned that they didn't give you the right size of crutches. Make sure your walking sticks are the correct height so you can walk as near to normal as possible. Take sufficient painkillers to be able to this. Only reduce them when you no longer have pain. Be careful to stick to the post op rules. They gave me paracetamol to take in the gap when it was too early to take my main ones. Don't stint on them to start with. Above all, do your exercises! Amazing how they strengthen your legs! I have some friends who ignored some of the instructions and as a result took much longer to recover or even had to have a second op. I felt very proud to be able to walk unaided to see the consultant for my post op appointment.
You'll be walking normally in no time, and the second one will feel less stressful than the first as you will know what is happening. To me, the few weeks of recovery time were totally worth it! My hips don't give me any trouble, even if the rest of my joints creak and ache!
Thank you for your advice. My left hip was actually more painful than the right but the x rays showed the right was more damaged and it was weaker. The crutches were adjustable but not the bit at the top where you rest your elbows so they flapped about because I have very short forearms. Maybe ones for children would have been better. I can walk quite well with 2 sticks but it is tiring . The pain killers are a huge problem as I tolerate them very badly. Paracetamol makes me feel bloated ( not good for the old afib ) and after 2 days of just one Tramadol a day I have swollen ankles ( never happened after the op) and appalling drowsiness. Swollen feet and ankles are on the list of Tramadol side effects. I was a dancer before I retired so am used to working through pain and would rather put up with the pain than feel crap overall. I am going to try alternating Paracetamol and Tramadol . The exercises are painful but I am doing them for both legs as it would be better to strengthen the left quads a bit before having the op on the left hip next year. To think that when I was dancing I had very strong quads and positively ugly calves but in the last year of pain and relative immobility all that muscle has turned to fat. Merry Christmas. My post op appointment is a month after the op . I very much doubt I will be able to throw away my stick until after the 2nd op. Merry Christmas.
The hip replacement itself can also lead to swollen ankles. My whole legs were huge. Your hips and legs have had a traumatic experience. Give them time to heal! It is only worth putting up with pain if you can still move your legs as you would normally. As you heal, your hips will form tissue, and with exercise, this will allow you to move them fully. If you have pain, they may resist and seize up. It sounds as if you are trying to do everything at once. The healing period is 6 to 8 weeks, and even then a lot of people hobble and even use a stick. Go easy on yourself.
Check that Paracetamol and tramadol are ok together. Or perhaps the doctor can recommend alternatives to tramadol.
In between exercising, you should be resting, as your body needs it to heal. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Since the op my thigh has been very swollen but until this morning I have had no ankle swelling at all.You would not believe the amount of painkillers that have been prescribed by the surgeon! 3000mg of Paracetamol a day plus 150mg Tramadol. But then the French are a bit wussy when it comes to pain. My physio in the hospital remarked that she had noticed that British patients seemed less sensitive to pain than the French! As if we were a different species. My dance pupils would visit their doctors for what to me seemed like nothing. And if they don't get a heap of drugs they feel cheated. I remember our French teacher at the adult classes in Brum telling us this. The rooms are laid out by the "service" of the surgeons so everyone in surgery C would have been undergoing some sort of orthopaedic op. I was the only person tapping round the corridor on crutches even though I saw others with crutches as I passed their open doors. I am resting lots - the Tramadol even at a third of the prescribed amount makes me very sleepy. A big problem is that I suffer from Fluoroquinolone toxicity and one of the consequences of being "floxed" is that your body just doesn't handle drugs very well even drugs you were able to take before. So painkillers seem to clear very slowly and the effect lasts a long time. 1000mg Paracetamol taken about 8-30am lasts till the evening. There is a 25mg Tramadol dosage so I will ask the doc if I can have that .I maybe did a bit too much walking yesterday though 26 times round the island unit in our kitchen did not seem a lot. The weather has been vile so I am not inclined to get soaked walking outside and today it was frosty .
I thought that I had to lie on my back after my hip op, but after looking up about it on the net found that you can lie on your unoperated side, which was SO much better! I also used a high stool to help in the kitchen, even eating from the kitchen top ( but then I was alone, so had no help to get food to the table).
I have tried lying on the unoperated side with the pillow between my legs ( they insisted on this in the clinic when I had to turn for the dressing changes) but I find it painful at the moment. I am thinking of getting one of these long Japanese hugging pillows as that will support the lower legs as well as the thighs.
It depends on the procedure you had. Different surgeons favour different ways of operating. If they told you to sleep on your back, I would check with the surgeon before lying on your side. Otherwise the hip might pop out and you will have to have it done again, which is often less successful than the first time.
My sister was so crippled they did both during the same operation. I was amazed they could ! She recovered quickly. That was in the UK. Happy Christmas 🎄
Thank you . I was pretty bad before the op - had to crawl upstairs somedays - but that was partly because I tried to do too much. I don't think I could have faced having both done at once. Merry Christmas.
Foutue. Which is not quite as bad here as the English equivalent. For that you have to go to the much more innocent sounding ( to us) niqué. And the worst insult you can call someone is an ordure!
Ordure = poo poo = excrement!!
Yes but somehow this is more insulting than the more vulgar merde.
Thank you . Whatever you do, do not use niqué in polite company. You will be looked on with horror and considered to be a very vulgar person. Though it might be ok at a Paris St Germain / Marseille Olympique fixture where there are probably loads of men calling the ref an ordure.
That's great to hear,except for having to sleep on your back. Can you put pillow under the left leg? It's very early days but sounds like you are doing brilliantly. Well done you. Let us know how physio goes. My husband had his hip replaced 6 weeks ago and is off crutches now. He finds sleeping with a pillow a great help. His consultant said walking is the best physio and no need for physio. Just goes to show how docs differ. Best wishes for full and speedy recovery. 💕🌲🌲💐💐🍾
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