Morning everyone, saw my Consultant on Wednesday - what a lovely man- talked about the options for my hip and he said that the best one would be a replacement which I have agreed to.
Is there anyone who has had a hip replacement that could give me advice, particularly as I live on my own with no family nearby please.
Here’s something I penned -
General advice for any replacement surgery -
Before you go in - just get yourself organised at home (patient leaflet will go over certain aspects) - so get all plates, utensils, cooking pans out of lower or higher kitchen cupboards - and place where they are easy to reach, you don’t want to be bending or stretching unnecessarily.
Stock up freezer with either ready meals or home cooked so you don't have to cook from scratch all the time- frozen veg is very good nowadays - and sometimes you just don't feel like cooking.
Likewise clothes in bedroom dressers, shoes etc.
Make sure you can access clothes easily - and initially loose trousers, skirts, tops - so you don’t have to struggle around your replacement.
Just plan ahead as much as you can...if you sort of make a note of what you do on a daily basis and think "I shan't be able to do that" you can get ahead of the game...and then hopefully when you get home you don’t suddenly realise you can’t do something, and there’s nobody to help.
If you have trouble getting compression sock off/on - who doesn’t - might be worth buying an extra pair - plenty on line at reasonable price. Hospital may give you extra pair to bring home.
I found that if they were too difficult to get off - I left them on when I had a shower - and dried them with a hair drier!
Probably cause the H&S people to have a fit - but you need to do what you need to do. And don’t be shy, if hubby can’t help, if you have a visitor ask them to help you get one pair off and new ones on!
Do as much pre op exercises as you can - plenty on line if you haven’t already got some - they really do help recovery.
You will find getting around a bit difficult - certainly if you aren’t used to crutches! So make sure you have enough room to manoeuvre yourself around bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen.h
Hip not as bad as knee operation to recover from, and at least you have sticks rather than crutches, so a bit easier. but remember bending hip is a big no-no initially
Under normal circumstances, hospital isn’t usually happy in letting you go hope alone - they prefer that someone is with you on the first night....but not always possible I know and not normal circumstances.
Hope it helps - you will soon feel the benefit!
thank you that is really helpful, have awful weather today so will attack my cupboards
My advice to you is to set your house & personal items up so they are all within easy reach. Get one of those grabbers to help & most importantly, if you wear socks, get one of the sock aids because you won’t be able to bend over far enough to put on your socks for a while. Keep plenty of ice on hand. You’ll need it for pain. Are so having a anterior surgical incisions? The anterior heals a lot faster than a posterior. Posterior, the doctor has to go through all those gluteal muscles & anterior they don’t.Good luck!
Thank you really helpful, not sure about anterior etc until I go to the 2 hour presentation with the specialist nurses and physios. The sock aid sounds a very good idea as does the ice
My husband had his hip done a couple of years ago and I found this website bonesmart.org/forum/threads... lots of helpful information about what to expect. You have had amazing advice from the previous posters.
Don’t know if you have stairs in your house but we did and our banister is a bit strange so I had someone come in and put a second one on which worked really well. I also got him a second pair of crutches and he had a pair downstairs and another pair upstairs which worked really well and saved him trying to carry crutches upstairs.
We have a downstairs shower room off our dining room so we moved the table and chairs out and put a single bed into the dining room. Which gave easy access to the loo and shower.
He had a picker upper thing for reaching for things that dropped and another thing for putting on socks - he got both from the occupational health people at the hospital. They also organised for someone to bring a toilet seat extender and that person would have raised the bed to the right height if that had been needed and also fixed grab rails - we had done that ourself, we replaced towel rails for really solid ones that wouldn’t fall off if he leaned on them. I also bought a really sturdy tub chair with arms for him to use as a dining chair - we use it in the house now but I felt happier with him on something really solid to lean on to get up and down.
I bought a box of ice packs from Amazon - you twist them and they freeze - I was given one last year by the nurse who was treating me when I broke my wrist so they were good.
As the Dorset lady says you mustn’t bend - think it’s more than 90 degrees but someone will tell you - so you don’t want to have to pick things up off the floor.
A light cloth bag that goes round your neck would be good for carrying things - books, phone etc and a mug with a lid so that you don’t spill.
The stockings are difficult to get on and off - I ended up using cream on my husbands legs to help the socks slide a bit - a useful tip I got from a friend who wears them all the time.
My husband had his operation done by ‘nerve block’ and sedation rather than a general anaesthetic which might sound grim but he was wide awake afterwards and felt great so if you are offered it then say ‘yes’.
I think the secret to making a good recovery is to do all the exercises you are given both before and after your operation.
Unlike my husband I’m sure you won’t need to be told not to do anything ‘stupid’!
He thought he could do things like change a lightbulb in the shower room, he used to stand on the toe of one sock and try to hop his way out of it! He had some really ridiculous ideas about what it was ok to do. We had several visits from a physiotherapist who was totally in agreement with me so we soon put paid to all that.
Good luck with it all, it will make such a difference to your life once you’ve had it done 😊
what great advice, thank you so much
I had my knee replaced without general anaesthetic - and although you do recover better - it was a big disconcerting to hear the sawing and the tap,tap,tap of a hammer!
Plus what the anaesthetist or I didn’t realise is that I have a bit of a curve in my spine so she had to faff about quite a lot to get the needle for the nerve blocker in the correct place.
Didn’t have a choice with hip and shoulder - general anaesthetic was decided for me!
you're a braver person than me that's for sure, do what you like but make sure I am asleep
😴 💤
Gosh you’re almost bionic😉
I’ve often wondered about what would happen if they couldn’t get the needle in, now you know you would definitely want a general. My other half was sedated enough not to hear any of the hammering, sawing or drilling.
Did think of changing my name from DorsetLady to TitaniumLady 😊!
🤣🤣🤣
Having watched the operation on YouTube before I had it, I was struck by the similarity of the tools used, with those in the workshops where I taught engineering and technology. Was very happy that I had a general anaesthetic. Got them a tad worried on waking up (or not) but that's another story. Excellent advice already given re organising house and everyday life.
2004-2014 I had both knees and both hips replaced plus both ankles fused. By far the hips were the easiest operation because of the type of hip replacements my doc and I choose. It is called the anterior approach hip replacement. If you have the choice have the hip done this way I definitely recommend it. I was back to work on the day I was released from the hospital.
Here is a link to quickly explain the procedure. More information with more scientific explanation available on google:
hopkinsmedicine.org/health/...
Best of luck on your procedure!
BlackKnight
Life style vs replacement
Partial knee replacement
How are your knees when you go down stairs?
Grade 4 knee arthritis 
