hi,
I was born with dislocated hip. literally I was born on the left side with the ball only no socket but through my life never stopped me doing anything, but always had a limp. As I have got older the hip is riddled with arthritis but causes me no issues, but its taken its toll on my right hand side and I’ve been struggling since 2o17 with pain in the right hip and gradually got worse to the point struggle to walk, cannot bend down, cannot fasten shoes and crawl upstairs. I’m therefore having hip operation where I’ve been told I will be awake and feel tugging etc to which does not phase me, what phases me is do you have catheters fitted? I don’t do dresses or skirts and it says to take this type of clothing for recovery. I’m hoping other females on here can put my mind as rest regarding this and how long before you can wash your hair etc . I’m on gabapentin 300g x 3 times a day, along with ketaprofen at night and 10mg of morphine twice a day to help me function and control pain. I am looking to eventually be pain free and feel like a person again and not a hindrance to others. I just a little disappointed that the hip born with doesnt need operating on yet as no pain from it so will still after the op have a limp as my left leg is 4cms shorted than mine right and apparently cannot lengthen the leg even slightly. sorry rattling on here.
on another note been very informative being able to listen to everyones stories on here 
Answers to some of your questions:
(I'm 74; total hip replacement in Feb 2019.)
I didn't have a catheter.
I wear joggers or trousers all of the time - I don't own any skirts or dresses, and certainly was not buying any specially - this was really no problem.
I washed my hair (in a basin) the day after the operation. Showers with care shortly after that.
Others will say more!
Good luck,
Joan
hi. my experience of this OP and others as a retired nurse unless you've got bladder issues I doubt theyll catherteise you plus they like as much as possible to be intervention free ( drips tubes catheters) to prevent the risk of other infections esp immediately post OP. but ask at your pre OP.
from the aspect of clothing it is much easier if you can dress in dresses / skirts until you can bend easier ie 90 degree rule as most of these can go over your head. ok i know that men wear trousers so you can too just very loose ones as early days your leg will swell a lot.
you may find cos of the meds you're taking now you need the same or even less post OP but I'm sure theyll know best. just make sure you take them if you need them. main thing is to move as much as possible post OP and forever really and if you're pain free you'll do that.
Shame they cant shorten your leg atm but I'm sure they know what they're up to.
best wishes anyway and leg ys know how you get on :)
Hi Vicky
Your story is the same as mine.
I agree get the right hip replaced but i also think that to preserve your back and even you up your consultant should be looking at the left side.
It is usually possible to lengthen the short leg by using a longer femoral stem.Who is your consultant?
If you have a catheter it will likely only be for a day or two so I shouldnt worry about that.
I will just mention that you might feel like your new hip makes your leg longer , this happened to me and I got very upset as like you I already had a significant difference. It did settle and shorten when I started walking on it.
Post op you will be relying on your shorter leg , you will really need a good shoe with the necessary built up heel otherwise you are going to struggle!
It will be so worth it and you will be much better off but do see if anything can be done about your shorter leg.
Best of luck!
Jane
You will feel so much better after your op. Everyone in my ward had a catheter just before the op which was taken out after a few hours when we had got out of bed. It sounds like you are having a spinal anaesthetic. I think they are brilliant. I had no sedation as I wanted to know what was going on, but you can have different levels, some people don't know what is going on at all or you can take music to listen to if you want. I was able to shower in the hospital so no problem washing my hair and I have a shower at home too.
Hi Vickie,
As someone already said wear joggers after your hip op, it will be cold anyway. I never wear skirts or dresses normally but, I did take one to the hospital as I did not know what to expect.
I was sedated and knew nothing of the op, I was woken 1 hr 50 mins after having the spinal. A nurse put a catheter in as soon as I was woken up, I said I did not want it but, she said they need to empty the bladder and see how much urine comes out, still frozen so did not feel it. Later in the evening in recovery she wanted everyone to pass urine again, if you could not then they catheterized, the ladies passed water the men needed help, apparently it is common for men to have a problem, again it was measured.
The day after my op a nurse told me I could shower if I wanted to as the clips were covered with a waterproof plaster so I did, no problem showering.
Good luck for the 19th.
hi
where are you having your op as i think it depends a lot on your surgeon
i am currently on day3 post 2nd THR
that is reassuring to hear Joan.
glad I dont have to buy clothing i wouldn't wear too.
can I ask how long after the op before you started to feel confident walking etc?
thanks for replying
vickie
hi jane
never wore built up shoes and consultant never mentioned I'd need to, just said I maybe kept in longer than the norm. I always wear reiker boots with zips now wa find they support me better.
I'm with prof kay at wrightington hospital. I'm worried about the raised heal as tried in past but I couldn't get used to them as always walked with a limp... so always had normal shoes/boots. suppose they will now discuss this if needs be after op now.??
thanks
thanks for replying.
hoping no catheter but will go with their judgement. I glad to hear about super and washing hair as the occupational therapist said could not shower fir 6-8 weeks and to buy special caps to wash your hair from amazon. all the recovery vids I've watched too seem to say you cannot wash or shower and getting so much mixed messages. tbh all I want Is to br able to function again as walking is like dragging my leg and not a walk. stairs getting harder and harder and just want a bit of normality
thanks jen, that's reassuring to hear
i am having it at wrightington under prof kay. seems to have good reputation
Hi Vickie,
I wanted to wish you well for your upcoming surgery, but also wanted to say 'where on earth does you OT come from?' It's a bit old fashioned to tell patients they can't wash or shower for goodness sake, and I'm sure you would feel a lot worse as strip washes just don't do it. I was in the shower on day two after being installed on a high shower chair and managed by myself with care. Modern dressings mean that you are able to get them wet. I continued the process at home with my very patient hubby making sure I was ok, and he also put clean dressings on after as instructed by the hospital. I did not get any infection and now it's hard to tell what has been done unless you look carefully. I would say observe the 90 degree rules to the letter. It's amazing how adept you get at even putting trousers on with your grabbers! your need for the pain killers you take will lessen over time and you will feel like a whole different person!
I was not even aware when they inserted the catheter before my op and when they wanted me to get up to walk they just pulled it out, it took half a second. I was not even aware I had a catheter.
I know how you feel about getting upstairs, just before my op I felt I was climbing Everest.
My gosh, not being able to shower for 6-8 weeks, that is ridiculous in my opinion. You can get dry shampoos as well, but a proper shower is much nicer.
hi
it really depends where you have your op. I am in the UK
i had my 2nd done 5 days ago and came out after three nights. As i see it the benefit of the catheter is that you can drink plenty and not worry about having to get up all the time to pee/ use a bedpan. You wont have a choice though!
I use both loose trousers and dresses. Dresses are easier, certainly at the start when dressing and also when you go to the loo.
They used a waterproof dressing on both occasions and i have been able to shower from the outset and will have hydrotherapy
If you are in the UK it will obviously depend on your hospital, mine could be different.
i found this on the hospital website. it clearly states that you will have a showerproof dressing
https://www.wwl.nhs.uk/Library/All_New_PI_Docs/T_O/Musc%20011%20Wrightington%20Total%20Hip%20Replacement%20Programme%205.20%20v9.pdf
i hope that helps
M
It depends what you mean by confident!
My husband went back to work 3 weeks after my op (which was in late Feb 2019). It was a Monday (the op was on a Sunday). I forced myself to walk round the block to the local shop on my own for the first time, heavily dependent on my two crutches, because I knew if I didn't then it might be a long wait. So you could say I was confident to do that. I then did the walk every day, and completely discarded the crutches at six weeks. After that I built up the walking and tried to do a reasonably long (up to 10000 steps total) walk every day. I bought and carried in my rucksack a folding walking-stick - good psychology if I over-reached myself I would be able to get home - but I never actually had to use it. I went back to my part-time work (commuting, long train journeys and queues at Victoria tube station) after 4 months, without using any stick or crutch. I spent the summer in Greece, swimming, gardening and doing some hiking (using hiking poles). It all got better steadily and gradually. I started playing tennis again in September (quite nervously). Recently (I'm now 9 months post-op) I've realised that I am literally not thinking about the hip at all most of the time - eg running for the ball at tennis, carrying heavy shopping, etc. I'm planning to go skiing in March (I was told to wait 12 months for that) but to be honest I think I could ski now.
One thing which I'm noticing now is that it's very hard to remember to do my exercises as I am literally forgetting about the hip for hours on end. But I know I must at least continue the exercises reasonably often until I go skiing.
So if by "confident" you mean totally forgetting about its effects I would say 9 months. But if you mean pretty happy then I would say 4 months.
I think that I have been pretty lucky, but I am 74 (nearly 75) so I'm no spring chicken!
Joan
My gosh, I did not see half these people while I was in hospital. I saw the anaesthetist at my pre op who it turned out was not the anaesthetist for my op. I did not see him until I was in the room next door to the operating theatre having my spinal, the conversation was about his assistant's summer holiday.
There was no recovery room, as the hospital was an old TB hospital, I got taken directly back to the ward after a blood transfusion.
The op was at a weekend so skeleton staff and no physios etc. I never saw a pharmacist ever, just given the drugs with typed info.
We did not have stairs with rails to see if we could go up and down, just a home made set of steps which looked like boxes had been used.
No one contacted me three days after the op. In fact the first time I saw anyone after keaving hospital was four weeks later when I had an appointment with physio who checked I was OK and signed me off.
They mention a lot about possible problems during and after the op, I am surprised they do not mention constipation which does seem to be a problem that a lot of people get from the drugs. They don't seem to mention when you can start showering either. I assume they think you just start when you are up to it.
Good God where on earth did you have your operation?
You are so right - both times the constipation was really distressing