I had THR 8 months ago. I was really doing well. Last week I was making my bed and I felt something in my hip. It didn’t hurt but just a funny feeling. I took it easy most of the day and that night we went out for dinner and to Walmart. It really felt good to walk. But hip still felt weird. That night I slept really well . The next morning I got up out of bed and couldn’t stand because of the Terrible pain. I couldn’t even sit on the toilet. My husband had to help me down stairs . I thought I was going to have to call the ambulance. That day I took it real easy. Could stand walk or sit without terrible pain. I got into my orth. Surgeon the next morning but not without taking some Vicodin that I had left from a prior surgery. X-rays looked fine he said and he ordered blood work and a bone scan. He told me to stay low and go back on my walker. I had an appt to get a shot in my knee a couple of days later with him and when I was there he said blood work was good. So there was no evidence of elevation of cell count indicating infection. He told me to keep on walker. My bone scan was scheduled the next day. That was Thursday. Today is Sunday I do have my range of motion back now and can walk better BUT. I’m still in terrible pain. Night time is the worse. I have been icing, heating, elevating, and resting along with taking ibuprofen like it is candy. Also baclofen( muscle relaxer). We leave for a Florida in 2 days. Dr said to take walker along. He still wouldn’t give me any pain meds to get me thru the trip.
The pain is on the outside of my hip and radiates down out side and in front of hip. Sometimes it feels better to walk. It hurts to sit lay and stand. I’ve posted about this before but I just couldn’t explain it that well. Has anyone had This problem? I’m preserving what pain pills I have left for our trip to Florida. I know I’ll be using my walker and scooters s lot. As too much walking causes so much pain later.
Still waiting on bone scan results.
8 moths ago you had majorly evasive surgery that cut muscle and bone. Recovery is a strange bedfellow to us all. Even when well, before THR, I would occasionally pull, tear, or twist a muscle that would hurt like hell for a week or so. Now, I have scar tissue that feels strange, pulled a cut muscle that hurt like hell and have bone pressure while swimming. Getting older is not for sissies.
Anyway, it seems like we are all hyper vigilant over new happenings in our body. Good luck. Hopefully it will be short lived.
I agree with you Duck!!! I appreciate the more positive out look. Since I posts this last one I decided to take a muscle relaxer and more ibuprofen and and put some heat on my hip and lower back. I fell asleep and woke up feeling almost pain free. It feels wierd in the hip but I really think it helped. I have myofascial, fibromyalgia syndrome complex also. And I know that does not help this either. So I’m resorting back to what I remember helped me instead of trying to figure this out. I figure if there was something drastically wrong with my hip the dr would have called me on Friday with the results because my bone scan was done right next door and is affiliated with that hospital. I do trust him totally.
If it was really bad, this would be getting worse. Since my surgery we have retired and moved to a 2 story house. Not to mention my opposite knee really took a beating while recooperating from my surgery and it was not the best before. So I’ve been using my new hip to compensate for my bum knee. Which really I had no choice to do if I wanted to get around. Moving is a lot of stress and work.
Thank You
Yes it’s hell getting older and our bodies starts to deal with things much more differently. ( I don’t have to like it though). You just told me in a nice way to quit whining and deal with it. And I thank you.
I totally sympathize with everyone that has to deal with pain day in and day out.
And it does get quit depressing. And at the same time it’s. It like it’s life threatening.
I'm hoping you are still improving it really is scary. I'm 8 months post op too and did so well that when just lately I've had a really weird pain in my hip I was worried. I agree getting old is the pits but it beats the alternative. Good luck
Hope you continue to improve, and I’m sure relaxing in some Florida sunshine will do you good. (It’s freezing cold in London! Take it easy.
The tests your waiting for may or may not show soft tissue damage , X-ray could show bone injury...and so on .... At this point only speculation. I strongly recommend that your vaca possibly be put on the back burner for a better time when you can really enjoy all the great times ahead.
The question is...Will you get pain meds in the ER in FL if needed...if that be the case so many other IF’S. Too much unknowns for me as I waited until I was stable before going on to FL. This is only a scenario and is what many have experienced when our serious pain is critical and there is some type of injury or failure of the components ignored or not taken more seriously by our surgeons.
At this point a vaca will be minimum enjoyment filled with worry. It’s worrisome enough now at home coping & this has been going on for a coulple of weeks & the hip is still unstable. Your complaints and requests for pain meds are refused yet your pain tells the doctor that your needing a diagnostic tool as a scan which usually some information can been seen and not always. In my case nothing was seen and there were many serious issues. Pain that does not go away and gets worse is the biggest calculator of complications of the hip. Weather or not a diagnosis is seen it’s appropiate to protect the hip until your no longer in serious pain or out of danger of further complications.
In my case the evaluations made by my surgeon for not listening to me since primary surgery has apologized to me for not giving me pain meds or taking my pain complaints seriously.....ONLY After waiting 6 years of suffering serious pain and complications and last 7 months in a wheelchair did they see while in revision “Surgery” all the damage causing pain. Nothing could prepare me for what the surgeon said next...They are driven by rules by law restrictions to RX pain meds and could see no reason on my MRI’s scans X-rays or the heavy metal tests... until they saw the damage during revision surgery 6 years later. The surgeon also was honest to tell me that they learned a lot from my case, mainly that just because there is no evidence on tests that does not mean there is no pain ( excusing my pain as a pain med seeker was a mistake). As a whole the dept. did a review with the orthopedist association just on these types of issues and designed standards allowing preventative procedures to establish better communication and post Op care.
I was also refused pain meds even from pain clinics ,saying they do not give pain meds to OA patients waiting for surgery...like 6 years waiting...
We need to take pain more seriously as a precaution and as a precursor to not fall into the pitfalls from THR complications. Not every surgery or patient has the same recovery protocol. I went on far to long and only to give pause to the risks we all take and there are some that we have no concept of what’s really happening until we are smack dab in the middle.
Would like to end this on a good note. After the pain is contolled and healing once again in a positive stable place and moving forward life has so much more meaning! This is a bump in the road and this too will be a learning experience building a stronger determination to know how fragile we are to how strong we become!
Wishing you the best.❤️
Hi Lori,
it's Judy again in Memphis. I am so sorry you are having this pain. Try to be patient, even in the midst of this pain. The bone ct scan will tell all. Another subscriber suggested a pulled muscle. That could very well be it. I did that twice, once in the PT GYM b/c the 24 yr old PT Apprentice Alpha Males were too rough. Both took a full week to heal. I would suspend ALL exercises until the scan results are in. I hope it hasn't moved like mine did. Best to you.
Judy
Wow Hope. You’ve been through hell. I’m so sorry you had to go through all that for so long. I wish we could put the trip aside for awhile but our airline tickets are non refundable. We are staying with a relative which will help.
Doing some visiting and relaxing. Going to sea world but using scooter. It’s going to be hard but I’ll make her.
Hi Judy, thanks did yours dislocate partially? This is so miserable At nite.
Woke up and no pain til I started walking on it. If my surgeon doesn’t call me in the morning , I’m calling in. Dr asked me last visit if I was glad I had it done. I said yes but I’ve changed my mind.
Sometimes I feel like I just had the surgery without the pain meds.
I hope you’re feeling better.
Hi Lori,
First of all, I totally agree that you should stay home and not fly or drive to Florida. I don't know where you live or how far that trip will be. I cancelled Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Smoky Mountains and many other things I'd looked so forward to. But couldn't bear the thought of being in some doc in the box clinic trying to get help from strangers who, as one lady said, think we're pill seekers. The opiod situation in the country has our doctors worried about liability etc. I'm fortunate enough to have one that prescribes 90 at a time if I tell him I'm hurting. Just like her, when he got in there during revision surgery 7 weeks ago, he literally came to me after I woke up and was fighting back tears, although he'd never questioned me if I told him to write a refill. He said the whole thing had moved completely out and was wiggling around, couldn't believe I was walking on it for 4 months. You may need to try acupuncture, some holistic treatments, light water aerobics etc. to deal with all of this. You mentioned your back, your hips of course and Fibromyalgia. That's an awful lot to deal with simultaneously. Pain meds at some point become a band aid and not the solution, although it sounds like you do need some to keep on hand. You need to put your foot down with him. Changing doctors won't help because they'll think you're trying to do just that, get the meds. Hope to hear about your bone scan.
Good Luck if you make that trip!
Hi everyone. Up date. It’s 5:25 a.m. We’re in our way to the airport Florida bound. Haven’t heard from dr on my bone scan yet. But feeling much better. Last nite not as bad. Haven’t taken a pain pill yet even. Been doing a lot of praying. Pain level 1. So I’m really hoping things are looking up. Hoping this keeps up. Still being very careful!?,,?!?,? Take care
And I hope you all are doing well!!!
I hope you have a really lovely time. Some sun will cheer you up! Take it easy, Judith
Beautifully warm here in Florida. Even if you can't do a lot, can enjoy the sunshine.
Was there as a kid, in Jacksonville but live far away now
Wow Judy my heart goes out to you and your explination was very well done.👍 Amazing the things we hippies somtimes endure even when doctors and surgeons mean well. And your surgeon should have been upset seeing the damage in the joint components. Many become hardened with patients complaints until the reality of what they see hits them during surgery! This has to stop and it happens more than we hear about. There are so many patients out there with the same components I had with same issues and do not know the components fail.
I wrote my story for others like you and for other hippies to listen to severe pain that does not go away or get better ...it's a warning in some cases and I to know that we are not alone. Everyone feels pain on a different scale. Many are told well the Xray looks great bla bla... And dismissed with no where to turn. Sometimes it's serious and somtimes not. That's what needs to change in the industry the times its serious and the hip components & patients are not doing as expected. Manufacturers do make mistakes in designs, so do the surgeons and rehab instructors. Even though we know and trust that everything is done to avoid mistakes sometimes is hard to process all the issues.
I think my end take away from my experience and others like yours is how much more there is to learn about how important it is to know the manufacture make and model of the hip components ,OP proceedure, and keeping up with the surgeons track record. There were 300,000 THR done last year alone and growing. A small % fail and there needs to be a better procedure for surgeons to be held accountable for each and every one of us.
In Europe there is a Registor of every single joint surgery from knees to hips . It Includes the doctors name, hospital, make and model of implants & with recovery follow up on each patient as well as patient info age etc: In the US only it's only volunteer info not required.
Lori happy to hear your better. Have a great time and smell the roses. 🌺