The best thing you can do to manage swelling, as well as pain, is elevation and ice. Elevation requires a straight stack of pillows with nothing bunched up behind the knee. Pressure applied behind the knee can encourage clots and may delay the ability to extend your knee, meaning to put it out straight. As for the height, “toes above nose” is a good maxim whilst making sure you don’t violate any bending restrictions you have been given.
Use ice as long as you want to…hours at a time is fine, provided that when the ice pack is fresh, you protect your skin from the fierceness of fresh ice with a pillowcase or similar cloth. Skin can get freezer burn!
Pain medications are essential at this stage. Take what you have been prescribed and take it religiously, especially before the pain starts up again. After 2-3 weeks, you can start adjusting doses or timing, but at the start, stick with what works. There is no rush to be off the pain medications your doctor prescribed, so don’t be frightened by tales of people becoming addicts because of a few weeks taking prescribed pain relievers. You need them at this stage and should continue using them as prescribed for as long as 6-8 weeks if necessary, although towards the end, you might find yourself requiring less and less.
More about managing pain after total hip replacement surgery
Above all, be careful adding to your progression of activity during recovery and don’t expect to bounce back within a matter of days.Exercise can consist of some simple routines and walking. There is little or no need for aggressive physiotherapy after hip replacement. Walking really is the best therapy you can do. The other “best thing” at this point is to remember that you are not the arbiter of how things go, your hip is. Listen to your hip and you will do just fine.
CHEERS
HOPE