Hi all! I'm new to the website/forums.
My experience: I am a female and I have had a THR (Total Hip Replacement) of the left hip at the age of 32. I am currently 11 weeks post-op.
I was diagnosed with PVNS (Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis) of the left hip in late 2007. I had an invasive total synovectomy done in March of 2008 (at the age of 25). In 2009 I started complaining to my doctor (a new doctor/health provider) of pain in my left hip joint again and he told me he was positive it was just residual arthritis from the synovectomy surgery the year before. After five years of on and off complaining and disagreeing regarding the cause of the pain, another set of X-Rays and MRI showed far more rapid deterioration of the joint since my last scans. My surgeon still argued that it was only arthritis but agreed it was time for a THR. During further scans it was discovered that I also had necrosis of the femoral head, my surgeon presumed it to be damage caused from the first surgery.
In November of 2014 underwent a posterior (utilizing the same 8 inch incision from my first surgery) THR of the left joint. I got the combo package: ceramic and metal artificial hip joint. I was fortunate to have a very smooth surgery. Went in at 7am and was out by 9:30am. Don't know what time I woke up at, the epidural they gave me was good stuff! They did use the tube/blanket warming technique during/immediately after my surgery (which was awesome and cozy). I couldn't wiggle/feel my toes until well into the late afternoon, the nurse initially told me she wouldn't take me to my room to see my family until I could feel her touching my toes, but she got tired of waiting I guess. Early evening the physical therapist tried to get me out of bed for my first walk (super awkward with a catheter by the way), but this didn't go as well as she or I had hoped for. I immediately went beyond pale in the face and felt super nauseous. They laid me back down deeming it safer to wait rather than risk a fall. My blood pressure had plummeted and I was put on the nursing staffs watch list for blood pressure checks every hour that night. While my blood pressure did continue to stay low, and I did have a lot of issues with the next two attempts at getting out of the bed the following morning, I begin to successfully move about the halls of the hospital by the afternoon. In fact, I was doing so well with my walker-ing about the halls multiple times that afternoon that they sent me home that evening (which I think my 6'3 husband appreciated not sleeping on the tiny bench in my hospital room for more than one sleepless night).
My surgeon was nice enough to send me a brief email informing me that he had the, run tests on some of the stuff he removed during surgery and there were traces of PVNS. Always fun when the doctor insists he knows what he's talking about even when you request more in-depth testing and you are denied on account of his knowledge and expertise. Oh well, at least I have a shiny new hip now.
Home physical therapy started two days later for me and Angela was delightful and encouraging. I again struggled with low blood pressure, going super pale, and then nauseous when our sessions were in the mornings so we began meeting in the afternoons so I could stay in bed throughout the mornings. I was on the walker for about 2 weeks if I remember correctly before she felt I was ready for a cane. At this point the home visits stopped and I was on my own to continue the exercises I was taught. At 10 days I walked a mile straight (yes with a walker, my neighbors probably thought I was crazy). I continued walking a mile everyday until I switched to the cane and then felt like I was starting all over again with stability and strength and had to work back up to this over the course of several days. I was told by the physical therapist to continue with the cane until I had absolutely no limp. Side note: the walker is tough on the wrists and the cane hurt my hand so bad! And the back pain from all the weird contortionist moves when attempting to safely stand up was ridiculous. So I used a cane up until around 8 weeks post-op...and even though I still had a slight limp (Angela would not have approved), I stopped using my cane (my hand just hurt too badly).
At 4-5 weeks post-op I caught the flu. It was miserable and my whole body ached so badly. It was also around this time that I decided it was a great idea to do a more rapid decrease of my pain meds to get off of them. I had slowly weaned myself to 1 or 2 pills a day (never thought to cut them in half before focusing on larger time gaps). I decided to just stop taking them a week into my bout with the flu, I guess I figured I already felt so terrible, how bad could it possibly get? So looking back, I would never do that again, it felt like the worse flu body aches for a second week due to the withdrawals. Up until about 6 weeks post-op I had struggled with severe nauseousness, but once I was off the pain killers + flu +withdrawal symptoms, things started getting way better.
At 7-8 weeks post-op, I started doing some research regarding my persistent limp issue as I was beginning to wonder if I would ever stop using my cane. I discovered my particular limp had a name: Trendelenburg Gait. Something I had struggled with for nearly all of 2014. It was also around this time that I started reading a lot of forums on THR and realized that maybe I hadn't been doing as well in my recovery as I had originally thought. I had had so many encouraging people around me during those initial several weeks after surgery, I began to feel let down by what appeared to be false praise. I mean, I had been doing well, I just somehow got it in my head that I was exceptional...you know going home next day and all. It was around this time that I discovered the post surgery depression that I had only read about in forums and thought I was an exception. So the past 3 weeks have been difficult dealing with no motivation to do anything. Even worse, I haven't been able to sleep well since weeks before surgery. So all that lethargy from depression and I can't even sleep it off! o.O
Regarding lack of sleep: weeks before surgery was restless pain all night, really sucked. First week or two after surgery, it was needing to pee literally every hour (the walk to the bathroom feels like it take forever during that first week), and it seemed like every two hours there was a shot or pill I had to take. The next three to four weeks were just restless, I'm not a back sleeper and this made it very difficult. I found I slept best in little naps throughout the daytime. The past several weeks have been tossing and turning all night(yay for finally sleeping on my side again -with a pillow between my legs of course). I'm at a point where i can't even seem to take a nap anymore despite not sleeping through the night. I dread bedtime, I lay awake for about 2 hours it seems before finally dosing off at some point. I think I'm going to try some Benadryl or something.
So here I am, in my 11th week. Still so happy to have gotten the surgery...the lack of sharp stabbing pain in my joint with every step has been wonderful! But the weak muscles, slower than desirable progress (personally), and physical limitations have been difficult to cope with. I'm currently in the depressed, still can't sleep, but hey I am finally able to reach into the dryer and do the laundry phase! I'm hoping to move onto the next phase soon. I return to work in 2.5 weeks, so we'll see how I hold up walking around on stone floors for 8+ hours a day.
Ooo, on a positive note, it was around week 8 that I actually felt like I started getting energy back. I had felt so drained for those first two months, every little thing I did seemed to require a rest break afterward.
