What Hippies Say Post OP

[hipnhop]

Just trying to upcoming Hippies learn about some of the challenges we go through after surgery. Please add your own:

My sheets are wet
UHHHHHHHHH,OOOOOOOOHHHH, UHHHHHHHHHH, OHHHHHHHHH - I need a laxative
Damn - I dropped that cane again
My lips are dry
I got to scratch this thing
Daddy, you really need to take a shower.
Cant sleep
Do I have a fever?
"Good foot up, bad foot down, which way does it go?"
Thank Lord for this Pee bottle  ( ladies I have no clue waht u use)
Where is the reacher stick?
To tell you the truth, I dont know what device I have in me
I'll be running again five months post op
Honey, seriously, the doc said it was ok!

[mslendzion]

Who's leg is this, it's not mine. 

[lynne123]

lol hipnhop !!!  I had to assure my honey doc said it was ok to :)

[midiowa]

sounds like good times ahead.  sounds like an old fashion for 1st couple.LOL.   

[hipnhop]

Here's one: "My Surgeon has x number of HR under his belt."

[WTW15]

"No, really Honey, I'm not breaking the 90* on the surgery side so it's all OK"....

"Oh Hell yes I'm walking up/down all 23 stairs on my own - I need the exercise."

"yes - some day (soon) I'll be able to spend all night in the bed" 

[hipnhop]

I got a 10 inch!
I got a 8 inch!
I'm lucky - I have only a 6 inch (scar)!!!!

[hernanu]

The way I look at it, hip. I have 8 on the left, 7 on the right, so I got bragging rights even in in south America

[FlbrkMike]

In the recovery room, after my first hip was done, the surgeon came to ask how I was doing.  The first thing I said was:

"Let's do the other one!!"

He seemed seriously surprised.

[lynne123]

I wanted both my hips done from the get go but my doctor would not approve it.  So it is fantastic to be free of pain in my left hip but it is being overridden by the pain in my right.  What was the diagnosis in your second hip that he was willing to do it so soon? 

[Woodstock Hippy]

''I can run in 180 more days''

''I can run in 179 more  days''

''I can run in 178 more days''.........................................

''I can run in 85 more days''

[FlbrkMike]

I wanted both my hips done from the get go but my doctor would not approve it.  So it is fantastic to be free of pain in my left hip but it is being overridden by the pain in my right.  What was the diagnosis in your second hip that he was willing to do it so soon?

Hi Jennifer,

When I first saw my surgeon I had a lot of pain in my left hip and but not much in my right, though the ROM was severely limited on both sides.  My x-rays showed both hips to be about equally bad, pretty much bone on bone, and the three surgeons who looked at them all said that the right one actually looked worse.

My doctor agreed that both sides were candidates for BHR, and had done same day bilaterals before but didn't want to do them on me for several reasons.  He said that a month would probably be time enough between for my first to heal sufficiently to support the second one.  I just felt so good coming out of surgery on my left side (I'm sure the drugs had something to do with that) that I felt like going right back in for the second.

How is your second hip?  Is your doctor not willing to even consider scheduling it some time in the future?

Mike

[lynne123]

I am going to email him today and see if he will reconsider doing my right hip.  I woke up two mornings in a row crying from the pain.  I think the reason he did not consider it is because I am not bone-on-bone in my right hip yet. I am now three weeks two days post-op and could really tolerate having the right one done now.  I do have to say that in hindsight, I am glad to have not done them both on the same day. One hip done was rough for the first two week. I do like the approach of and see the wisdom in scheduling them one month apart. 

Thanks!

[hipnhop]

Jennifer, I had my done 10 months apart - not by choice.  My surgeon wanted to wait 6 months for the first one to heal before doing the second. A few insurance complications caused a further delay.

I agree with you. I can't fathom how people get both done at the same time unless they spend two weeks in rehab. I am 8 days out and my good hip really enables me to get around well, climb stairs. I might even go to the gym today. I am on a cane and feeling good. Without one good leg, I don't know how people do it. 

During both operations I was taking Voltaren for pain. I was worried that the meds were masking any pain in the operated hip. I was worried that if there were any complications I didn't know it because of pain meds. I had to get off the meds three weeks before the 2nd surgery.  To be honest I was a little worried, now the truth would be revealed. Was the new hip doing well or was the pain meds masking any pain?  To test out my theory I did 5, 3 minute rounds of jumping rope.  The next day the operated hip was fine but the unop hip was in excruciating pain.

I am glad it is over so I can detox my body of all that junk and get back to the active lifestyle I love. I would push your surgeon to get it done as soon as possible. You dont want to keep putting pain meds in your system or let pain ruin your life. "No Pain, No Cane"

[FlbrkMike]

In hindsight I don't think that same day bilateral would have been right for me either.  It probably would have required taking a month or two off of work, and I didn't have the vacation time to do that, and it also would have been a bigger burden on my wife.  As it was I was able to start going back to the office after about 10 days (my wife works in the same office, so she drove).

One month between surgeries worked out really well for me, because it seems like my left hip healed very quickly.  It wasn't 100% obviously but definitely strong enough to support the other.  My doctor was very flexible in giving me the option of delaying the second hip if I wanted to.  It's a good thing that I did the left one first because I was full weight bearing "as tolerated", while after my right hip I was "toe touch only" on crutches for four weeks.

[lynne123]

Mike:

  My situation is similar to yours in that one hip hurt far worse than the other. The oddity is that the one that hurt the least (left hip) is the one that showed bone-on-bone in the MRI. But pain can be funny like that. Other than that, they both showed arthritis and labrum tears. My ROM was shot on both sides.  He said that he wanted to proceed conservatively and see how things went once the left hip was done and also stated that he thought I may get another year or two out of my right hip.  He could very well be right. But the pain in the right hip is back nonetheless.  I had a short break from it with all this laying around and constant pain meds.  Pre-op I did the icing, NSAIDS, cortisone shots etc but that is not going to work now anymore than it did in the past.  While I do agree that if I were not going to return to dance I could minimize the pain and probably make it the two years.  But I will go back to dancing the split second I am given the go ahead and the pain will be chronic again. Right now it comes and goes. Not only that, the demise of my right hip will almost certainly be quick. I really doubt, with dancing, I will make it the year without bone-on-bone wear.  What I do is analogous to running in place or doing jumping jacks so it is high impact on the hips. So if I were to wait the year, I would just be fully healed from resurfacing the left only to go back in for the right and down for the count for another six months to a year.  Like you, I want to go right back in for my other hip and be done with the pain. Somehow being pain free on the left is almost making me feel more intolerable of the pain in my right, if that makes any sense? I toughed through the pain for a couple years and I just plain tapped out from it a few months back.  I threw in the towel, slowly quit dance and put on 20 lbs.  I stopped exercising, walking and pretty much everything else.  I did put a message into his office late this afternoon and explained briefly how my right hip is feeling and if there is any way he would reconsider resurfacing it.   

Hipnhop:

The thought that insurance may have something to with it has crossed my mind.  I imagine that he has to justify the surgery to the insurance company so maybe my diagnosis of the right hip just doesn’t quite cut it right now.  What I do know is that he is an amazing doctor and I do trust his judgment.  I do believe he will do what is in my best interest and cares deeply about his patients.  I also appreciate that he chose not to rush into it when he could’ve made twice the amount of money doing both hips in one surgery.   Not to mention I will be eternally grateful for his wisdom for advising against same day bilateral!!  I get intimidated in these kinds of situations and I hate to be that pesky whining patient. But I sucked it up and took your advice and that of another and put a message into his office late this afternoon. Just like your experiment to see if the pain meds were masking the pain, like I explained above to Mike, I know that once I return to dance the pain in the non-operated hip is going to escalate and the demise will be quick.
Like you I want to be free of the pain meds.  I have been taking them for a couple of years now and I don’t like how they have affected me. I don’t take much, a Vicodin per day, occasionally two, but I am dependent on them.  It’s such a low dose that it would probably only take me a couple of weeks to get off of them.  But even at such a low dose I am cranky as hell when I miss that daily dose.  It’s like PMS â€" everybody duck and run!
Boy do I want to return to my active lifestyle.  I live right by the path along the Delaware River and I walked several miles of it every other day, went to the Y, did Zumba and yoga and danced 10 plus hours per week. Now I do nothing! I am only 51 years old and I feel like I’m 65.  I vowed not to be old no matter what age I am!

Anyway, I know Dr. Su is a very busy man so it will take several days I am sure before he gets back to me, but here is hoping it will work out in my favor.  I will definitely post here when he does.

Thanks Mike and hipnhop!   

[Woodstock Hippy]

''I can't fathom how people get both done at the same time unless they spend two weeks in rehab''

That was my plan and it couldn't have worked out better.  When Dr Marwin suggested doing both the same day I thought he was crazy.  I thought I'd be without a leg to stand on, but another hippy, DoubleTrouble, explained how well it works when you stay at the Rusk Rehab Hospital and I read here about all the patients who go home in two days and are just lost.  I never had any bad pain so doing one at a time wouldn't have been easier that way.  I was on the surgical floor with PT twice a day for three days then moved to the PT floor for six days with PT three times a day.  They worked me pretty hard and I walked out of there on the morning of the ninth day with just a cane and feeling good.

I saw the doctor yesterday, I can run on May 7!

[hipnhop]

Jennifer, really present your case. Rob gave me a letter he used to help me fight my insurance company and it worked.  You have a good case. Those meds will do more harm to you than anything else - got to get them out your system.  Plus, you will never be able to adequately rehab your op hip if the other one is in pain.  I often worried about the damage I was doing to the OP hip because it was compensating for the bad one. No one had an answer. Quality of life is an issue too. You have the right not to be in pain.  From my experience, the surgeon will support you with the insurance company as long as they don't have to write the letter.   I will share mine with you if you plan to go that route. Stop being "Miss Nice Chick" and get your hip fixed!

[lynne123]

So I heard back this afternoon from my surgeons assistant and the answer is no to proceeding with resurfacing of my right hip at this time.  She said he feels that we should wait until I make a full recovery to talk about doing the left side to make sure that I am 100% happy with the results and I am able to return to dancing and that we can discuss it further at my follow up visit on the 27th.  This confuses me a little but the 27th is only a couple of weeks away, I can ask for clarification then. So here is what I am wondering....  Before the surgery his assistant asked me what kind of flexion I would need in the style of dance that I do and she showed me my two options. The point being that, based on my needs, he would modify the resurfacing to allow me the extra extension I would need. I told her in actuality I needed both. I need the flexion that would allow for the knee to be brought into the chest and the flexion that would allow me to extend me leg to the back in arabesque. Before the surgery I sent her a video to share with Dr. Su so they could see for themselves exactly what I want to return to.   ...... is there a special circumstance then based on the way the surgery was done that would make him want to wait and see the outcome?  Like I said, this confuses me a little. So it looks like I am going to have to be patient.  I trust him fully so I am going to have to remind myself of this when the pain is asking why wait. I do know that I will need to fully understand his reasoning when I leave the visit so I can understand why I am still living in pain.

Thanks hipnhop for the offer for help with the insurance.  If that issue comes up I will certainly take you up on it.  You are right about the pain meds.  I am going to have to deal with the right hip pain without them. Starting tomorrow I am going to only allow myself one per night for two weeks, the following two weeks half per night.
You make a really good point that I will bring up with Dr. Su on my visit about the damage to the Op hip when compensating for the bad one. Ironically to your point he said before the surgery that he felt that once my left hip (Op hip) was healed he expected my right hip (bad one) pain to be reduced greatly since it would not be bearing the brunt to protect the left. So now the question is whether there will now be role reversal between the hips.  Very good question!

@Woodstock - Ya know, I think with same day bilateral it works when you don't know what you are in for.  That and going to rehab for a week or so.  Just like  not watching that youtube video of the surgery until afterwards.  I still give extra cudos to those of you who have gone through it!!

Ok, I've taken this post off topic so here is my contribution to What Hippies Say Post Op:

How grateful am I that I have a second chance to return to what I love!

And how can I ever fully express my gratitude to my doctor!!

[Two4One]

Hi Jennifer!

Dr. Schmitt gave me the choice of one hip a month or whenever apart or bilateral the same day.  I went for bilateral and LOVE IT!  Only 3 days in the hospital, then I was home to Nurse Ratchett (Hubs).  I vote "Two legs good" - 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell.

I had planned to stay on at an extended care facility for an additional week post op, but my hospital PT and OT talked me out of it by saying that no PT facility near Detroit offered a cool extra PT program and that the extended care would only be to prepare me to walk to the bathroom by myself, dress myself, and prepare and eat a simple meal.  All of which I accomplished before leaving the hospital three days post op.

I  do, however, thank the The Universe/Lord/Serendipity for my fabulous in home care team of RN Melissa, PT Harry, and OT Carrie!

Jen, I feel for you because no way could I have supported myself with an unoperated hip OR dealt with the extra pain!  Yet, it sounds like you have a plan and are going to make it all work out!

Godspeed to your Good Healing Soon!
2fer