One Week Post Op with BHR

[Ken B]

Well I'm one week out from a right BHR and everything seems to be fairly normal. I can get around on one crutch but usually use two and the hip still feels stiff, a bit sore, and I accidently rolled the right knee in a bit past the mid-line which caused a jolt so I'm trying to be real careful of that.

I wasn't going to post but I thought I'd add to the data about bruising. I was crutching out to the kitchen when my wife nearly screamed because the back of my leg has a nasty purple streak running down past my knee. I just did a search on this site and it seems like something that can happen so we're all calmed back down. I had noticed that the swelling had gone into my lower leg and down to my foot so in the back of my mind I had concerns but it seems like that can be normal as well.

One other thing I can note in case anyone runs into the same thing is that the new generic lovenox syringes don't seem to work as well as the brand name stuff did back in 2005 when I was injecting it into someone else. No matter how confident I am that I have pushed the plunger down all the way, when I pull it out and then push to activate the safety a bunch of medicine squirts out that should have gone in me. I've switched to just pushing in until the safety activates while the needle is still in and that seems to solve that problem but I wish it would work as good as the old design.

Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences.

[oldsoccerplayer]

Try to keep your leg elevated, that will help the swelling go down.

[comtiger]

Hey Ken,
I had the same experience about 5 days after my surgery. My wife (who is a nurse) kind of freaked out about the bruising and swelling down by the knee. She grabbed her keys and was ready to haul me to the ER. I calmed her down a bit and explained that that is normal acocording to the post surgery flyer the Dr's office gave me , as well as verified this from my surgeon. She and I did however question the TED stocking, although in general they are very necessary for prevention of DVT's as prescribed by my surgeon. They tended to roll down to just under the knee due to me having big thighs. Where these rolled down there was a "normal" color to  right around where the stockings rolled down and the bruise appeared worse above it where the stockings were restricting circulation around the bottom of my knee. I went on the TED site and they have instructions to use these properly. The bruise did however go away extremely quicker than I expected. I'm with oldsoccerplayer, elevation and icing was key!!

Im 6 weeks out now and still ice every night, even though I don't see any swelling!