Days 9 and 10 ....TOUGH! Was that a "Monkey Fist?" Ouch!

[LAB123]

I was breezing along 8 days out from having my left hip resurfaced by Dr. Gross on 3/28. I posted Wednesday night that my leg was a little sore and swollen. The next morning, day 9, I was sitting at my desk getting ready to try do some work and the muscles in my butt/hip spasmed like nothing I've ever felt before...literally brought tears to my eyes! I was able to get prone and eventually they prescribed some Flexeril. Between that and getting back on the Nucynta I was a little better by evening.

Has anyone else experienced this? I remember a note about a "monkey fist" on this board...is that what I had? Not fun!

Finally the whole thing has really set me back in terms of comfort and healing. Where I was walking several blocks on crutches and some on  a cane three days ago I'm back to just getting around the house on crutches now. Any twisting or turning of the leg is pretty painful. Kind of feels like day 2 or 3 again. I'm assuming that since putting weight on leg doesn't hurt that I haven't done any harm to the implant.


Thanks for listening and for any advice!


Larry

[Boomer]

LAB - I am more than fours months out from my surgery and am still surprised on a weekly basis about various weird things that happen. It has been that way since my surgery. Last two weeks I have had vibrations along my surgical scar that feel exactly like my cell phone is going off. I find myself reaching for my back pocket to get my cell phone several times a day but it's just the glut muscles starting to recover their mojo.

I experienced the monkey fist at about six weeks. It went away quickly.

You are very early in the healing process. You will experience all kinds of strange things as you increase your activity level. I stay posted to this site, so nothing really worried me because nothing lasted very long.

Good luck to you. Enjoy your recovery.

Boomer

[obxpelican]

Anyone want to guess who coined the term "monkey fist"?

HINT: He's a big Steeler fan  ;)



Chuck

[LAB123]

Hey I like the Steelers too but you keep your dang monkey fists to yourself!!! :o

[imgetinold]

When I described my monkey fist, it was like I had a tennis ball in my back pocket, up high, and if I would sit anywhere near 90 degrees I was sitting right on it.  Very uncomfortable.  It sounds like you hand maybe something similar, and it went into spasm?

I was able to have 6 weeks off work, and even when I went back to work, sitting in a desk chair close to 90 degrees was uncomfortable after 20 minutes.  It took a few weeks for that to go away.  If I had tried to sit in an office chair at 12 days, I think my monkey fist would have punched my right in the ass, too.

I'd bet that you're fine, but call Dr. Gross or Lee if it keeps up.  You'll be on track in no time.

Thanks to chuck for coining the phrase. 

[stonegrinder]

LAB,
I apologize for the late response. I'm new to the forum and I just came across your experience.
Let me share my humorous similar event.
Had my left hip resurfaced 3/22/12 - at the 2 week point, was sitting at my computer, also - got up and left leg locked with drop dead pain coming from my left side butt - dragged the leg and myself to bed and like you, found relief laying flat - called wifey, she came home - called surgeon, he wanted me to come in to see if I dislocated, blood clot or infection - but, any getting back up movement to get to the car was not going to happen - after much agonizing about what to do, called fire dept. to send ambulance 'without sirens' - not an emergency - fire dept. showed with fire engine and ambulance, all with lights and sirens on - middle of day - neighbors all out on their sidewalks investigating - 8 firemen show in bedroom - I bury y head in my hands - am embarrassed as heck because before my surgery, I play hockey twice a week, xc ski race all winter, bike all summer - consider myself an in shape kind of guy that stuff like this shouldn't be happening to - so they roll me onto a blanket, weave their way around my upstairs bedroom, haul me down the stairs out of the house, with head down, past all of my neighbors and into the ambulance and off to the hospital - like you, at the hospital, determine the pain is a spasm - IV me with morphine, a couple Valiums, stay overnight and next day leave hospital and sneak back into house. Its 4 weeks out, now - haven't used the cane in 2 weeks and all is going well - slow but well - however, my fingers remain crossed.
Hope you are back on track and all is well with your recovery.
Tom. 

[Kiwi]

Welcome Larry. I had a massive muscle spasm at around the same time (refer my story), it was def the most painful thing that occurred post op for me. It literally floored me, I managed to crawl onto the bed whilst my entire butt & leg proceeded to lock up completely. My wife got me some heat packs which helped. This happened to me twice. Both a result of over doing my exercises & my muscles screaming out - STOP - NO MORE! I too remember feeling I'd gone backwards, but in the scheme of things & in hindsight, it was a mere blip on the recovery radar. I'm nearly 5 months post op now & feel like I have a new lease of life.
You will too... just be patience... you will read that a lot! I sure learnt my lesson the hard way.
Cherz
Simon

[hernanu]

Tom, thanks for the post and welcome. I'm sure it will help those of us who experience that pain to know what you went through and how it turned out.

[LAB123]

Simon and Tom,

Thanks for the follow up on your experiences. The muscle spasms at day 9 were for me too the worst part of the whole resurfacing adventure, by far! Closing in on week 5 now an I'm back on track and doing great. Still using one crutch outside of the house but close to tossing that aside.

All the best,

Larry