Adept March 29

[Minniemuis]

Hello,

It has been a while since I have posted here about my husband's hip issues.

He has tried everything (nutrition, exercises, stemcell therapy, ...) but despite his efforts in the end the hip OA just got worse.

8 days ago, he had a left hip resurfacing done by Dr De Smet. As the Coc trial is currently suspended he got a Mom device.

Until the very last moment he was considering bailing out. At this moment, he is still not convinced it was a good decision. He is feeling a lot worse now than before the surgery. I believe this will change as soon as he can start doing things.

My husband too has seen all the success stories on Youtube and on Dr De Smet's IG page and since he is extremely fit, we more or less expected a similar situation for him. However, at 9 days post op, there is still quite a lot of pain, (mainly butt) sleeping is extremely difficult and no more than 3 hours per night. No serious walking or anything of the sorts. I assume this is perfectly normal, but my husband is fearful that he may not return to high level activity any time soon or even ever. He is a pretty fast runner but recently also found joy in cycling. I think him missing his daily endorphins is not helping.

Also, he was off of all pain meds after 3 days. I have convinced him to reintroduce paracetamol for a few more days but he hates taking them.

Can I safely assume that anyone walking unassisted, even doing stairs without crutches is beyond exceptional? (saw this on Youtube)
I also read that Corey Foulk ran 5K 3 weeks post op... that is insane... I cannot fathom anyone even trying this after major surgery.

Any words of reassurance is welcome... how soon can he expect to feel less pain with daily activities or walking around the house?
How far were you walking 2 weeks post-op? (I saw people going on hikes with crutches)

Thank you so much.

[petemeads]

Hi Minnie - since you ask, here are some of the data from my BHR in 2017:

Day 7   3.2km walk, 57 mins, 2 crutches
Day 9   3.2km walk, 47 mins 2 crutches
Day 12 5.0km walk, 67 mins, one crutch

8 weeks   5km jog 33:25
10 weeks 5km run 30:47
13 weeks 5km run 26:35

The only significant setback in my recovery was on the 6 week day when I could drive again; I went into the country to do a 10k walk and jogged some downhill sections. When I got out of the car I was limping and had to spend a couple of days using a crutch to move around the house. That pain did not recur going forwards - my surgeon smiled when I told him I had overdone things, I think he was glad I still had a ball on my femur...

Give your husband my regards,  and reassure him that things will get better remarkably quickly from now on.

Pete

[BionicHip]

Hi Minniemuis,

Try not to compare your recovery with others. For my age I think my recovery was good but many were faster.  It's not a race and everybody heals differently.

I too received the Adept implant and I think after about 2 weeks I stopped using the crutches.  I started using walking poles to do fast walking with the occasional short distance spurt. I was doing stairs after about 1 month but climbing 2 stairs at a time was too much.  Try to progress in stages and don't overextend yourself.  Listen to your body and let it heal.  Once your hip heals you will probably be able to race at a high level again. For encouragement read about some of the people who have resumed competing at a high level.

You are relatively young so just be patient and let your body heal.  I am still amazed at how normal my hip feels.

Ernie

[catfriend]

Comparing any two recoveries is a bad idea. Comparing one's recovery to the "perfect" recovery on YouTube is even worse. Every recovery is different. I had my hips done five years apart, and each of those recoveries was different. I was certainly not walking anyplace near as much as petemeads so close to the surgery. I started by going up and down the hallway of my house. The first time I walked up my block (slight hill) it was like running a marathon. I was still using a walker at 8 days. I was also still taking pain pills, although far fewer than initially after surgery. This is my recover from 2016, which is also on this website someplace: https://hipresurfacingwomandotcom.wordpress.com/  As I mentioned, my recovery last year, in the midst of the pandemic, was somewhat different. That's on this website someplace as well.

I'm sure your husband is having a perfectly normal recovery. Just because he's not a superstar who's going up and down stairs with no aid and hiking at eight days out doesn't mean anything negative. I felt fragile for the first several days after surgery. But that passes, and you start getting better. He's just not quite there yet. Normal.

Everybody heals with time. Last year, four months after surgery, I flew down to Panama for a couple of weeks. I was walking all over the place. I swam in open water, although I did need help climbing back up onto a floating dock. By that time unless I told you I had had hip surgery you would never have known.

[MilRosanna]

I believe everyone has their own expectations on the pace of their recovery, but your body will tell you how much you can do.  I realize that many individuals having hip resurfacing were runners and/or highly active in some impact sport. For me at my age, my expectations were much more conservative; to be able to walk/hike pain free.  To not be limited by hip and groin pain in normal generally active exercise.

My concerns immediately following surgery were avoidance of infection and possible femoral fracture so I was extra careful about following my surgeon's instructions.

[Minniemuis]

Today is 2 weeks post op and unfortunately there is a major setback. My husband has been improving day by day, walking about 1km daily with 1 crutch. Over the weekend he also added stationary bike (without resistance).

All seemed to be going well, yesterday morning he managed 60 min on the stationary bike, but late in the afternoon he started having more pain. The pain has been pretty bad since, and now even walking with 1 crutch is really painful.

Was this a case of too much, too soon? it did not seem so at the time...
My husband is worried and extremely frustrated.

I have advised rest, NSAIDs and paracetamol.

Any reassurance from anyone?

Thank you

[PalmettoGolfer]

From your first post to the update, it seems to me it may have been too much too soon.

I agree with a lot of others on here and I wouldn't compare recoveries.  I did well walking, distance and time wise, but I couldn't do the little things like put on socks.

I saw people on here putting on their own socks a couple weeks after surgery, mine took almost 4 months....haha.  I didn't worry about it and just tried every day until I could do it on my own without my sock-putter-oner device.

Recovery is a person by person thing.  Take your time and go at your own pace, these first couple weeks will be an after thought soon enough.

Good luck!

[catfriend]

60 minutes on a bike??? After 2 weeks?? WTF??? That is absolutely insane. Of course he's in pain. That's not a setback, that's just overdoing it, plain and simple. I don't know what Dr. DeSmet's advice and release instructions indicate. However, nearly every surgeon recommends against attempting more than a 90 degree angle, which your body probably doesn't want to do anyway. This means you (well, your husband) needs to be on a properly adjusted recumbent bike. When I started on a bike in PT it was for a short amount of time that increased over the weeks. Also, a few weeks had passed since the surgery before even trying the bike. Starting at 60 minutes two weeks post op just makes no sense. Remember, the body takes time to heal from surgery. It was just sliced open! Muscles were stretched and pulled. Think of surgery as the worst injury you have ever had, although intention with good FUTURE results. I don't know what videos your husband watched before surgery, but they had to either be at an extreme end of the bell curve of recoveries, or trolls.

Your husband should be doing basic PT exercises to recover at this stage. If he doesn't know where to begin I am giving this link to Dr. Gross' exercises for the first six weeks: https://www.grossortho.com/images/stories/pdf/colombia_hip_protocol/Phase_1_Exercises.pdf  Dr. Gross was not my doctor (that was Dr. Pritchett), so I'm not pushing him, but many on here have been happy with his work, and these exercises are pretty standard. I was prescribed the same ones. He also lists standard PT exercises for six weeks to six months: https://www.grossortho.com/images//stories/pdf/Phase_2_Hip_Exercise_Program_2021.pdf  You can also try a google search for physical therapy for hip resurfacing/replacement, or some combination of words thereof.

Your husband can have an excellent outcome, but there is an order of operations to recovery. Also, everybody overdoes it at some point and has a minor setback. But, yeah, his body just isn't ready for one hour bike rides yet. You need to find some more realistic YouTube videos.

[petemeads]

Hi again Minnie,

2 things - correction to my BHR date, it was 2014 - how time flies - (my THR was 2017), and the walking/running stats I quoted were just that - no indoor cycling until 8 weeks, and then only 30 minutes in a session. I was biking a lot before the operation, including 40 miles a few days before, but the physio at the hospital was very definite that lots of walking leads to the best outcomes - and at that time I did not have an indoor trainer anyway, and I was not going to risk falling off outdoors. And it was winter...
I don't think your husband will have done lasting harm, although it might feel like it, but he will have to get used to smaller increments in effort. I did not do consecutive days of exercise for quite a while, to allow for repair/recovery.

[Minniemuis]

Hi Minnie - since you ask, here are some of the data from my BHR in 2017:


8 weeks   5km jog 33:25
10 weeks 5km run 30:47
13 weeks 5km run 26:35



Pete

Pete,

That is quite impressive, i just realised. Jogging at 8 weeks... That is amazing !!! I thought Koen De Smet was generous allowing running at 12 weeks... (compared to other surgeons). That definitely is not something we are striving for. Based on what I have been reading, maybe short (100m) jogs in between walking by week 10) If my husband could run 5K at 12 weeks, we would be so happy!!!

For my husband the difficulty is finding balance. Athletes always strive for improvement, most often by working hard and pushing the limits. However, early in this recovery, i feel that pushing the limits may be too much. He just wants to start doing the work ... however, he is afraid of doing something wrong. How did you handle that anxiety?

Here in Belgium we have a well known physical therapist, he is the go-to for elite athletes when in rehab from injury or surgery. He advocates working hard in rehab, sometimes through pain. I wonder how much of this and at which point in time this is allowed for return to high level sports after resurfacing.