SLEEPING PROBLEMS AFTER SURGERY

[Anniee]

I had resurfacing surgery on my right hip last week, and feel like I'm doing really well - no pain meds except for the occasional Tylenol, and walking (or at least hobbling) fairly well with a cane.  My problem is going to sleep at night!  I have to sleep either on my back or on my left side, which is not how I normally go to sleep.  The post surgery instructions say to keep a pillow between your legs at night.  I just cannot get comfortable!  The other night, I moved from the bed to the couch to the recliner, and nothing really worked.  I finally fell asleep around 3 am, and when I woke up a few hours later the darn pillow that was supposed to be between the legs was on the floor!  This is not a huge problem yet, but it will be when I have to go back to work and have to get up early.

Does anyone have any tips that might help?  I don't like to take sleeping pills.

[John C]

What you describe is very common. If I remember right, it was about a month before I was able to start sleeping on my side for reasonable periods. For those first few weeks during which I had to sleep on my back, the thing that helped was to prop myself up in bed with a couple of pillows behind my back. There was no way that I could sleep on my back laying flat, and being propped up part way made all the difference.

[halfdone]

Watching replays of the royal wedding puts me out in seconds.  

Seriously, the sleep problem was one of the suckiest aspects of recovery for me.  I decided not to fight it and read and watched TV/DVDs, but I napped during the day whenever I felt tired and that sort of made up for it.  It took me about 3-4 weeks to get back into a good sleep pattern.  (When I cranked up the PT and hydro that also helped because I was beat!)

Good luck.  (I think you are very wise to stay away from the sleep meds.)

[obxpelican]

Check with your doctor, I think the pillow between your legs is if you sleep on your side, when my hip was bad that is the only way I could sleep.

The good news, eventually you'll be able to roll on your operated side.


Chuck

I had resurfacing surgery on my right hip last week, and feel like I'm doing really well - no pain meds except for the occasional Tylenol, and walking (or at least hobbling) fairly well with a cane.  My problem is going to sleep at night!  I have to sleep either on my back or on my left side, which is not how I normally go to sleep.  The post surgery instructions say to keep a pillow between your legs at night.  I just cannot get comfortable!  The other night, I moved from the bed to the couch to the recliner, and nothing really worked.  I finally fell asleep around 3 am, and when I woke up a few hours later the darn pillow that was supposed to be between the legs was on the floor!  This is not a huge problem yet, but it will be when I have to go back to work and have to get up early.

Does anyone have any tips that might help?  I don't like to take sleeping pills.

[Anniee]

Thanks to everyone for your advice and encouragement!  It helps to know that this problem is not uncommon and hopefully will go away in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I'll may try the royal wedding replay method and see if it works for me!

[phillwad]

Anniee - sleeping was a pain - I use the advide other have offered and took a good nap in the afternoon.  My first night home I slept on a long couch - it was bad!!  Then we moved a bed downstairs so I could get a good nap. - Cheers  Phill

[hernanu]

Hi Anniee, yes sleeping was bothersome in the beginning (for my first hip). I was used to sleeping on my side, with a pillow since my hips killed if I didn't. After the surgery, while in the hospital, I slept with my leg elevated on a pillow and on my back; when I got home, I decided to continue that, eventually putting the pillow under both my knees. I found that helped me.

I got so used to that - now I sleep on my back some of the time, and on both sides (7 months and 4 months now) also. I wasn't able to sleep on my side until about 4 weeks had gone by on either side, so be patient. I still sleep with the pillow, so I now have three pillows in my bed, two for the head, one for the knees.

[hipnhop]

It wasn't till after my second week that I got some good sleep. It gets better

[Anniee]

Thanks everyone!  It's gotten a lot better the last couple of nights.  Don't know if I was just getting exhausted enough, or more used to having to sleep on my back or the "wrong" side, but I feel a lot better!

[FlbrkMike]

I still have problems sleeping through the night 7 weeks past my RBHR and 11 weeks past my LBHR.  I sleep on my side (right side preferred) and find that I have to roll over every couple of hours at least.  It's getting better but still frustrating because I never seem to feel like I have gotten enough sleep.  This would be OK if I was at home and could nap during the day but that's not really an option in my office.

[Anniee]

Not getting enough sleep is definitely frustrating!  I actually have not napped during the day the last couple of days, but it takes me so long to go to sleep, I wake up much later than I will have to when I go back to work.  My office does not allow nap options either! 

I'm wondering if one of the contributing factors to the sleeping problem is the fact that I cannot work out right now.  Dr. Gross's post op instructions allow you to go back to the gym to do seated upper body exercises after two weeks "if you just cannot help yourself".  I might try that later this week!

Annie

[Lori Cee]

Not sure it is the exercise component yet for me causing the problem (as I am going to bed pretty wrecked from rehab).  I still have to lie on my back only and anyway I can't roll without huge effort anyway (which requires awakeness) so I think I'm waking up because I've been in the one spot too long.  I'm starting to think of options of places to sleep when I get home to mix it up a bit and see if I can find something that stretches the time out.  I read on another thread that some people have had some success with recliners when they really couldn't sleep - so I'm on the look out at the moment for that so hopefully I can get something delivered soon after I arrive home.  Not sure if any one type of bed is better than another, but after four weeks on a hospital bed, if I can't get at least four or five hours in my lovely bed at home with my own pillows and good sheets the first night I am home, without waking up, I'm going to be a little disappointed!

Lack of sleep really is a pain as our bodies really do need it to heal.  Not sure there is a solution for it though.

[AlanN]

It wasn't till after my second week that I got some good sleep. It gets better

+1 but with me more like 4weeks!

Be patient and nap when you can, it'll come eventually

[Anniee]

Lori,

I have a great recliner but it's not worked for helping me sleep, so you may want to reconsider spending the money for one, if that is the only reason you're getting one.  Why were you in a hospital bed for 4 weeks?

[Lori Cee]

Why were you in a hospital bed for 4 weeks?

I've had a bit of a different journey with both sides done at once.  I had a week delay due to adverse reactions to pain meds and low haemoglobin (couple days for blood) so ended up moving to rehab later than expected.  We also had awhile bunch of public holidays so my program wasn't advanced as the gym was closed and I had a bruised L5 to heal as well which took a bit of extra time to strengthen that side.

I'd guess and say if everything had gone without hiccups I would have still been looking at a couple weeks in rehab to have at least one leg strong enough for stairs.  Life is an interesting journey

[newdog]

I have a great recliner but it's not worked for helping me sleep

Anniee,

I see you are a Gross hippy too. (I love saying that, sorry I know it's cheesy). You can try putting pillows behind your back and try to lay at an angle. Kind of between on your back and side at about 45 degrees. It helped me. I don't know what else to suggest other than nap when you can. I spent many hours staring at the ceiling trying to sleep. I have an ipod and it helped me a lot to relax and go to another place. Just some ideas, I hope something helps.

[Anniee]

Steve,

Appreciate the advice!  I will try it tonight.  Yes, I am a Gross Hippy, and I really think we should get some t-shirts done (so we can be cheesy together) - do we have any artistic Gross Hippys on this site?

I need to have my other hip done also, and I have to say I'm glad now that I didn't try to have both done at once!  I must be a real wimp compared to a lot of the other people on this site (like Lori for example), but I cannot imagine trying to sleep, or walk, with incisions on each side.

[hipnhop]

When I first got home I thought percocet would make me sleepy. It didjust the opposite. Now, six weeks later I'm sleeping the best in years. It gets better.

[Lori Cee]

Anniee, you aren't a wimp!  There are things that are the same whether it is one hip or two.  What is it they say about achieving anything worthwhile?  I know their is some quote or saying about working or paying for it - I just can't recall what it is.  I really think the cost (physical, emotional, financial) of this one at a time or two at a time is a cheap one to pay to have a quality of life that I never had. (I had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis from the time I was 11 and the damage was done early so the no pain thing is something that I just don't remember.  How cool is it that I don't have it anymore?)

There are pros and cons for both and at the end of the day personal circumstances and surgeon preferences come into play.  In some ways I think I got out a little easier than doing them separately as I really didn't know what I was in for when I went into this.  I was educated and had a 'plan' but as is the case with life, it doesn't always go to plan and actual experience doesn't always stack up to the educated ideas that you had pre-op but as I didn't have experiences good or bad to compare to - it was what it was.  At the end of the day they were the same things that other people on this board went through at one point or another with one hip or two.

There are a lot of benefits for two at once for me, the biggest being that even if the rehabilitation turns out to be a little longer, it is unlikely to be twice as long if you had done one.  Hard to prove since there is no control with exact same circumstances to compare to

We are all different even though some things are the same.  

[FlbrkMike]

If you are not yet completely mobile you should still spend as much time as possible off of your bed.  Use a recliner chair, sofa or whatever during the day but save your bed for sleepy time.  Get dressed in the morning and straighten the bed, and get ready for bed at night.  I've found that having a set routine - brush teeth, take meds, put on night clothes (whatever you wear or don't wear for bed) helps get my mind in the sleep mode.  The biggest thing I've discovered in the past couple of weeks, someting that I didn't do before, is to take a nice warm shower as part of that routine just before bed.  It really seems to help make me sleepy.