9 weeks ..worried cause I feel tightness

[hippy128]

Hi-

I am 9 weeks post Hip resurfacing. I started feeling really good at around 5 weeks and now all
of a sudden I feel stiffness and pain coming back. I'm getting a little paranoid. It's been raining here
a lot in FLorida so I'm not sure if that has something to do with it. I also went to a wedding two weeks ago and
I may have irritated it from dancing. Is it normal to feel tightness and pain at this point if I wasn't feeling it at week 6,7,8? People were complimenting me on how I wasn't limping anymore and this past week or so my co-worker have noticed my limp coming back. Kind of discouraging. Hope I didn't hurt anything dancing.

[hernanu]

Hi, and welcome to the site!  I went latin dancing to my niece's DJ gig at about the same time. Unless you were doing backflips, you're probably good.

The stiffness, soreness is probably just the normal reaction of a healing muscle to being pushed. We all had setbacks of one type or another, I definitely had several, some much later than you. The healing that's happening will continue for months, you'll hit this kind of setback every now and then.

If you're at all concerned, talk to your surgeon, but you are still very early in the recovery and will limp at different times. Just listen to your body, ice the area, follow your doctor's guidelines and keep going. I think it's a setback, probably caused by your muscles being pi$$ed at the dancing, let it recover, take it easy for a bit and ice (redundant, but it is important).

[Dannywayoflife]

I think some tightness and stiffness is to be expected for sometime after surgery. As hern said unless you were doing back flips I think your good. I had loads of little setbacks like that. Still get em from time to time. We all recover differently and we take a long time to fully recover.
Danny

[Woodstock Hippy]

Congratulations on your new hip and welcome to our band of hippies.

As the guys above have said, we all have setbacks, usually they amount to no more than time missed from recover.  Ice a lot, take anti-inflammatories and most of all try not to limp.  Go easy and let it recover from the great time you had at the wedding.

[hippy128]

Thanks for all the replies. They are comforting.
I'm waiting on doc to order x-rays just to be on safe side. I think it is just my muscle because
they have not moved like that for a while. I'm fairly young (only 34) so I hope this hip lasts me
a while. Thanks for all the replies.

[hipnhop]

Hippy, I am 15 months post op on the left and 6 months on the right. I still get tightness, stiffness, a little soreness after working out. I think you need to stop break dancing and doing the running man at Weddings.  If you stick to slow dancing you will be cool.  In the meantime, ice and rest.

Hip

[Rach41]

Hi I was 9 weeks post op yesterday. Went for a long walk on Sunday with no crutch to a wildlife park with my family. My brother who is quite fit said it was a good walk. In the evening I was in a bit of pain felt like sharp stabbing pains. I had a long soak in the bath with my arnica bath gel and took anti-inflammatoies and by morning was much better. I think I over did it as I am making a conscious effort not to limp and to stride out but I did have limp going on Sunday night. I was a little concerned also but after reading everyone's comments it seems like the norm. Rach

[hernanu]

Normal stuff, Rach - remember to add ice to that as well, inflammation is better served by ice than heat.

[bilateralbliss]

Muscles get fatigued after only two weeks of not using physio told me. so rekon It`s just yours hadn`t been used for a long time. Like the other guys said, we all have hiccups, part of getting back to normal again

[obxpelican]

X-rays are a good thing to help you in relieving anxiety that happens when suddenly you have a setback.

Chances are it's nothing at all, sometimes it's a tendon becoming inflamed sometimes bursitis sometimes as others have said, it's just that you pushed too much, we've all had small setbacks.


Chuck

[Dan L]

Hippy;

Welcome.

It seems well within the range of recovery ups and downs to have stiffness and soreness at 9 weeks.  If you are like me, and prone to weather-related pain generally, it could have something to do with that (everyone varies on that I've found).

I had startup stuffness when arising from a seated position for 7+ months on the first one (now 9+ months out), but that has really decreased over the past while.  I do occasionally get ups and downs with the recovery (muscle) soreness and pain after exertion, so maybe the wedding dance may have tweaked you a bit.

The recovery does run for a year, so my guess is this is expected.

Take care

Dan

[Tin Soldier]

I think there's sort of another less intense round of recovery after the 5-6 week mark.  The restrictions are gone and you may not feel like you're doing a lot, but I think you do actually take on a little more than you might expect.  As others have pointed out, soft tissue takes quite a bit of time to heal and readjust to the new hip.  I suspect it's just the muscles and tendons getting used to the new hip.

[hippy128]

I still feel pain in my groin like before I had the surgery, not as much but it's still there, will it ever go away?
Before Surgery, I could hardly bend down to tie my shoe so it is much better but I still feel that pain when I bend down, is that normal? I had surgery in May.I called doctor and the nurses keep calling me back but I want to speak to the doctor to see if this is normal at this point. He just has them call me back and says he wants to see me. Not sure if he just wants the office visit but I at least think he should call me back. I'm two hours away so I don't really feel like driving that far just to chat and take an xray. I can have the xray done locally and have it sent to him. I started this thread and as you can see I still have concerns.

[hernanu]

There are several things that could cause that pain.

The simplest is probably just the recuperation of the hip and that your muscles still need to heal; you are still early on in the process, four months along. I was still getting some issues with my groin about that time.

I usually spoke with the nurses when I called, they either communicated what the doctor said, or gave me their thoughts. I valued their thinking, since I figure that nurses in that position see quite a few patients and will have encountered my particular issue.

Have you done PT? One of the things that helped me was to do outpatient PT with someone who had done it with THR patients before. I felt that whole exercise was great for my hip strength and contributed to my aches and pains going away. I think time alone will really help, but why not take advantage of what you can?

If you're concerned, I'd bite the bullet and go see your surgeon. Even if it is just a sit down, go over the XRays and talk over what you are feeling and a good strategy for attacking it, it will clear your mind and get you thinking forward. My surgeon is about an hour away (1.5 during rush hour), so I get  your reluctance, but it's worth it to clear the air both in your mind and how you feel about the service you're getting. Just make sure you cover everything - you want to clear the decks.

Good luck, I think things will turn  out right.

[Woodstock Hippy]

My question is the same ad Hern's, are you working with a physical therapist?  You really need to to get the strength and range of motion back into the muscles.  Having pain five months after surgery is not normal and that is probably why the doctor wants you to come into the office.  The doctor doesn't want to diagnose over the phone, if I were you I'd go see him.

[hippy128]

I did PT for 4 weeks, I mean I'm going to be honest I haven't exactly been putting much effort
into regaining muscle strength. Pain is in the groin area. I wouldn't say pain after 5 months is not
normal, from what I have read on these threads, people have pain after a year at times. I think I will go see him though.Doctor actually called tonight but I missed the call. Voicemail said my last xray looked really good so he doesn't know why I would be getting pain.


I think it's just the muscles and tendons that are still adjusting. I really lost a lot of mobility before surgery. I probably went about 12 years with pain and I'm only 34. I felt this pain when playing football in college and it just worsened, very progressively once I hit 32. I really need to start working it, I'm just trying to give it some time as I heard you don't want to disturb the bone growing to the cup. I rather let the bone heal properly and not get over zealous as most do. On the other hand, dong the right exercises as to not over stress the joint probably won't disturb bone growth into cup but as I mentioned, I have been slacking a bit.

[hernanu]

One of the things about bone growth is that it is enhanced by appropriate exercise. By that I don't mean you try to deadlift 400 lbs at 3 months, but walking, core exercises, bicycling, continuing your PT exercises, etc.

Bone grows better under pressure. It is one reason weight lifting is advised as people grow older to ameliorate osteoporosis. The trick is to put enough pressure on the bone to promote growth, without putting so much that the bone begins to deteriorate. I believe that's the one of the reasons the surgeons have us up and walking right away - the healing and growth, both bone and muscle.

One thing that I did after my second surgery, to get squared away and make sure I profited from my PT, was to hire a personal trainer once I finished outpatient PT. I asked her to take my gym workouts  from before the OA, and merge my PT exercises into a comprehensive workout schedule. Then we spent a month doing it, so now I have a new routine when I go to the gym.

It focused me I believe, and also I felt like I was doing my bit to strengthen the hips. There are other things that I've added to my overall fitness plan - the foam roller for kneading and torturing  muscles, a slide board for simulated skating, juggling and balancing for moving and strengthening the smaller muscles, etc. Those have helped me, but at two years, I still believe I'm a work in progress.

The bigger exercises, running, swimming, tennis, golf, martial arts, horse back and motorcycle riding that some of our great hippies have returned to can be reintroduced in time, but the basis for them is a good regimen of moderate strengthening as you heal.

At five months, it may be a good thing to get another round of PT to see if you can get over that hump. I'd talk to the surgeon and see what he thinks about it.

[Dannywayoflife]

Hern is right some impact loading of your bones is needed for bone density and quality. It's a fine line at first between doing enough for healthy bone and doing too much.

[morph]

Hi hippy128, Probably best to get professional reassurance (surgeon/PT etc.). Just wondered where is the groin pain exactly? What brings it on or is it there all the time? What type of pain (shooting, throbbing, sharp). How painful out of ten. Is it stopping you from doing excersise?

[hippy128]

Hi, It's the same pain I had before surgery but just not as bad. It's not a constant pain. I just still feel a little
tight and pain in the front groin,especially  when I bend down to tie my shoe or when I stretch it by bringing my leg to my chest(bent) at  the knee. But Yeah, I was thinking of getting some more PT. I really enjoyed how the PT stretched me out.