Femoral nerve damage(?)

[MrMox]

I had my left hip resurfaced two weeks ago. After the operation I have lost the “skin-feeling” in parts of my leg (I do feel hot/cold but I do not feel anything when the affected parts are touched).  Also the strength in the quadriceps muscle is almost totally gone which makes me totally dependent on a crouch to walk up or down stairs. My guess is that the femoral nerve was damaged during the procedure. An almost complete lack of strength in the leg is not a normal post operation experience, is it? I know that two weeks is nothing when it comes to heal after a mayor surgery – but all other muscles seems to be doing just fine!

Is there anyone with similar experiences? If it is indeed a nerve issue – is it important to rush to a good neurologist?

[hernanu]

Hi, sorry that you feel this way, you are in the right place and welcome.

At two weeks I did have some 'dead' areas of the skin over my leg after the surgery; in some respects, at two years if I do some of my martial arts stretches with the legs spread wide on the floor, I still feel a slight bit of it until I let it up. It was especially prevalent on the lower part of my thigh early on, just above the knee and on the outside of the leg.

There is a lot manipulation that happens during the procedure, you might want to catch an animation of a surgery that is on this site to see what exactly happens. There are nerves that travel down the outside of the leg and I'm sure that for me they were aggravated during the operation(s) (I had two). My legs were overall weak afterwards, probably partially due to the manipulation of the leg / muscles and the fact that the muscles around the hip were either cut or distended. All of that went away over time, but it did take a few months for me.

At two weeks so many things are in play, that it would be hard to pin down what could be affecting things. The skin feeling you describe is something I definitely had, the weakness in the thigh, I don't remember but I do remember overall a lack of strength for the first few weeks.

The thing I'd suggest is to get in touch with your surgeon. You're obviously concerned, so get on the horn with them, tell them what you feel and ask them what the next step is. I put in many calls and got good responses from my surgeon's office - sometimes a nurse, sometimes my surgeon. There were several setbacks that I thought needed addressing and they were right there to either calm my concerns or to take steps.

You need to be your own best advocate; most likely it's something that clears up in time (all of mine were, but there's no guarantee of that). Use them during this time, that's what they're there for, your peace of mind is something valuable right now. I'm sure they're acquainted with nerve issues during a procedure, and how to spot the symptoms.

Good luck and welcome again, let us know how it goes.

[MrMox]

I met a new doctor today. No problem with my femoral nerve. It's all in my head 
Sorry to make a post like that... Tried to remove it but it was not possible. My bad & sorry etc

[hernanu]

No apologies needed.

That's what we're here for, except for the parties  . We've all clocked in here with fears, pain to be explained, etc. The more people see posts like yours, describing how you feel and then look at the outcomes, the more people learn about what to be concerned about.

No worries, keep the post there.

[einreb]

I met a new doctor today. No problem with my femoral nerve. It's all in my head 
Sorry to make a post like that... Tried to remove it but it was not possible. My bad & sorry etc

seriously... no 'sorry' needed at all.  I had a couple of 'freak out' moments early on... then a few more later! 

2 weeks is so early, your body is doing some rewiring.

-Bernie

[MrMox]

Thank you all - bad hips - golden hearts!   
Before my hip problems I thought I was a very calm and mentally strong person... well - you learn as you live. It just took me an operation + a lot of time + access to internet to freak out big time! If you search long and hard enough you will sooner or later find symptoms that match with your own and you realize that you're doomed!

[Steven]

Mr Mox,

Glad all is well.

Reading your post raised an issue in my mind of the importance of post surgical assistance. My next step with right hip could well be HR after 3 scopes. I am in Australia & reading this site I am very impressed with the surgical expertise overseas & if I was'nt so far away, I would seriously consider travelling os for HR surgery.

A big consideration for  me will in fact be any post surgical issues & I wonder how patients get on who do travel os to see a top world surgeon & return home
& then have concerns that need to be attended to either minor or major.

My thought is to seek out the best surgeon locally for close range assistance if required.

What do fellow hippys think?

Regards

Steven.


 

[hernanu]

Hi Steven, like many of us, you've taken all sorts of different steps to deal with this and are ready to look at HR as a solution.

You can look through the posts for many different folks here for the aftercare they needed, in particular for folks like Pat who went abroad (for them) for the procedures. I am at 2 years now (in nine days) and can honestly say that I needed no intensive interaction with my surgeon.

I was more involved with my home nurse for the first three weeks, with my home PT for the same time, then with outpatient PT. My surgeon was a phone call away, and I did call, but I think any issues would have been able to be treated by local doctors; I don't really think that in my case I really needed to have my surgeon there. I did have a good recuperation both times and no issues, so I can't talk for people who had a harder time, hopefully they can chime in and give their thoughts.

I did have a good surgeon reasonably nearby (40 minutes to an hour), but I only saw him during the surgery, at six weeks, at six months, at a year and I just saw him today for my two year checkup. So in my case while it's nice, it wasn't really necessary to have him nearby.

The travel I can't speak to outside of my one hour trip home, but others have made both long trips by car or by plane and seem to have done Ok. Whatever choice you make, my only advice would be to find the best doctor possible, with geographical proximity being a distant second in consideration. My doctor had 800 procedures done by the time he did me, did many HRs per week and had a strong staff of nurses, physical and occupational therapists, plus a real commitment to the procedure. The thing you really don't want is a doctor that is lacking in those.

[bilateralbliss]

Hi Steven, as others have said the most important issue is the surgeon. One that has performed eg 1,000.
The two in the UK who invented the BHR have done almost  10,000 between them, MrMcMinn ( see his website) and Mr Treacey. Many other good surgeons in US and India, Belgium too.
Well worth looking at these

[Pat Walter]

Mr Mox

I could remove your post and so could you, but I would like to leave it for new people to learn.  Hip resurfacing is major surgery and many people have never had surgery before.  There is a whole lot of slicing and dicing going on and you want the most experienced surgeons to do that for you so you have the best outcome possible.  There are a lot of temporary things happening in your body and other areas of your body are also affected like your knees, other hip and back.  Usually, just hang in there and be patient and things start to work out.  Some people have absolutely no problems post op while others have many.  You can't predict these things. The only important point is that almost all people, after being patient during their recoveries, end up in the same place - out of pain and active.

It is always best to call your surgeon if you are having pain or unusal things are happening.  They are use to answering the quesitons.  After all, you are paying them a whole lot of money for the surgery and advice.  They give the best advice if you take the time to ask the questions.  Don't be afraid to ask.  Their job is to answer them.

Take it easy and let us know how you are doing when you have time.

Pat