Took the first step: bought the recliner

[blinky]

Okay, so it wasn't really the very first step.


The true first step was realizing I was too broken to hobble on as is and it was time to look into a more extensive fix. Surfing the internet, seeing repeated references to this site, I ended up here, reading the information and the forum posts.


I reached out to some of the surgeons listed and found out which ones were still operating on women. My timing to consider hip resurfacing was terrible----right when the small BHRs were taken off the market.  I sent X-rays to Dr Gross and while we have not yet spoken, I received a message that I was a candidate for resurfacing on both sides. (Our respective vacations have delayed our ability to talk to each other. Life goes on even when you need new hips!)


My husband has wrapped his mind around the need for me to have something done as well. I have been sucking it up for several years and just finally reached the point where I can't. He sees it is time for more than PT and shots. Man of action that he is, when I started telling him what we would need to do to prepare the house, he took me to LazyBoy and bought a recliner. A love seat! I suspect he had been wanting his own recliner for a while. A custom model, it will come in two months. So surgery will have to wait on the recliner, eh?


I am a 53 year old woman, mother of two college aged kids, so a new empty nester, which also prompted the timing of my hip resurfacing. I have spent years being active and super active. I was a cheerleader and dancer in high school. A runner and aerobics fan in college and my early working years. Not long after my kids were born I became a marathon runner, something that complimented motherhood well, and ran forty races in ten years without a single injury.


What did me in was swimming, the safe sport. I started swimming about eight years ago. We have a great masters program here and I wanted to be a part of it. I had no swimming experience. In the course of a long fly set, I pulled my hip flexor and that led to a catastrophic wave of problems. I kept running when I should have taken time off.


In the five years since that happened, I have seen PTs and chiropractors, trained with a Green Beret trainer/medic, received PRP/stem cell shots. I was holding it all together until November, when I just couldn't anymore. Heck, I was still running a little last summer and did a sprint tri in late May. Now I have more bad days than good ones and am ready to move on.

[blinky]

I will add that I am expecting a surgery date in about three months. I hope to use this time to get ready: work on my upper body and core strength, preserve what leg strength and fitness I have, prepare the house. I am still swimming and spinning.


I welcome any advice and thoughts you all have.

[Comfortably Numb]

You are very fortunate to have found Dr. Gross.  I truly hope that's where you land.

Congratulations on finding Dr. Gross and this forum!  He is one of the best, especially with problem situations that many other resurfacing surgeons won't touch.

Your new recliner will be your home for the first part of your recovery. Unfortunately, most recliners are so low that they are very difficult to get up from without a lot of pain as well as violating the 90 degree rule.  When my son came to visit me a day after I returned home, he saw how much agony I was in when attempting to get up out of my Lazy Boy.  He went to the basement and returned 30 minutes later with a wooden platform that he built in order to elevate my recliner by 8 inches.  This base temporarily screwed into the bottom of my rockers.  I left it attached for two months and then stored it for my next hip.  This elevation worked like a miracle. I've linked an older thread where I posted a photo of the platform and chair:  http://surfacehippy.info/hiptalk/index.php?topic=5576.0;nowap
Hope it works.  For some reason, I was unable to attach the same photo to this post.


Other things I would recommend in no particular order are:
-Go online and buy a Kreg Polar Care Kodiak ice machine with hip pad. You'll save at least $50.
-Go online and buy a Carex toilet sear riser with handles.
-Place a large, heavy duty garbage bag in your bed and use it to sit/slide into and out of bed.  Best tip anyone ever gave me.
-Begin taking non-laxative stool softeners well in advance of surgery and drink more water than you ever thought imaginable while in the hospital and right after you get home.
-Discontinue opiods as soon after you get home as possible.  You will be rewarded shortly thereafter with a wonderful bowel movement.  I quit the opiods after two days at home and things went perfectly.
-After you get home, walk, walk, walk, and then walk some more.  This is the best PT you can do throughout your recovery.


Good luck!

[blinky]

Thanks! I will go check out the thread on the recliner platform.


We have started measuring our toilet heights to pick out the best one(s) for me to use. Turns out they are not all the same.

[Juno]

Blinky --- I'm so excited for you. Recovery takes time but you will be amazed by how quickly you feel better. I'm now 2 years post op from my first hip and 18 months on the second and able to do everything I want --- I don't run anymore by choice, but I walk 4-5 miles a day, take high impact aerobic classes, weight train and do lots of advanced yoga --- you will regain your strength and stamina. It just takes time. I now have no back, hip or knee pain, I sleep with out pain, and I don't limp after only walking 200 yards. My range of motion is not as good as it was 10 years ago before OA, but it is significantly better than it was the year before surgery. It's awesome!!


I used our recliner for several months. While I didn't need to raise it, my husband helped me in and out of it for a few days. I just needed to get the hang of keeping the surgical hip straight with out breaking 90 degrees. I used a standard raised toilet seat for about 4 weeks --- we bought two reasonable priced ones and kept one in the first floor powder room and one in our master bath. I loved the crutches I bought too -- they were ergonomic and so much more comfortable than standard ones. I splurged on them and bought them on line. The Polar ice unit is invaluable.


I wish you all the best!!
Juno

[blinky]

Thanks! I am excited as well. I want to have that phone call and get a date set.


So handles with that toilet riser? Or will I be able to get up with my crutches/cane?


Cheaper to buy crutches ahead of time? Will I be offered ergonomic ones at the hospital?


I will be flying, so I have to think harder about packing. What is worth schlepping both ways?

[Comfortably Numb]

This is the toilet seat riser I was talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=carex+elongated+toilet+seat&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=64533213319&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14435959051882214402&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8x393wmsbo_b
It comes in elongated and regular.  The side handles are standard and can be removed if desired.  I found them great for stability.  Regardless of which riser you buy, make sure to attach large velcro patches to the rim of the commode and bottom of the riser to prevent the riser from moving side to side.  I used five cut sections I believe and the sucker never moved an inch the whole time.


Highly recommend that you use the Charlotte, NC (CLT) airport for your flights.  This airport is about 80 miles straight up I-77 from Providence NE Hospital, and their fares are a fraction of the cost into Columbia.  Very easy to get direct flights to and from CLT.  Compare on Matrix
https://matrix.itasoftware.com/


Also, book a room at the Mariott Courtyard Hotel right outside the front door of the hospital: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/caene-courtyard-columbia-northeast-i-77/  You should do this well in advance of your visit(s).  Rooms disappear fast.

[Miguelito]

Just wanted to throw my two cents in. I think you should plan on taking the painkillers recommended by Dr. Gross for the length of time he recommends (I forget, maybe a week to ten days). I don't think your expectation (or goal) should be to be off them in two days time.

My personal opinion is that one (out of many) of the reasons Dr. Gross is so successful is his carefully structured approach to pain-management. A frequent regret I see on this site is from people who came off of their painkillers too quickly, and suffered significant pain until they could catch back up.

I like to advise people to stay ahead of the pain and take the painkillers as recommended. If, at some point (but certainly not the first few days) you want to taper off and see how it feels, I guess you could do that, especially if you were having bowel issues. But I think the best approach is to plan on taking painkillers as advised by your surgeon.

Best wishes,

Mike

[blinky]

Thanks guys.


I will go into this operation with my eyes open to both possibilities: major GI discomfort that will cause me to want to get off pain pills fast vs pain that requires steady management. I have never taken strong pain medicine before, so I don't know how my body will react.

[blinky]

Finally connected with Dr Gross. He called in the evening relatively late FYI. We spent about twenty minutes on the phone. He was in no hurry. He answered completely and in a way that was sufficiently detailed but also easy to understand.  I asked questions about me, my condition, my suitability as a candidate. My husband was in the room, so we went to speakerphone, and he asked more about the procedure itself. He (my husband) has not done any reading on HR so some of his questions were pretty basic. (I will note that our approaches to a problem are different: I research the hell out of it then make a firm decision on my own; he prefers to talk to people and work slowly towards a choice. He will act as a check on my decision making here.)


There were two surprises: I am in worse shape than I thought, like the window for HR is closing for me, and the doctor is supportive of doing both bad hips close together in time if I have the bone for it.


So on to scheduling. That and the Dexa may determine whether I decide to do one at a time or both in a week.

[JHippy]

Good luck blinky!

[blinky]

Working towards readiness.


Pedaling on the spin bike, lifting weights, doing the p90x abs I can still do. Wanted to swim, but pulled a muscle in my trapezius so have to dial that down. Limited my weight lifting as well. Darn Murphy's Law.


Trying to eat right. I am not a bad eater, but there is always room for improvement, right? Fewer cookies and more fruit.


Doing those last bits of due diligence on the procedure:talking to people here locally and to people I find who have had HR or THR to get an idea of what to expect.

[blinky]

Oh! I meant to add finding out good places to eat in SC. Gotta have something to look forward to.

[blinky]

Still can't swim right a week after the strain. I did 1k slowly and carefully, trying to use my lats and not my traps. I saw massage therapist and when she worked on my hip flexor it released my traps. Yikes! So the elaborate compensation my body is doing to be able to walk is really messing me up.


This does give me a good opportunity to retrain the family, though. I have husband and sons moving heavy things for me, telling them I only have one good limb right now.


My abs are sore. Since I can at least do ab work.


Doing all the preliminary testing and making all the reservations. And, of course, some googling and reading to be sure this is the right choice.

[JHippy]

Yea I had the same thing with other areas being affected because of my body compensating. It was a big part of what pushed me over the edge to schedule the surgery.

[blinky]

Better now. Swam 1.5k, 1k free and the rest drills. I can do one arm fly but not two arm fly because I can't pull my arms out of the water symmetrically yet. But it is coming.


Meanwhile my walking is deteriorating. I guess we go through good patches and bad patches, and I am in a bad one now. I feel like my quads aren't firing to lift my legs up. They will fire--- I can lift weights in a way that isolates them and makes them work---but they don't want to aid me in walking.


The good part is it makes me feel better about getting something done. 

[blinky]

Some good news: strong DEXA results so I am scheduled for bilat resurfacing the first week in November.


I felt like this would be the case so I (we) have been working to make it happen. Husband will be around, friends are on board for meals and help, parents and kids will do their parts.


Heck, we bought the recliner already.

[blinky]

Return to swimming! I had a good masters work out last week, and went carefully to a swim clinic today and felt good. I can swim free fine, but am not quite ready for fly. My left side fatigues and then I can't move my arms symmetrically.


So that's the good news. When I am swimming I feel good and I feel normal. When I walk I still look and feel awful. I am slow and awkward, waddling like a penguin. I am contemplating a cane. Around the house, doing chores, or going to the market, I am fine, but a longer walk, ugh. I had a sad moment when my college aged son, the one who is never around anymore, proposed that we go to a local amusement park and ride a new roller coaster. I would love to do that! We are the two who enjoy that sort of thing. I don't think the ride itself would hurt me, but walking through that vast park to get to the ride, waiting in line for my turn, I don't know if I can do that.

[blinky]

Not intending to post daily, just when something interesting happens.


So I am doing my due diligence on HR. Reading lots, but also having some face to face conversations with a few local OS and patients. I had an appointment yesterday with a local OS who has 1) operated on several people I know (THR and FAI) and 2) was recommended to me by a nerdy radiologist friend who sees a lot of hips. I didn't tell him what I was thinking, just said I have arthritis in both hips pretty bad and want to explore my options. I brought X-rays.


Two observations:


1) To brag a little, I can still pass the initial clinical tests where ROM and strength are assessed. I can squat and get up unaided, put my shoes on and tie them, walk normally for short distances. I can look good enough for the OS to say "how comprehensive was your last PT? Did they really focus on your core?" And then he sees the X-rays, drops the idea of PT, and tells me I look pretty bad. We come back to "how bad is your pain."


2) He made a good case for THR. This OS is pretty up to date, uses the anterior approach, uses poly on ceramic, largest head possible for my anatomy, gets me up and out of the hospital quickly, knows how to preserve my blood, etc. And....he doesn't give me any limitations. I pressed him hard on this, like will I be able to run, sit cross legged, kayak, do yoga, and he still said that though there are activities he would not recommend, there are none he would forbid. It seemed like he had been reading hiprunner.com. I asked how long my device would last, when would I need a revision if I really went out there and did whatever I wanted. He didn't/couldn't really give me an answer, but said he had a lot of faith in the device and that it could outlast me.


It was a very different response than what I expected.


FWIW I have a friend here in the same city also interviewing OS for a new hip. She is getting the more expected responses: six weeks of restricted activity, then a lifetime ban on high impact sports or face a revision, plus certain moves that are not advised, like sitting with ankle on knee. We are talking to different docs. We are the same age, both trim and active, I am more of an extreme sports girl. Maybe that affects our doctor selection? Maybe I am screening them differently?


So I will talk to some patients and see what they really do and how they really feel. It is easy for surgeons to tell you you will be fully functional. Best to ask patients what they can really do and how they feel. I am deeply skeptical that a THR will last me my whole life if I run on it. Heck, I don't think a resurfacing will last my whole life if I run on it. Am I being too pessimistic?

[MattJersey]

Very interesting, eh!


I'm interested in the brand/model of the THR proposed that will outlast you. Do you recall, I'd like to research it.


Thanks!