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Author Topic: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?  (Read 3117 times)

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Dessay

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Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« on: June 17, 2016, 03:24:08 PM »
Hi everyone!


I'm finally moving to a cane. I have low bone density, and I've had 6 doses of Fosamax so far, but I'm still scared. How do I know that what I'm feeling is normal? At first I had no pain, just some glute weakness. Now I get a little soreness in the hip joint after 10 minutes. Is that ok? Not really limping too much, but I'm not walking a ton yet.


I'm using the cane for maybe 10 minutes twice a day. I'm being VERY DELICATE with it. I'll increase it slowly, I just want to be on the lookout for warning signs of a femoral neck fracture.


Crutches are just so... stable. :)


Thanks!
Cara
Right Biomet Dr Gross 3/30/16  42mm

catfriend

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2016, 04:48:32 PM »
Hmmm. This is a tricky one because of your particular situation: osteopenia, slow protocol, etc. The question is, are your sure it's pain actually in the joint? There are a lot of muscles right around there, and when you start working them, and/or overwork them, it gets very sore. My gardening adventures over the past week and a half half left me with sore, tight, lumpy muscles right at the hip (much massaging by my pt helped). Really, just touching the muscle could hurt. Since you've just switched to the cane you might just be working muscles in a different way and that's what's causing your soreness. While I haven't experienced a femoral neck fracture, and hope never to do so (cross my fingers and knock on wood), I have broken several others bones (toe, in the foot, rib, wrist, in the arm at the elbow - yes I am truly a klutz) and a break - especially fresh - is not just a little sore. Initially they hurt like a MF, and there's a constant dull deep ache that doesn't go away. My suspicion - and anyone who's had one feel free to chime in if I'm off here - is that you would feel the soreness/ache while resting, standing would be painful, and walking would be excruciating, if not impossible. I could be wrong, but what you're describing doesn't sound like a fracture. For a sanity check you might want to email/call your contact at your surgeon's office and describe your symptoms. If they're not worried, then you don't need to be.

Pain is so subjective it's hard to say what's normal. If I recall you're about a couple of months out. At that point (and I wasn't on any type of slow protocol) I still experienced soreness. The soreness was nothing like the arthritis pain, though, so it didn't bother me too much. The soreness dissipated over time. Also, an ill considered move could really smart. Every so often I would do something and hurt in such a way that I wondered if I had actually hurt myself or my implant. I was getting around quite well, but I didn't always feel entirely stable.

Dessay

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2016, 09:08:52 PM »
Hi catfriend-


No, I guess I'm not sure if the pain is in the joint itself. Maybe not. It seems muscular, like things are waking up after 2 months of not walking. My hip flexor was weak before surgery, and it still seems to be a little weak now, so it could be that.


It's very weak and wobbly in general- quad, glute, side of hip, which doesn't worry me too much. I was just wondering if people had any groin pain, even if they were on a normal recovery protocol, when they ditched the crutches and started using a cane. If I spend too long on the cane, it starts to hurt in what feels like the joint itself, which could be trouble, or it could be normal. It doesn't seem like a fracture, but is there any way tell if you're about to? I don't recall posters here saying they had any warning signs.


I am 2.5 months out and I had a post-op infection that screwed up my stomach, so I didn't start the Fosamax as early as Dr Gross wanted me to. In light of that, he asked me to stay on crutches for 2 more weeks and then move to a cane mid-June, so that's what I'm doing. 


Dr Gross is such a great surgeon, and I woke up pain free. I got off pain pills very quickly, and aside from some usual abductor weakness, my recovery has been pain-free while on crutches. So maybe I'm just nervous that I'm having some now. But I have to start walking sometime, right? :)
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 09:14:01 PM by Dessay »
Right Biomet Dr Gross 3/30/16  42mm

blinky

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2016, 09:17:03 AM »
How are you doing with the leg lifts and the other Phase II exercises? Pain? Weakness?


The increasingly long trips you are making with a cane sound good to me. I did that when I was weaning off crutches and then off the cane, took a walk using whatever device I was proficient on, then took a shorter (but always growing) walk the next way. I never had groin pain post op. My pain has always been on the outside of my hip. That isn't to say people don't have it there.


Can you pool walk or do water exercises? Water work helped me get stronger without feeling beat up.



Run your concerns by Lee or Nancy, too.

Ljpviper

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2016, 10:17:01 AM »
Hello Cara,


   I had my right hip resurfaced by Dr. Gross two weeks after yours. What that sounds to me is psoas/hip flexor weakness. It will mimic joint pain. Mine are a little touchy still, I was on the fast track recovery.


You will find a lot of your muscles waking up, your going to go through different aches all over your hip and glute area. One thing do not try to push your recovery, slow and steady. Once your body gets its normal joint mechanics back the muscles will adjust. Remember your muscles were fighting a bad joint, it threw your body out of whack.


Just this week I was having horrible lower back pains when waking up, there gone now. I expect more adjustments as i recover.


Dr gross is awesome, I would not worry about your new joint, should not have pain.


Good luck, Larry

catfriend

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2016, 12:45:47 PM »
Yes, I had groin pain. When I lie in bed in the morning and stretch hard I can still feel it. That has been the slowest area for me to recover. It was weak and touchy before the surgery, owing to my dysplasia. There are muscles there, and they do get sore coming back to life. I don't recall it getting any worse when I switched from a walker to a cane, but it was bad enough that I might not have noticed.

Dessay

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Re: Walking with cane, finally! What is normal pain?
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2016, 11:07:52 AM »
Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone!


Blinky-those darn leg lifts!!! :) They're going well, actually. I'm up to 2 lbs and between 15-20 reps lying supine, and I'm at 1lb and 30 reps with the side lying lifts that gave me so much trouble at first. A bit of muscle pain with each, but nothing awful. If I'm honest, I could take the plunge and go to 2 lbs dropping to 15 reps with the side lying ones, but I'm just more comfy staying with less weight for those right now. I'm only at 2.5 months, so I'm trying to be patient.


Ljpviper- I would not be surprised by hip flexor weakness- it's been an issue for me on this side for a few years. Right now, I'm doing 2 passes around my dining room table with the cane about 3 times a day. No groin pain and my limp isn't even that bad, just wobbly instability. It does show up a little differently each time- sometimes the top of my quad feels shaky, and sometimes the outside of my hip where the abductor is. Sometimes even the underside of my glute, too.


Catfriend- I have mild dysplasia as well- I had cysts on my socket that were only going to get worse. I never had groin pain before the surgery, and I actually did this procedure as more of a preventative. I wasn't limping and didn't have pain most days. The 2 cysts were huge and taking over my socket, though, and I didn't want to miss my window. Dr DeSmet warned me after looking at my films not to wait too long because I was destroying the bone in my pelvis. Dr Gross said the same thing. Oddly, the destruction was "silent" and not causing much daily pain. This was a case of "your x rays are much worse than your function" type thing. 


This is very hard for me mentally- I just want to WALK!!!! I feel like I'm so close and I just really want to ditch the crutches, but I read that mean time to fracture is about 14 weeks, and I'm at 11. I just really need to be careful and take my Fosamax.


Dr. Gross' slow protocol has us limiting walking distances for 6 months, and I'm not the type of person to just sit on my butt and do nothing. I'm trying to look at it as permission to take a break from the business of normal life.


Best,
Cara
Right Biomet Dr Gross 3/30/16  42mm

 

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