Update to the Hip Replacement – Week 3 & 4

 

 

Well here's the interesting thing, I expected weeks three and four to be great, the surgeries out the way, I can languish in the excitement of full mobility but I have to say this was not the case. The primary reasons I can split into four buckets and I'll give you them in my priority order

1. Sleeping and Sitting - I am absolutely sick and tired of sitting upright or lying flat, it's like eating bland food every night and trying to figure out how to spice it up. I leg still hurts enough to wake me up and there are only so many creative ways I can find to lie still and on my back (two pillows under the head and one under my legs, one under my head, none or three and more upright.. come on !). Sitting and watching TV and not being able to kick back and relax in a squishy seat is driving me nuts, I almost fear that part of the evening.
   
2. Pain management.. Now don't get me wrong, I am now feeling around 75% complete e.g. I can walk without a crutch but the pain has coalesced around the incision, my scar is numb to swollen and I feel like I have half a cricket ball stuck to the side of my leg. My heavy painkillers ran out and in an effort to not get hooked, I figured it was manageable enough with generic brands. Well, that's fun, try taking something before you go to sleep and see if you wake up sore, aching and somewhat grumpy.. I've tried them all and seem to have settled of some Advil and half an Ambian to make it the most part through a night
   
3. Enough Already – The first couple of weeks it was a struggle, you've been through a major surgery, you're getting the attention, you have lots to think about and treat every day as progress and hope, now you're in a holding pattern, you have no major pain, you have enough to restrict your movements and you are pretty much house bound as you can't drive. You feel embarrassed to lean on your significant other and you feel disconnected from work regardless of whether you were stupid as I am went straight back or took a week to get straight.
   
4. It's Back – So this whole thing started with a birth defect BUT careless motor biking led to acceleration. What this also led to is a string of other back pains and discomfort and as my leg got worse I couldn't exercise as much. Apparently my operated leg was slightly shorter than the left and as part of the surgery I was 'blessed' with Symmetry so I had a hope that as part of this procedure, my body wouldn't be adapting to the hip etc so my other back issues would go away. Alas, they are back so now I know I have to recover from the hip, get mobile and work on these issues before I am feeling normal again. This isn't anything to do with the specific surgery but the compound of the wait mode; concerns over being a nuisance and being disconnected from work have led to a few pretty low points.
   

So I wanted to add this update as I was somewhat surprised that weeks 3 and 4 have turned out to be pretty low points in the process so as to keep you posted and be braced for it. Right now I am a week and a half away from being signed off, I can 'sort of' lie on my side and I am thinking of braving COSTCO's today so that tells you how brave I'm feeling J .