I am worrying because I still cant sleep in bed. If my torso is on the

thank you and good luck

good luck ros

hang on to your own advice! hope these quality suggestions have helped you helen...how are you now? have you upped your pain meds and movement?

Best Wishes Ros...speedy recovery!

Helen, do you have someone that can advocate for you....it is hard being in the situation you are in , constant pain, thinking no one has an interest in your recovery...stay strong and see if you can get someone to "shake that doctor up" alittle into taking your situation....when you start to feel in control you will feel better but you may need help to get started, this is where good discharge planning comes in and follow up. which it seems you were lacking....best wishes Patricia From Toronto

Good Luck Ros!

Thinking of you Patricia, this week. xx

Hello Patricia...I'm very interested on where you live and if in Toronto who your doctor was and what type of out patient care you were offered...I'm from Aurora and having my surgery done in Toronto at Mt Siani by Dr. Allan Gross....I'm alone and they are sending me home in 2 days exactly knowing I have no one and stairs to bed...very disappointed in the level of after surgery follow up on this type of surgery....so again very interested on how things went for you...

how awful for you, in france they send you to rehab but dont know if they do it anywhere else,  could you not speak to someone in social care and ask if you could perhaps go to a nursing home, I moan to my husband about being here but at least i am not alone.  Is there no one that can come in and make meals and perhaps put your bed downstaires, have you no nhbs? that will help, oh I do feel for you. you have enough to worry about with the op. big cyber hug to you, will be thinking of you x

Lynn, may I ask what physical therapy you are getting at the Rehab Center in France? I elected not to go to a rehab center and instead went home. I'm curious what the regime is. Merci!

hi, i am in a place near Chamonix, about 50 miles from where i live,  i have my own room and bathroom, they are i suppose quite good, but i dont speak french so am finding it difficult, but tgey are all really nice, the PT comes to my room for now then in a few days i will go down to the pt room. they are good about meds and things but really you are left to your own devices, the come and chang my dressing every couple of days, they have given me a shower and washed my hair, but i am quite emotional at the moment.  Can you tell me if i go home what happens? do the Pt come out to you?

Also can you tell me what to expect? i walked with the frame for 50 meters today and yesterday. i had my op last Tuesday and I have to say I was very well looked after. But what happens next?  Do you go on the FB site hip replacement, it was started by a guy off here. x

 

This question is to anyone:  It seems that even within the same country sometimes you are sent to rehab and sometimes not...maybe you have an option (if you pay more), but I'm reading enough comments to know that going home straight from hospital is challenging enough, let alone if you don't have help...it just seems just such a big discrepancy...of course I'm stressed because I'm one of those being sent home in2 days with no help?????

You willget PT at home 3 times a week. You will also get a nurse to come every day to change the dressing until the staples are taken out. You do not get a raised toilet seat attachment you have to buy that yourself.

I found the most difficult was bathing. I basically would go 3 days without bathing and then asked my neighbor who was a home healthcare worker almost exclusively taking care of people who had orthpedic surgery to come and help bath me. 

 It was spong baths, I stood up in the bathroom (you could sit down on a chair also) next to the sink and she washed me down yusing a washcloth. After a week at home I washed my own hair in the kitchen sink. It was hard but I did it. At rehab see if you can get a home healthcare worker to come in and bath you, that is really about all you need that I didn't request since I had my neighbor friend.

-Nurse for changing the dressing every day

-Nurse every day for that anti plebitis shot in the stomach

-Home healthcare aid to help bath you (maybe the nurses would help you with that)

-PT 3 tines a week in your home.

-Walker which I felt safer with (I think that was covered by insurance but can't remember since my husband went out and bought it). Get a walker with at least 2 wheels in front and actually the 4 wheeled walker would be better yet.

-Crutches for when you progress passed your walker

-Raised toilet seat attachment

-Prune Juice in the house watch out you don't get constipated, I drank a full glass of prune juice every day

-possibly iron pills for a month. Look at your blood test from after surgery, if your iron is low take an iron pill every day. (my iron was right on the last number of normal.

-don't worry about being at home, rememer our doctors over here make house calls. I had my General Physician come see me at home the day after I got home as I needed better pain pills, I could NOT take the Tramadol. If you are having bad dreams or feeling anxiety and they are giving you Tramadol that is most likely the culprit. Look up Tramadol on the internet. My GP took me off of it when I saifd I was having suicidal dreams and put me on 400mg Paracetamol+25mg codeine. It seems once you get discharged you go to see your GP now for anything you need, the surgon doesn't seem to see you any more.

I am happy I went straight home. My husband is a terrific cook and I needed to eat well after that horrid Hospital food.

This is why I was curious about what they did for you in re-hab since I never went that route. I am happy with my decision of going straight home. at 7 weeks I walked the fulll terminal at Barcelona airport and even walked 10 miles in one day. The fact of the matter is, it takes time for the body to heal and I don't think any particular environment speeds that up. I really got better between weeks 4 & 5 and before that I pretty much just laid around and really didn't even exercize hardly at all. Others seem to have been quicker than me, but this was my experience. I more or less waited for the body to heal and then I was perfectly fine. I had Iliopsoas tendonitis and the cure for that was to not aggrivate it. So I laid around so as not to aggrivate it, and it took about 3 close to 4 weks to heal. Iliopsoas tendonitis is groin pain. If you have groin pain let me know and I''ll tell you the test for testng if you have Iliopsoas tendonitis or not.

I think i just want to push things too quickly, i think i may go home next week i need people around me and thats not going to happen here, will not see anyone now until next weekend, I am not eating my blood sugar is all over the place, just a mess really but not from the op, that was a great sucess and cant praise them enough or the surgeon. just need someone to talk to and if i go home i will have that. plus missing my dog...

The difference in France is, the patient chooses what they want. If you choose to go home then they send nurses, home health aids and physical therapists to your home and of course our general physicians make house calls. If you are really sick or not mobile, the doctor comes to you at your home. All I pay for a doctor visit is 2 Euros. It used to be 1 Euro but then they raised the price. The National Insurance has a co-pay however with private gap insurance of around 400 Euros a month I am fully covered for eveything, no deductable no hospital charges, including all prescriptions which are also 100% covered.

well I guess that is something you don't have to worry about and can concentrate on your recovery...

We are very fortunate xx

 

You should go home. I did, I never went to rehab.

The thing is, once you get home if you don't think you are doing well you have your GP come and visit you and he can write out authorization for you to still go into rehab at a later date.

Not eating was a big deal to me, I was really run down from not eating and once I got home and got some good food in my stomach I was better. Plus the coffee absoluely sucked. I like my Latte and just being at home was what I needed. Like you my leg was not swollen at all I had just one bruise but it wasn't particularly dep.

Go home iif you want, just do it. If your PT at the home visits doesn't think you are making progress you can always go back again. It is not like if you leave now you can never go back!

Do you use Skype Lynn? Does your husband have a computer at home with Skype on it? How about your children, why don't you start Skyping friends and family?

I have been thinking about you Patricis, about what that would be like to go home without any support. In order to prepare in advance I think I would make some homemade soup and freeze single portions in freezer bags. Probably some good homade chilli also. I love home made chicken Mazo Ball soup.

Have you no neighbors? Do you live in a rural area or urban?

Patricis- Are you a Senior Citizen under Canadian Law?

If so, I think you should be able to get a home healthcare aid come to your home and help you.

I am going to write this web address with dashes, take out the dashes,

healthcare-at-home-[DOT]ca

There is a center in Aurora

Ask for a hospital bed to be delivered to your home for you to use for 6 weeks. You have to look around for services, search and be pro-active. Don't just assume there is no support available for you.

can i have the receipe for Mazo Ball soup please. xx

 

Home healthcare is covered under US Medicare but I don't know about physical therapy at home.

But remember Medicare does not come into effect until you are of age. I'm not sure what the current age is in the US, 62 or 65.

Mazo meal is actually corn meal and mazo balls are made with two eggs and 1/4 cup vegetable oil combined wiht one cup corn meal. Stir into a semi-dry batter and form into1" balls dropped into boiling water for 20 minutes. If your batter is too wet, add more meal. The soup is chicken stock either store bought or home made. After cooking the balls end up tennis ball size so don't make them too big or you'll end up with soccer ball sized mazos

The hardest thing Lynn is to find the Mazo Meal.

I always bring some back with me when traveling to the States.

Big Pot, boil up a big chicken with chicken stock cubes.

BIGGEST Pot you have.

Cut up in very small peices Celery, Leak, Carrots and a bit of Onion.

When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the pot and let it cool on your contertop.

Follow the directions on the box to make the Matzo Balls. I use soft butter instead of chicken fat and usually add about a third more butter than the recipi calls for. When making the Matzo balls I smear olive oil on my hands, use a teaspoon to dig into the refrigerated matzo meal and take about half a teaspoon of matzo meal for each mazo ball. I like my matzo balls small not huge.

You gently roll them into a ball with your oiled up palms. The idea is not to roll to hard  but to judt lightly roll them into a ball. I put my matzo balls on cookie sheets and put them back in the refrigerator until I am ready for them. (Oh the recipie for making the matzo balls calls for you to refrigerate the mixed up matzo meal for like 20 minutes, I stick the bowl with the prepared matzo meal in the freezer and then am able to take it out and make my matzo balls after about 10 minutes. Basically you simply want the prepared matzo meal chilled, cooler than room temperature)

After about an hour your chicken will be cooled down. Now rip the skin off the chicken and throw it away. Now rip the meat off the bones and cut it into small pieces that will fit on a big soup spoon. Throw your cut up chicken and celery & leak & carrots and onion into the pot where you boiled up the chicken. From my mother in law, for good soup you have to cook it at least 2 hours.  You want a lot of broth because later on you will add in the matzo balls. If necessary add more water and chicken stock cubes.

About half an hour before your soup is done take another big pot and add chicken stock cubes and boil it. Add in your matzo balls and cook the matzo balls seperately. I usually make a double recipi of Matzo Balls so this is going to take you a while since you are going to cook the matzo balls in 2 or 3 batches since you can't cook all of them at once unless you have a humoungus pot. When your mazo balls are cooked through add them into your soup. Each batch takes about 20 minutes if I remember right. Test for doness by eating one. They should be cooked through not hard and dry in the middle. In otherbwords, do one batch of matzo balls, throw them in the soup, do another batch throw them in the soup etc.

This soup freezes really well, the matzo balls take freezing and re-heating really well. My last batch I forgot to add the salt to the Matzo balls, try not to do that. The matzo balls really do need salt in them and adding salt into your sinfgle servings after the fact doesn't cut it.

You can see it is quite time consuming to make but that is why you make a huge portion so you can freeze it and enjoy it for many meals.

BTW I am not Jewish  but I do love Matzo Ball Soup. In France I miss pastrami & corned beef and other deli foods I am used to having.

 

Actually it is wheat flour David, not corn meal.

Corn meal would be making hushpuppies.

Believe it or not Jodi, I did call a organization called CHATS, and it is a fee based service...which I can't afford, and the somewhat free one I called and they said I did not qualify (I'm 6l), but I don't think it was based on age, they said they didn't know what they could do for me, short of sending someone to "keep me company". I explained my situation thoroughly and they said I was not qualified....trust me I used to work for the government so I know how to push, but no luck!

Just a thought, did you try calling the Hospital and speak to a Social Worker? Don't know about Canada but in the US that is the Social Workers job, to make sure you have sufficient care after discharge.

Jodi, boy are you good on the internet...I tried the website you gaveme, which translates to our local CCAC, and that is the agency that said they hadnothing to offer me, except to send someone to keep me company??? which of course they said they could not do...I asked about washroom, stairs, meals, housekeeping etc. and they said you had to have friends/family come in...I said what if I fall to which they and the hospital both said "carry your cell on you and call 911" honestly I have my friend as a witness both places said this!!!!

In the US and in France and I gather from all the comments here the UK as well, you get services if your doctor orders it. So you just calling on your own you are not getting anything. I would call them back and tell them if you have orders from a doctor that you need housekeeping and home health aid services do they provide it. Doesn't hurt to try, ask about having a Doctors authorization/prescription/request.

Hi Jodi, i live in a fairly large town just north of Toronto, and I do have neighbours, but honestly at least for me and I've lived in my house for l9 years and live on a court, I used to shuffle the kids to daycare, go to work, pick them up, eat run them around day inday out and same with my neighbours so we really didn't even say more than hello...my kids are grown now and live away, so no chance my daughter can come, though she is coming to take me to hospital and pick me up....I did stock up 2 weeks supply of microwave dinners, prepared soups, cookies (for tea of course) and hopefully my ex husband will come over to give me lunch...it is the stairs I'm mostly afraid of and he did say he would come over in morning and watch me come down and then at night to watch me go up, so that is something..I was just totally disappointed int he follow up care, especially in Ontario as we love to "brag" how our medical care is superioe to everybody elses!!!!!  Thanks for your advice and concern, stomach just churning as I type this..just have to do some last minute cleaning and then have all daynight to panic!!!!

Jodi, actually at the pre op at the hospital you meet with the doctor's "team",not him of course, and I met a social worker and I made sure (with my friend as a witness) that I told her I was alone, had stairs, to which she said they often people home alone, older than me and I'll be fine!  No way is that doctor giving my a perscription!!!!  Before I am discharged, however, my friend, a nurse, said don't be too steady onmy feet and tell them that you don't feel well enough to be one own...maybe to get rid of me they will order CCAC to come in....so I will be trying that...actually even CCAC made that comment about people older than me coming home alone..what can you say to that??  Can I ask you something, if you are from the UK, how do you end up in France?

Hi again, just replied to your message before this...am so nervous, calling about anyone who will listen to me moan, should be cleaning the house but putting it off....it is cool over here but the sun is shining so all is well I guess, could be worse!!!

hi patricis, you moan away love, i did last night.... i cant tel you everythng will be fine, but can tell you the op will be fine.  I would complain and moan and say well nowhere to go, no one should be on there own for the first week at least, i am a week tomorrow and have learned my best friend is the grabber a must have,  get you bed downstairs,  had PT today and walked with crutches only, an intense PT tomorrow on bars!!!!! wish this was all over.

i am here now all night love if you need me. big hug x

Lynn, I'm sure people are sincere when they say they appreciate everyone's feedback, but on a personal note it is more than appreciated by me...right now it seems like my lifeline....Hippiechic had her surgery last week and of course has not been on line, but between the the two of you, you have both been very patient with me and it is what gets me up in the morning to read how you are doing, how her nerves were before surgery and to give me some support for my big day...well I found out the time l:00 pm, so think of me at supper time (you are ahead 5 hours yes?) and I'll know what you will be thinking of me....thanks again and now I must go before I start to cry (will watch Young and the Restless at 3 with a nice hot cup of tea to ward off the stomach pains) xoxo

if you need to have a moan, i am not going abywhere love, it must be 2.50 there if we are five hours ahead.  wish i could make it better for you big hug xx

Hello Lynn (my saviour), Chrissywissy and hippiechic...thank you for all your kind words the past two weeks...well my day came and went July 29th.....and you are right the wait is worse than the surgery....first night great, second night in hospital too much morphine set me off on l2 hours of horrendous nausia...stopped te morphine and went on tylonal 3....came home day 3 and did l3 stairs the first night...am able to get leg up on bed myself and waking around without pain with walker (love that walker)...my lower leg and foot is somewhat swollen but am very good at doing all my exercises....can't believe from day one when I mentally told my foot to take a step and it didn't MOVE!!! what the heck, but with persistance by day 3 could actually lift my foot into the step and all is good!  Had my first meal today, just not interested in eating but now the importance so I'm forcing myself......

Hi Patricia, so glad for you that it is all done !! (Not as glad as you I bet !!) you sound as if your doing absolutely amazing. Well done you. I think it's incredible you've managed the stairs, you are an inspiration to me. I'm thinking of you and wishing you a really speedy recovery. Just remember not to overdo it. Listen to you body and rest when you need to. I'm getting quite restless and fed up waiting for my date, but at least I have you all here to catch up with which is a great comfort. Sending lots of love and hugs from Scotland. Maggie xxxxx

my sweet patricis, I have sent you a message through another post. Cant tell you how pleased I am that it is all over now all over for you, I have been thinking off you sweetheart and praying, I wont write everything again, but read the message I have sent you, and you will go in peeks and troughs but will get there love.   xxx big hug

Lynn,

And how are you doing? How is re-hab?

Hi Jodie, it going very well, I am so so pleased I stayed, I find that having  a one to one every day with PT really helpful, if I have fears about things i talk them through with her, its so good.  I think we go through so many emotions and our bodies need time to recover from the trauma. dont get me wrong I still get the blues on on friday had another bout, I droped my crutch in the bathroom while trying to get my trouses off and did not have my grabber, just felt so utterly useless, so something so small can set me off.  The food is awful, but because i couldnt eat anything the dietician came and we discussed what i would eat.  So all in all a good service provided by tge french.  I cant say I can fault any aspect of the care and surgery i got here, of course a couple of the nurses will not speak any english but eh ho I manage,  I am changing rooms to one of my own, but the lady in the next bed speaks quite good english she is 68 but an old 68 but i get my own room again tomorrow.  I want to thank you so much for all your help and for listerning to me the other night, you really were my rock and no dpubt will be again.  just one question did you hip click whe you walked, if so did it get better, how long ago are you now? do you thnk 

I would be able to go to USA in November? xx

Lynn, I TOTALLY think you will be able to go to the States in November, oh yeah, YES! I had my surgery basically May 1st (really April 30th but it is easier to count the months if I go by May 1st). I went to Barcelona July 17th, walked through the Marseill airport and the Barcelona airport. Had a long walk fro the airport over to the train terminal in Barcelona and while in Barcelona did not rent a car, only took trains and subways and on many of them had to stand didn't even get a seat. I absolutely cannot believe how I was able to do that and at night I only took 2 Aleve (napraxon). I walked from one end of a Terminal in Barcelone to the other end and it was a L-o-n-g Terminal.

The thing is, for the first month you simply can't envision that but long about weeks 5 and 6 you are going to be surprised how quickly you improve. It is like I wrote before, healing takes time and it really does not matter your environment, home vs rehab, the environment doesn't make you heal any faster or slower, it just takes time for the body to heal and there is no getting around that. We all have different experiences about when we are on crutches and when we no longer need them so our timetables may varry.

I have noticed that the people who seem to have the most problems afterward (no offence to ANY of you reading here) are the ones who have other health issues as well as their hip. I can't figure out why so many people write about swelling afterwards that really seems a UK thing and I have narrowed it down to, they do not put in drains in the UK because they send them home so quickly (you and I in France were in the hospital for 6 to 7 days and we had drains) OR that they have the posterior operation (the butt) and that the posterior operation tends to lead to swelling for some reason. We are very very fortunate to not be dealing with the swelling which that in itself causes pain, and only are dealing with our recovery.

I do not have any clicking inside my hip, however I have a plastic joint and I think you have ceramic. The worst part about recovery IMHO is the sleeping, not being able to comfortably sleep which of course makes us more tired. Once I started adequately taking enough pain pills (paracetemal with codeine) to knock down my pain and I got a full nights sleep is when I felt better. Yes you are going to get depredded at times, we ALL went through that all of us, but that is why this message board is such a great help because we are able to interact with others who are going through or have gone through the same thing. There is no shame in crying and needing comfort, my God you should have seen my first messages way back when. FFor me the worst was always at night, the not sleeping and the very nightness that brought me down.

Fast forward to today. I came home from Barcelina July 27th and am determined to maintain that walking ability so nobody is more shocked than me that I am out there every day taking a good mile walk, I was never a person to take walks. To get me started my husband helped my by accompanying me on the first 2 walks, but after those two I found the determination to continue on my own, and I do, every day. The walking adds in some new innocouse pains now and then, foot pain on the other leg or some knee pain but what I NEVER have is hip pain. At night I am often times still uncomfortable trying to find a good position so 3 months later yes still recovering, most nights take a pain reliever in order to fall asleep and LOTS of nights find myself unable to still up at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. I was alwys a night owl so this is a double burden on me to sleep at night, but eventually I do fall asleep.

Do I think you will walk throough the airports in November? Oh yeah, oh yes I do. You have a big advantage because you like me, don't have swelling and that swelling slows the recovery I think.  Exercize or no exercize just takes time for the body to heal itself up. I put in a word for the no exercize people because I really did not exercize hardly at all, BUT when my body was mostly healed I then made a rapid rapid recovery (along about week 5 and 6). Within about 5 days I went from using the walker to no crutches & canes at all. You gotta eat Lynn, you gotta feed the furnace, I'm glad to hear you are getting a private room, I think that will be good for you. I hope you are skyping, I watch American TV through a slingbox (the sending box is in my duaghters home), Slingbix is perfectly legal. On your computer (are you on an iPad?) you just install a small application and you are able to watch tv anywhere in the world you have installed the sending box. Slingbox TV viewing American tv really helps me a lot pass the time when I can't get to sleep. HGTV with all their home remodeling shows is my favorite. Take care hon.

Jodi - your last comment leads me to ask ask a question:  my incision is about 5 inches it is right on the side of my thigh...would this be anterior or posterior?  Also I'm toronto canada and was out in 2 days but never had drains in my leg...they said it would drain in the bandage which they changed daily for the 3 days and now I have to do a change on 7th day home and if no drainage, I don't have to rebandage (just for info)...I do have leg swelling by 5pm at the end of day from I'm told getting up, but morning it is down to the normal swelling...patricia

Maggie, I'll be watching for you.....stay strong!  Patricia xoxo