Stairs after thr-how many weeks after could you do the stairs on your op leg

Dear Penny

As I'm sure you appreciate we are all very different however having said this unless you are are very old and or frail or there were issues leading up to your surgery this does appear to be rather a long time.

I think I would want to talk to my surgeon or doctor as I would not expect a hip replacement to effect the operation of my knee in the way you have explained it to us. Hopefully someone hear can throw more light on this.

Cheers Richard

Penny I am nine weeks and go up stairs one foot at a time without thinking about it now, ask your surgeon what to expect for your situation 😀

I am two months post op.and 71.5. I started stairs as part of my exercise maybe three weeks in. Just doing a few steps up & down as I can live on one level. It got easier and easier. I was told it is an excellent exercise. I always use handrail and will for lift at my age. Lol

Before surgery I would go up one step on my good side right leg and bring up painful side.Then repeat, I did the complete flight like that. Now I step up one step right leg the next left leg,

I think it depends on age, what was going on before surgery (were you able to walk up stairs ok before?) and if you had anterior/posterior.  For me I started walking up stairs normally I think around 5 weeks.  I still had to grip the rail and my muscles felt weak initially but I was able to do it.  Now at 7.5 weeks I can go up and down stairs without having to support myself with the rail or anything.  I had anterior and I was pretty strong/athletic before surgery and I'm only 51. 

There was a lot of stiffness in my hip for bending my leg to step up with the operated leg and then when I did the muscles felt weak and very sore initially.  So, what I did for a couple weeks was when I'd walk up stairs I would bring my operated leg up onto the step like I was going to walk up stairs normally, but then I'd not put weight on it and just walk up one step at a time.  But I think doing that for a couple weeks helps to loosen things up because eventually I was walking up a couple of steps normally, then half the staircase and now it's just normal. 

Soft tissue really goes through the ringer after major surgery like this (tendons, ligaments and muscle) so they need to be stretched and given time to heal.  Are you icing and using heat? That has really helped my muslces a lot for bouncing back.  I used ice where I had the inflammation around the scar and heat on the rest of my sore muscles.  And my physical therapist has been doing massage on my IT band because that was tight before surgery and after surgery was even worse - and that has helped a lot.