THR overdoing it

Hi Chris

I haven't overdone it so much that I have had to return to the surgeon, but to the extent that I started hurting worse and had to stop and rest. For me being picky as I am it was me trying to housework that I probably shouldn't have done so soon. Like trying to sweep or vacuum or steam mop the floor. kind of tricky to do on crutches...haha....but I got it down pat....Early on I would say after the second week I remember trying to vacuum or sweep and had to stop and let my husband take over because it became too painful. For me what seemed to work was to do a little bit and then stop and rest a while then get up and do a little more. I was doing laundry the first week home, but had a very hard time trying to carry laundry. I wasn't allowed to put full weight on my operated side either so that also made it more difficult. Best advice I can give is stay active enough to move around some but don't hurt yourself. Listen to your body, if you start to hurt then it is wise to stop...Hope this has helped you some....Wishing you well.....Barb

For me I overdid it in the early weeks after my surgery by walking without my cane before I was ready and it caused pain in my groin area. We need to keep in mind that each correct step is healing and retraining and strengthening our muscles. Then at around 5 months I had tried to return to a normal but modified exercise routine..yoga and pilates..and dropped my home PT exercises and I began to hurt again and limp and my knee on op leg was hurting. I went back to PT basics and that helped.There are many ups and down in our recovery. Hang in there!

Best,

Cindy

Hi Chris.I think that's what's hard .Ots so darn inconsistant .At 19 days I was feeling great and fractured my femur just picking up a bag of laundry.I obeyed all the rules and put it on my walker moved it about 3 inches and that's all it took.The appliance is fine,the Doc said I should of been able to do what I did but it was just a weak spot in my bone.You need to be careful.Its just hard to know our limits.

Hi Chris, 

Great responses and, as you can see, they are little ordinary things that can send you back a couple of steps -

Usually we start feeling better and stronger around week 4 (give or take a couple of days) and so we want to do more - fortunately our brilliant body will let us know when we over did it - but in a way, we have to, otherwise we won't know what we can do or not do -

Walking unaided too soon is one of the first things when we feel the discomfort - 

Even furniture surfing !!!

Housework - lifting, bending, pushing - like making the bed, doing laundry etc - or do some work in the garden - innocent pulling weeds - 

Going to see surgeon is usually advised when there is a shooting pain, or fever or something else that feels wrong - Otherwise resting up iand perhaps taking pain medication will do the trick -

How are you doing otherwise?

Big warm hug

renee

It's when you get overconfident that you realise you're not ready!! Hoovering has horrible consequences, twisting when you are pruning the plants is not good!! Getting in and out of different heights of cars ( I went from a mini to a range rover on Monday and had 3 days of pain) sitting on the floor (ouch) getting back up again( more ouch) thinking at 5 weeks it might be ok to lie on your side ( no) walking too far with the dogs ! I think you just have to. Listen to your own body. If you were really active before, it might mean you can do certain things more quickly, but you still have to be careful of all those recovering muscles and still avoid the dreaded dislocation. 

Take care. X

malloo 

Hi Chris.

 I am at week 10 and have had ups and downs of progress and overdoing it. I haven't had to go to the surgeon either but get some direction from my physio.

The housework stuff of bending too much is one way too overdo it. Walking unaided, fast, too in the house before one is ready is another way I have overdone it. Now I am using the cane all the time, snide and out. Oh yeah, if you are out and about, standing for too long is another way one can overdo it and then pay with pain. 

Pace yourself, do your exercises, walk, balance activity with rest, like sitting down regularly. 

Being active before can help but is not necessarily going to mean that you will recover faster, especially if you were dlimping or doing compensatory walking, gait for a long time pre op.

not meaning to be pessimistic, just realistic.

my physio said, it's okay if you have some pain or discomfort when doing an exercise but if it continues to hurt when you stop in between, take a break, rest and then resume them later. 

Good luck in your recovery.

Cathy

Hi Chris,

Not sure if you got the same prescription but mine said no BLT bending, leaning ot twisting for six weeks. I was not allowed full-weight bearing for six weeks either (2nd hip bad and waiting for THR). After the first two weeks, the worst thing was staying patient, doing the exercises regularly (I did them 3x daily) and respecting the BLT rule. I always knew when I pushed the rules or my endurance - sitting, standing or walking too long ... fairly quick response by my body ... pain and weakness. The only real emery (and I resisted) was to cut back, rest and ice then rebel in back a notch. It was immensely frustrating as all of our society has been taught to look for the quick fix and while THR is a quick fix for the bone on bone pain, the recovery is much, much longer for the deeper tissues and process of connective tissues adhering permanently to the new 'bone' material. We get fooled into thinking all is progressing but misuse of these tisues can set back the whole process. I should have appreciated this process better after 8 months of rehab following a bad fall a few years back. But orientation for this operation and comments by docs sometimes give us a very rosy view of recovery timelines.

Patience my hippie friend. God luck.

I love this forum.  Such great information.  I am just two weeks post-op so I'm not feeling to impatient yet.  But I really am going to just try to relax into this recovery and not rush it.  I'm retired so don't have to worry about going back to work.  I have to definite plans to work toward.  I'll just keep increasing my walking slowly and do my exercise.  My first Physio appt is next Friday.  I feel like I'm healing/progressing well but it will be nice to hear what they say.