How is recovery after anterior hip replacement surgery?
It’s been three months since my surgery and my recovery has been great!
No, that’s not me in the picture, but if you thought that for a minute, I’m flattered.
My story so far
This is my second hip replacement. The first one went so well I decided to just get this one out of the way, instead of waiting at least another year. I knew I would get the best type of hip surgery, anterior. My surgeon was top notch and has done hundreds of these surgeries. I could get it done very soon, within a month or so, on my schedule. (I deferred for a couple of weeks to go on my annual golf trip).
And my faithful nurse friend Kathy was available for a short road trip to Calgary. I couldn’t have done it without her.
If you haven’t read it yet, this is my story pre-surgery, what you need to know about hip replacement surgery – and nobody tells you: https://lynntowin.ca/what-you-need-to-know-about-hip-replacement-surgery-and-nobody-tells-you. This one is really important if you are needing hip surgery.
this is my story leading up to surgery, what happens before hip replacement surgery: https://lynntowin.ca/what-happens-before-hip-replacement-surgery
this is my story about my hospital stay after hip replacement surgery: https://lynntowin.ca/my-hospital-stay-after-hip-replacement-surgery
this is my follow up story, a month after hip replacement surgery: https://lynntowin.ca/a-month-after-hip-replacement-surgery
this is my story about my second hip, when can I get my other hip replaced? https://lynntowin.ca/when-can-i-get-my-other-hip-replaced
and this is my story leading up to my second hip surgery where I opted to pay for a private surgery in Calgary, will private hip surgery be worth it? https://lynntowin.ca/will-private-hip-surgery-be-worth-it-my-second-hip-surgery
What happened with my private surgery?
I booked my private surgery with Clearpoint Health in Calgary. The location is in what used to be a Salvation Army maternity hospital. It feels just like a hospital. Well at least I thought so. I’ve only had one other experience as a patient in a hospital at the Regina General where I had my first hip surgery a year earlier.
I arranged with my friend Kathy to drive with me to Calgary, where we stayed with her cousin Julie the night before.
On the day of the surgery, I was set up in a bed and met my surgeon, Dr. Sharma.
Because he is a superstar surgeon, I asked if I could get a picture with him. He said sorry, he doesn’t do pictures. So, just for fun I came up with my own version.
One leg was longer than the other!
Dr. Sharma asked for “calibration” x-rays to be done, that I didn’t have with my first hip surgery. In these x-rays, a metal ball was placed beside my hip to help choose the size of hip joint to implant. The x-rays are useful for another reason as I found out.
Dr. Sharma looked at those x-rays, and showed me that my right leg (first hip surgery) was actually 12 mm (half an inch) longer than my left. This is apparently quite a bit when it comes to leg length. He intended to fix that in this surgery (on my left hip).
I later asked if this leg length discrepancy was due to my first surgery. He said he didn’t like to comment on other surgeries. Hmm.
How much time was needed for the surgery?
My surgery was booked for 12:00. Just after 12:30, Dr. Sharma called my friend Kathy to tell her the surgery had gone well and I was fine. That’s impressive – both the timing and my surgeon personally calling my friend.
The surgeon for my first surgery in Regina told me that one of the reasons he prefers and continues to do the old style hip surgery was because he could do that one in 45 minutes, but the anterior surgery took 90 minutes.
For more info on the differences in surgeries, what you need to know about hip replacement surgery – and nobody tells you: https://lynntowin.ca/what-you-need-to-know-about-hip-replacement-surgery-and-nobody-tells-you
Dr. Sharma did the anterior surgery in half an hour, and that included whatever he needed to do to adjust my leg length!
Part of the reason for his speediness is that he would be using a special operating table to help open up the hip joint. It may have looked something like the picture at the top of this page.
I spent some time half awake in the recovery room, where my medications were adjusted based on what I mumbled that my pain level was.
Should you eat after surgery?
Back in my private room and awake, I was asked what I wanted to eat. After all, it was afternoon, and I hadn’t eaten since dinner last night.
I was shocked! For my first surgery, I was told that I couldn’t eat anything until the following morning, a day and a half after my last meal. And then I was given beef broth and orange juice only. I have to admit, that tasted wonderful at the time after being denied food for so long.
But here I had fresh berries and yogurt like I would normally have for breakfast, as soon as I was awake after surgery.
I asked one of my nurses about that, who told me that giving you pain meds on an empty stomach does not make you feel well, and there is no reason to not feed you.
Should you get out of bed soon after surgery?
Yes, this is very important to your recovery, the clinic physio assured me. But I was out of bed before seeing the physio, just to go to the washroom, with a nurse assisting me. By assisting me, I mean supervising me as I pushed myself off the bed onto a walker. She also helped me get my intravenous tower contraption going with me in the right direction. And then she waited to make sure I got back into bed and was set up again properly with my leg elevated and iced.
For my first surgery I asked several times for help to get out of bed to go to the washroom. I was told I could not get out of bed until I saw a physio, so should use a bedpan. I refused several times until I finally got help getting out of bed.
Do you need a lot of pain medications? Do you need to ice?
I was hooked up to medications that were adjusted for pain. My intravenous medications included tramadol, a strong pain-killer used intermittently, but were mostly Tylenol extra-strength! I never needed anything more than that. I was given a prescription for a stronger pain killer but never used it.
A bag of ice was on my hip the entire length of my stay at the clinic. And I was sent home with a cryo-cuff. This is basically a tiny freezer attached to a cuff to wrap around the thigh that is supplied with ice water. You can use it only 20 minutes at a time or you risk freezing your skin.
For my first surgery I was regularly using Tylenol 3 with codeine, a much stronger medication. I did not have ice on my hip while I was in the hospital.
Back at home for the first ten days or so I would count down the time until I could take another Tylenol 3. I had much more pain with the first surgery. I’m not really complaining, it was manageable, but so much less pain for the second surgery.
What kind of therapy was provided at the private clinic?
I had a physiotherapist take me out for a walk in the evening. She returned in the morning, this time going through exercises with me and having me navigate stairs.
I was given crutches to use going up and down stairs. I mentioned that I had not used crutches after my first surgery. I used a walker at first, and to use stairs I had folded up the walker and used it something like a cane.
The physio was horrified and asked if I had made up the walker on the stairs method on my own. Nope, that was the physio at the hospital who told me to do that.
What kind of follow-up did my surgeon do?
I stayed the night in the clinic the night after my surgery.
Dr. Sharma popped in at 5:45 AM to see me! He was going to be working at a public hospital that day, so did his rounds before that.
He told me the surgery went very well, he lengthened my leg during the operation as promised, and asked if I had any questions. This was when I asked if one leg was longer than the other due to my previous surgery, and he declined to answer.
Later that morning, I had a hard look at my leg length, and the leg just operated on looked much longer than the other!
I was a little freaked out and asked my nurse if she saw the same thing. She said yes. So she called Dr. Sharma, and he said my pelvis had adjusted to my other leg being longer. My pelvis needed to readjust which can take a few months.
Dr. Sharma called me later that day to explain this all to me personally and to make sure I had understood.
Since then, he has called me three times for updates, asking for photos of the incision and x-rays to talk about with me.
What happened after leaving the clinic?
My friend Kathy came to the clinic around noon to pick me up. The nurse waited until she was there to go through some details. After all, I’m on painkillers and a little loopy so this is a good thing.
We stayed in a Calgary hotel that night, then a Medicine Hat hotel the next, and home the next.
Kathy was with me after my first surgery also, and was amazed at how much better my mobility was this time.
The improvements continued, and I’m pretty much back to normal!
What would I tell anyone who needs hip replacement?
Read what you need to know about hip replacement surgery – and nobody tells you: https://lynntowin.ca/what-you-need-to-know-about-hip-replacement-surgery-and-nobody-tells-you
Tell your caregiver that you want to be referred to a surgeon who does Direct Anterior surgery.
You have to insist on this, or most surgeons today in Regina will do the old style surgery, and you will have a long painful road to recovery.