Hip Replacement Surgery

This has been a rare week. Started out with the wife going to surgery on Monday for a total hip replacement. A surgeon new to the area brought to Bloomington-Normal the minimally invasive technique and expertise from the San Francisco area. The wife has been have a lot of trouble with pain in the left hip for quite some time and in fact the xray's have indicated bone on bone in both hips.

Since she had Polio at about age 6 with multiple surgeries to get her able to walk looking toward a total hip replacement was not a priority. It was Jane's physical therapist that suggested the new doctor in town that came from California and had a totally new technique to this area. Last fall we visited with him and go a shot in the hip to help with the pain, at that time he explained the surgery procedures. As we listened to his explanation and description of the procedure we became more convinced that this might be a good solution to the problem.

Having had Polio the muscles had been greatly effected and one might say deteriorated to a a certain degree. While us normal people (those not having Polio) find that exercise stretching and manipulation helps to develop the muscles, those who had Polio and were effected do not recover from over use of their muscles except by resting the muscles. It is as if the tendons and remaining muscles have worked overtime to achieve normal exertion and therefore they have lost the elasticity to recover.

The standard total hip replacement requires that the muscles and tendons be cut in order to insert the new hip joint. In Jane's case crutches would have been almost impossible to use and non weight bearing is the prescription until the muscles begin to heal. This new procedure has the doctor moving the muscles and tendons to the side and then after insertion moving them back in place. With this procedure the pain is usually lessened and the recovery time is hastened. Plus the next day immediate weight bearing is encouraged.

Jane had the surgery on Monday afternoon getting to her room about 5:30pm. The next morning she had been gotten up to sit on the side of the bed and then to place weight on the repaired joint. Physical therapy began on Tuesday. Wednesday she had two sessions of PT and OT (Occupational Therapy). Wednesday at noon she went up 4 stair steps and then down four stair steps twice. Thursday another double PT and OT sessions including getting in and out of bed and practicing for getting in and out of the bath tub shower. Thursday night she made it home and walked from the van to the family room and up one step. After resting and being served Chinese food she transversed the final 5 steps to the main level of our house.

Considering all of the muscle problems from before the surgery, which remain, the progress has been amazing! The live in nurse has been getting by pretty easily. He has even been able to sneak off to buy food and do chores.

Now the nurse has to go down in the basement to change the kitty litter, not one of his favorite chores.