Do any of you have personal experience with hip replacement surgery? Were there any home modifications you or the patient found especially helpful? Pain relief beyond meds? I have the basic "what to expect" handouts, but would be grateful for any insights. :)
Close childhood friend fell and broke her hip. They replaced it and had her walking the same day.
I don't happy :) but I hope your husband has a speedy recovery and I'm sure you'll take awesome care of him :) my only advice is you two should lay off the 5 minute movies for about 48 hours ;)
Happy, most hip replacements are a fairly quick recovery. That being said, it doesn't mean the recovery is easy! One thing I would suggest....for a short time, I would get some non slip things that go in the bottom of the tub, just for prevention purposes. Happy healing!
Mrs Didge had a replacement 12 months ago. There were problems. It's not what you want to hear when you're facing surgery so I won't elaborate unless you really want me to.
The consensus about hip replacements is that the surgery is straight-forward and the recovery period fairly rapid, especially if your surgeon is up-to-date with the latest "keyhole" technique.
Modifications? Not a lot. We laid a strip of clear plastic over the carpet so that she could make her way from living room to bathroom to bedroom more easily, using a walking frame. (After a couple of weeks she moved more easily and we were able to remove it.)
She also found a hand rail in our shower very reassuring although it had been placed there for me a couple of years before. (I make a habit of falling over.)
BTW if your shower is in a tub you will have trouble stepping over the side. If access is level with the floor you'll be fine. (In Oz your physiotherapist will discuss this before you leave hospital; it may be different in the US.)
