Skip to main content

Things To Be Known During Hip Replacement

Hip replacement is major surgery and, for the first few days, you will want to take it easy. However, it is important that you start some activities immediately to offset the effects of the anesthetic, help the healing, and keep blood clots from forming in your leg veins. Your doctor and physical and occupational therapists can give you specific instructions on wound care, pain control, diet, and exercise. They should also indicate how much weight you can put on your affected leg.

Pain management is important in your early recovery. Although pain after surgery is quite variable and not entirely predictable, it does need to be controlled with medication. Initially, you may get pain medication through an IV (intravenous) tube that you can control to get the amount of medication you need. It is easier to prevent pain than to control it and you do not have to worry about becoming addicted to the medication; after a day or two, injections or pills will replace the IV tube.

Besides the pain medication, you will also need antibiotics and blood-thinners to help prevent blood clots from forming in the veins of your thigh and calf.

You may lose your appetite and feel nauseous or constipated for a couple of days. These are ordinary reactions. You may have a urinary catheter inserted during surgery and be given stool softeners or laxatives to ease the constipation caused by the pain medication after surgery. You will be taught to do breathing exercises to keep your chest and lungs clear.

A physical therapist will visit you, usually on the day after your surgery, and teach you how to use your new joint. It is important that you get up and about as soon as possible after hip replacement surgery. Even in bed, you can pedal your feet and pump your ankles regularly to keep blood flowing in your legs. You may have to wear elastic stockings and/or a pneumatic sleeve to help keep blood flowing freely.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Yellow Fever Vaccination is given only between 10 am and 4 pm everyday. Appointment necessary!

Vaccination Appointment for International Travelers (VAIT) Yellow Fever Vaccination is given only between 10 am and 4 pm everyday. Mail a copy of your passport to info@hopehospital.com before your appointment date. Yellow fever : ·        Mandatory vaccination against yellow fever is carried out to prevent the importation of yellow fever virus into vulnerable countries. These are countries where yellow fever does not occur but where the mosquito vector and non-human primate hosts are present. Importation of the virus by an infected traveller could potentially lead to the establishment of infection in mosquitoes and primates, with a consequent risk of infection for the local population. In such cases, vaccination is an entry requirement for all travellers arriving from countries, including airport transit, where there is a risk of yellow fever transmission. If yellow fever vaccination is contraindicated for medical reasons, a medical certificate is required for

PROTECT your joints now, or pay later.

See the full gallery on Posterous That’s the message of today’s article, which could be headlined Joint Economics. If you are one of the more than 400,000 people a year who have already had one or more hips or knees replaced — or someone who already has no choice but to consider joining their ranks — we offer our sympathies or encouragement or even congratulations, depending on how you are faring. But this column is for people who are not yet destined to necessarily become part of those statistics. Although the human body has an amazing capacity to repair itself, our joints are surprisingly fragile. When the cartilage that cushions bones wears away, it does not grow back. Thinning cartilage contributes to   osteoarthritis , also known as degenerative   arthritis , a painful and often debilitating condition. Over time, arthritic joints can become so sore and inflamed that they need to be replaced with mechanical substitutes. A result: more pain, at least in the short

Today is World Kindness Day!

Today is World Kindness Day! - why not use spare time to send a handwritten letter to someone? someone who is sick or in hospital. someone who is old and lonely. Can be an admirer, friend, neighbor, or perhaps a stranger (like somebody serving in the military). #WorldKindnessDay