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Getting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacement by Sigrid Macdonald
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 Rehab and Convalescence
I had ambivalent feelings about going to the rehab unit. On one hand, I was very excited and eager to begin the intensive physiotherapy. On the other hand, I was still so exhausted and drowsy that all I wanted to do was sleep the day away. The rehab staff consisted of a family doctor, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a social worker and a physiatrist, or doctor of physical rehabilitation medicine.
PHYSIOTHERAPY
Much to my surprise, I hated physiotherapy. I hadn't had any difficulty with physio following my car accident but after the hip surgery, the new exercises really hurt. I was still doing the ankle pumps, the gluteal squeezes, and the isometrics for my quadriceps. I was also lying flat on my back and extending my operated leg out to the side in order to work my abductor muscles. And I had to practice bending my knee because my knee had become painful to move since the surgery. I was taking two to three Percocets a day, as my pain level had greatly increased during my third week in the hospital when my leg started to swell like a balloon.
My knee was swollen and resembled a cantaloupe and my foot hurt so much that it felt as though someone had smashed it with a hammer. The physiatrist suggested that I start wearing the anti-embolism stockings, known as TEDs. I couldn't put the stockings on myself because I couldn't bend forward without violating the 90 degree precaution. A nurse had to put the stockings on for me in the morning and take them off at night. The TEDs worked quickly to decrease my swelling, although they didn’t resolve the problem entirely. Nonetheless, it would have made a big difference to me if I had been given the stockings right after surgery.
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