Post-surgery fatigue and weakness

Hello @dixonjh, I think fatigue following any major surgery is common. I had my right knee replaced in my mid 70s and it was several months before I started feeling more normal. It's good to hear that the knee appears to be healing OK. Here's some information on the topic that explains it a little more.
-- Coping With Fatigue After Surgery: https://www.verywellhealth.com/feeling-tired-after-surgery-3156867

You might want to talk with your husbands doctor or care team if your husband is still having pain and needing to take the Dilaudid twice daily to control the pain. Does he still have swelling and pain in the knee replacement leg?

Dilaudid can cause mood changes, depression, and it's worth asking about weaning off go a different pain management routine.

And, has anyone checked for anemia, iron deficiency and adequate RBCs? Too many older people (I'm one) are just expected to be fatigued & too often the health care folks disregard low normal/ borderline results which might in fact be significant in individuals...I had to fight my primary care about this at my annual visit last November
As a former lab tech I do know how to read results and the variations of "normal" ranges for labs didn't jive with my extreme fatigue & she dismissed the low # of RBCs and an ondictor that I had too many "microcytic" (too small) RBCs because hemoglobin and hematocrit were at the very bottom of normal range, she said I was normal. I prevailed. Further testing indicated low iron stores in tissues and after more pleading (I called practice manager to threaten to take my business elsewhere) I got referred to henzto6& needed an iron infusion. That was March. And added iron supplement & dietary changes...more tests in June showed I'm holding my own. However, symptoms seem to be back, so I'll be following up with hematology again.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/hydromorphone-oral-route/side-effects/drg-20074171

Yes. same here. I've had 3 hip replacements ( one replacements, 2 revisions). The only time I didn't have fatigue was when I had a blood transfusion. I also healed faster.
I suffered some depression after the last 2, and prolonged fatigue in the 3rd.

In the past year and a half, I have had 3 carpal tunnel surgery, elbow release, 2 reverse shoulder replacements, a broken wrist, more wrist surgery and 4 weeks ago a total hip replacement. I was doing pretty good until this hip replacement. I was kept two days in the hospital due to getting the pain under control. I left the hospital with anemia, and blood pressure is 101/42.
At home my blood pressure dropped to very low-75/43-like that.
Very fatigued and no motivation to do anything.
My primary care doctor withheld some blood pressure meds, and prescribed iron supplements for 2 months. She said with my blood loss during surgery it would take awhile to build up the red blood cell count.
It is a relief to know there is a reason I am so fatigued.
It is very easy to think it is our fault for fatigue and to think that if we just get up and move it will get better.

My family INSISTED on transfusions after 2 of my hip replacements - my daughter was a nurse in eldercare at the time, and said any of her residents with hemoglobin & RBC as low as mine would have been sent to the hospital for a transfusion. I am guessing you have been on a downward trajectory after all those surgeries, and the hip surgery, which can include significant blood loss, was the icing on the cake.

Take it easy - all that surgical trauma in 18 months is a lot to deal with.

That's a lot to recover from and it does take time. I had surgical blood loss with the hip replacement and so anemia. They gave me a transfusion while I was still in the hospital. That made a big difference, plus the iron from my primary care dr. And of course the hip replacement itself is a big surgery.