More about hip surgery

Posted by cindiwass @cindiwass, May 16, 2022

The doctor is wanting to use lateral decubitus position for the hip surgery, total hip replacement. I looked it up for pictures, that's the first one I looked at though. Looks a bit difficult in reference to my position on the table. For me. He says he has better success with that position but I am nervous (as usual) about it. I am wondering who here may have had lateral decubitus positioned surgery like that and how they feel. Also I am wondering about changing the length of the leg in reference to that type of surgery. He says lengths of legs, etc., are different anyway, which did not particularly assure me. Thanks.

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Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Jun 19, 2022

In reply to @janesirene "Is it inappropriate to ask which surgeon was it that got upset with you? Or at..." + (show)

@janesirene, for patient privacy, it is not recommended that a member reveal their location. Revealing the hospital or surgeon from whom they received care, violates a person's privacy and personal health information.

ellerbracke | @ellerbracke | Jun 19, 2022

In reply to @ellerbracke "@freedom78 : Having one leg longer than the other after hip or knee replacement surgery is..." + (show)

Let me add some thoughts….. as long as the actual surgery was successful, and the recovery and rehab is proceeding on schedule, tell the PT person about the leg length issue….. or at least, bring it up. The best thing my therapist ever did was to simply have me walk with casual strides, and loosely swinging arms, toward him (and a full length mirror). He immediately pointed out, plain for me to see, that the space between my swinging arms and hips was lop-sided. Wider on one side. Which means, the body is out of alignment. My details got taken care of, but to this day, whenever I have some odd twinges or aches I pay attention to where, exactly, my arms swing in relation to my body, on my daily morning walk. To me it is sort of a minor, self-adjusting mini-PT session. It really does help to focus on posture and gait.

cindiwass | @cindiwass | Jun 19, 2022

In reply to @janesirene "Is it inappropriate to ask which surgeon was it that got upset with you? Or at..." + (show)

Aside from patient privacy, I don't want to reveal his name. He does,however, have a good rating on healthgrades or one of those websites that rate doctors. Maybe he was under a lot of stress that day, but anyway, even though I'm in pain and still considering an operation, I actually was laughing and glad and sorry at the same time when I left his office, because I was relieved but also felt bad that I upset him so much. 🙂 Thank you, though, for your concern. I will say it was in one of the sunshine states. I actually think he is a good surgeon, maybe he was stressed out that day, but anyway, frankly, I feel relieved and will continue moving forward. (I was asking him a lot of questions -- he practically yelled at me when he said (I'm laughing when I say this) that it will be very painful recovery and will need to be in a rehab center, etc. He must have been having problems personally, I suppose. OR he just didn't really like me, lol. Plus having problems. 🙂 Take care.