Anyone had a hip replaced?

Yes, I would expect a shattered ankle to be a very difficult situation. We haven’t had anything like that to deal with.

This is me. I teeter constantly because my ankles are weak. Getting up is increasingly difficult, bending over is dangerous, I need to lean on walls or at least be touching them to maintain balance and don’t even ask me to get down on the floor, I’ll never get back up.

But it beats the alternative.

We made a conscious decision after my hip went kablooey that we’ll never live in a house with more than one story.

Damned good advice.

I always wanted one of those motorized chairs on a track alongside the stairs. The height of class, I say. That, and a thick yellowed plastic cushion on the toilet seat alongside the smell of original flavor dehydrated-piss brown Listerine, that’s old man central. What’s that empty glass doing in the bathroom, you ask? Wouldn’t you like to know? Pop-pop has his secrets!

My mother had one. They’re damned expensive, so I think Medicare paid for it, but can’t say for sure.

Ok, the (not very) exciting Joint Camp is over and I learned I was way off base on the anesthesia.

I’m first getting a few pills, including an oxycontin and some other pill I didn’t catch. Then I’m getting a spinal epidural to numb the area. Then I think I’m getting some sort of general anesthesia because they did stress that I’d be out during the procedure (the instructor said “if you were awake you wouldn’t be able to see anything and you’d just be hearing the sound of saws and drills…”). I have to take tylenol every 8 hours for 3 days prior to the surgery and then pain pills for around a week afterwards. Should be a lot of fun.

@stusser I don’t wanna brag but I’m going to be pimping out my bathroom - I am going to have to buy one of those elevated toilet seat things for the short time after the operation. Plus I get a “free” walker from the hospital to use at home. American healthcare is a marvel.

Those toilet seats are one, essential after the surgery, and two, a PITA (literally in some cases).

The GF did all this when she got her hip replaced. In fact she ended up buying a new toilet that sits higher. I am now king of all I survey in there!

She recovered quickly. She did opt to stay overnight at the hospital just to get the care. I was all for that.

So pills for only a week afterwards-- sounds like they’re going in laparadoscopically! Very good news, vastly less invasive.

Making out like a bandit, free walker, man, why are my hips so damn functional?

I actually had to get the raised seat prior to, since standing up from the toilet was too painful. I did continue to use it after the replacement, however.

The meds are an issue, especially after the surgery. If you are prescribed heavy-duty stuff, opiates, be sure to discuss with your doctors the process of stopping them. Sometimes they sort of forget and you end up just getting cut off, which ends up being just like stopping heroin cold turkey really. No kidding; opiates kill pain good but they are bad juju overall, so be careful.

I had to go cold turkey starting about a week before my surgery. Oddly I had no problem, other than the hip pain itself.

I had knee surgery years ago and was prescribed oxycontin. In the morning I’d take the pill, feel really good, then call my office and tell them I thought I’d be coming back the next day. Afternoon came, the pill wore off, and I’d feel like crap. I’d call the office and say “uh, I think I won’t be in tomorrow”

After a few days of that, I realized it was the pill that was doing this, and the thought of being addicted scared me, so I cut myself off and just took tylenol. Took a couple of days but eventually I was back to (more or less) normal,

“Anyone here had their brain transplanted into one of the new Musk Husks?”

Brain! What is brain!!!

What parts of yourself have you fixed or replaced lately (that are interesting)?

Are you better, stronger, faster than before?

Also, how do you feel about Bigfoot?

I think Bigfoot is blurry, that’s the problem.

Have you looked at the sky lately?