Case Study: Clare's Hip Replacement Recovery with Recovery Kit

Who is Clare?

Clare worked as a community midwife for 25 years. She plays tennis and walks every Friday with a group, usually 8 to 10 miles at a time. She has three children and five grandchildren, and lives in a courtyard home with a lot of steps and a spiral staircase.

What happened before her hip replacement?

Clare's problems started in her knee, which she was being seen for over about 13 months. Gradually it became clear that the real cause might be her hip.

When you're not sure of what's happening, you don't know which way to go.

Once an X-ray confirmed the problem, her consultant recommended a hip replacement. By then she had already stopped playing tennis and doing her long walks.

For many times in my life I thought, what would I do if I couldn't play my tennis or do my walking? And there I was, I couldn't do it.

Over about four weeks her mobility dropped sharply, to the point where she could barely walk. She had told her consultant she didn't want an operation if there was any other way. By the end, she was simply ready: “I wasn't worried about anything at all. I was just really happy to get it done.”

How did she prepare for surgery?

The orthopaedic department at Warwick Hospital gave her a lot of written information about the admission and the operation, and her nursing and midwifery background meant she understood most of it. “I was pretty much at ease because I was so needing the operation by this time. So I was fully prepared.”

Because her own home has so many steps, she and her family planned for her to spend the first days with a close friend. Clare had looked after this friend when the friend had her own hip operation, so it was a natural arrangement.

We delivered her NICE1 to her friend's house rather than her own, so it was there waiting when she arrived from hospital. When her hire ends, we will collect it from Clare's own home: the delivery and collection addresses can be different, to fit around wherever someone is recovering. It meant Clare and her family had one less thing to organise in the busy days around her operation.

What was the hospital stay like?

Clare had a spinal anaesthetic. The physios had her out of bed and walking soon after the operation, which she found “quite amazing really”. She felt rough during the first night and morning, and the ward team monitored her closely until she picked up later that day.

Most impressed with the nursing care and the physio care down at Warwick, absolutely excellent.

How did Clare use the NICE1 at home?

At her friend's house the machine lived in the lounge. She used it after getting up in the morning and then roughly every three hours through the day, but not overnight at that stage.

When she moved back home after about five days, she kept it at her side and built it into her routine: her physio exercises first, then a session on the NICE1. She settled on intermittent, medium compression and Level 3 on the cold settings, a middle ground she found comfortable after surgery.

I felt comfortable with it, I felt confident with it, and as I say, it's become my friend.

Compared with a friend's older machine, which needed frozen bottles of water loaded every time, she found the NICE1 far simpler: “You just put three hundred millilitres of water in the beginning and you're done.”

Did it help with sleep and night-time pain?

Yes, and this was the part of her recovery she spoke about most warmly. Her hospital information had warned that nerve pain is often worse at night. When it woke her, she would come through to her sitting room, settle under a blanket and put the machine on. The night before our visit she did this at about 2.30am and woke again at quarter to five.

Sometimes I'd go to sleep while it was on, and that's wonderful, wonderful.

What were the results at three weeks?

1. About 10 days

   “I remember saying, I think I've turned a corner.”

2. About 2½ weeks

   She walked into Warwick and around the market. “It was wonderful to be up there in the market thinking, I'm here!”

3. 3 weeks

   Walking around her courtyard with neighbours on hand, and using the machine to get back to sleep when night pain woke her.

She described her recovery as a whole in two words, “I'm amazed”. On the machine's part in it: “I'm sure it's the machine that's helped me recover more quickly.”

Clare's recovery is her own. How quickly someone recovers depends on the operation, their health before surgery and the plan their care team sets.

What's next for Clare?

Her first goal is to drive again. After that she hopes to rejoin her walking group in the new year, and to be back on the tennis court in the spring.

What would she tell a friend with a hip or knee replacement booked?

Just do what the book says and just follow the instructions.

She has already shown her machine to one friend with a hip replacement coming up and plans to send another our website. “I found it invaluable, to be honest.” You can read more of Clare's experience in Hip replacement recovery at 82, and more on cold therapy after this operation in our hip replacement recovery guide.

About Recovery Kit

Recovery Kit sells and hires out recovery equipment for people before and after surgery or injury, chosen because the data and patients' own experience show it works. We only offer products and services we genuinely believe in, and we care about every patient, family and care team we support, at every stage of recovery. We are the official UK partner of NICE Recovery Systems.

You can hire, subscribe to or buy a NICE1, with free UK delivery; hires ordered before 2pm arrive the next day (excluding Sundays). Call us on 020 7096 6404 or email hello@recoverykit.co.uk.

Everyone's recovery is different. Always follow the advice of your own surgeon and physio.