Welcome to The Hip Replacement Podcast, where healing and recovery lead to a whole new lifestyle.
I'm Chris Bystriansky, your host. I'm an author, athlete, and double hip replacement patient. One more than 12 years ago, and the other more than 10 years ago. I've been through the surgeries, the setbacks, and the comebacks. And I'm here to help you do the same.
Each week, I'll bring you tips, tools, expert advice, and inspiring stories to help you take back your life one step at a time. Whether you're preparing for surgery, in recovery, or just looking to move and live better, you're in the right place.
Thanks for joining The Hip Replacement Podcast. New hips, new you. Let's go.
Welcome back to The Hip Replacement Podcast. It has been some time. Um, I think we are three weeks since the last episode. I took a little time off and it's been great. I've been really busy with my family and I do have to admit I've been playing more golf lately and that and with the family it's just been eating up a lot of time.
And the reason for the golf is that I have signed up in a qualifier for the senior US Open and I'm a little bit scared that my game might not be ready to play in it. I used to play a lot of golf before my hips started giving me problems 15 years ago and I was okay. I didn't take it seriously though and now I'm taking it more serious and maybe I'm not as good, I don't know, but I'm taking it more serious which may make all the difference.
So anyway, I've just been away and the qualifier is in about 4 weeks and I didn't even sign up early enough to play in my state. There's a couple qualifiers locally in my state, so I have to go to a different state to try to qualify.
Anyway, that's that is a topic for a completely different episode. I'll keep you posted on that. It should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. Um whether I do okay or not, it'll be a great experience and I'll see what I can do. All right.
But anyway, yes, three weeks and I have a lot of great episodes lined up, ready to go. I've been putting together the list over the last few days and I cannot wait to roll them out to you.
But since our last episode, I've received several very nice emails from you all and thank you very much for submitting things. One of our listeners, Lori, submitted a very nice email. So, hi Lori, and thank you. Thank you for submitting that email. It means so much when folks like you submit questions and comments and any great words of encouragement and let me know that this podcast is really helpful to you. So, thank you.
And if anyone out there is wondering, hey, how do you leave a comment? What do you do? Well, in the show notes or in the description, there are links and one of the links goes to the homepage for the podcast. And at the bottom of that podcast homepage, there's a form and you can just fill out your form and fill out the form with and add a question in there or a comment and hit submit and I will get it.
So, thank you very much to Lori and to everyone else who has submitted comments and I look forward to reading and responding to your comments. I try to get to all of them as soon as I can. So, thank you.
All right. Now, in this episode, I'm going to talk about sleep years after a hip replacement. I'm not talking about a day, a week, a month after hip replacement. That was covered in episode 13 where I talk about sleep over the first few nights and few first weeks after surgery.
But this episode is about sleep a year, five years, 10 years after a hip replacement surgery. And the reason we're going to talk about this is because the hip still has some impact years after surgery.
If you think you're going to have surgery and a month later, two months later, three months later, heck, even a year later, you're not going to notice your hip anymore, you may be sorely mistaken because there's something about it that it's always there. I mean, I don't notice it all the time. I don't think about it all the time. Well, doing this podcast has actually made me think about my hip way more than I used to think about my hip before the podcast, but there is something that I can feel now.
It's not pain. It's just always there. It's in my mind a lot more now. And one of the things, one of the times that I'm addressing my hip, believe it or not, is when I'm sleeping.
So, here's what I do. And I go through different positions when I sleep. And it makes all the difference.
Long time ago, I used to sleep on my side. Growing up, I slept on my side and it was fine. I never had a problem. But I think part of that was I had a water bed growing up. And not that me and my brother we had water beds growing up. And not that my family had a lot of money. That wasn't the case at all. Our house was so cold in the winter and we couldn't really warm it up enough.
So, my mom got us these water beds because you could heat the water up in the water bed and it would keep you warm all night. And honestly, it was amazing.
And now that I'm talking about it, not only did it keep you warm in the winter because you could warm it up, but it would also relatively cool down in the summer. So, it would help keep you cool in the summer.
So, now that I'm thinking about it, why don't I have a water bed now? Note to self, find out why I don't have a water bed.
I loved it. I loved it, honestly. And what was great about it is that you could sleep in any position and there were no pressure points anywhere on your side, nothing. No pressure points on the shoulder, the hip, anything.
Yeah. I don't know. I'll have to look into that. Anyway, I loved it and I used to sleep on my shoulders on my sides all the time, but now after my hip replacement and after so many years of sleeping, I'm just getting in my 50s now, I don't sleep on my side anymore. And it has nothing to do with my hips.
Once in a while, I'll end up on my side, but I don't intentionally do that. I'll just wake up on my side. But anyway, I don't start on my side anymore. And it has nothing to do with my hips. I do not sleep on my side because it impacts my shoulders and it feels like it's compressing my shoulder and I don't like that.
So, I start to sleep on my stomach. I start every night on my stomach. And if I wake up, I do this all the time for some reason. And I'll get to that reason in a second. I start on my back and if I wake up, I will flip to my stomach and sleep the rest of the night on my stomach. And I'll put a couple pillows under my stomach so that my back isn't too arched because I sort of sink into the bed. Even though I have a firm bed, I still sink into the bed a little bit.
So, when I'm on my stomach, I will put some pillows under my bed to keep my back relatively straight and not sag, I guess, if you will. Sag, I guess.
Anyway, the reason I will start on my back is because I can stretch out farther. It's just a nice simple way to do it.
And then why I flip to my stomach is because it helps me stretch my hips. That sounds really strange, okay? But I had the interior approach and I'm just a proponent of stretching all the time or as much as possible anyway. And being able to stretch while I'm sleeping is a fantastic double positive. Sleep and stretch at the same time.
Because what happens is that when I'm on my stomach and I have pillows under my stomach, the front of my hips stretches and that is a great feeling when it's happening and I'm falling asleep that way or and when I wake up because I feel better.
And the reason I usually do not sleep the whole night on my back is because my butt will sink in and the front of my hips will compress a little bit. The muscles in the front of my hips will tighten up and then if I do make it all the way through the night sleeping on my back I will feel rested number one but my hips will feel tight in the front.
Okay. But if I flip over and spend some time on my stomach, it stretches and I feel more balanced when I wake up. So stretching while I'm sleeping, great positive.
Now, I do travel some and when I travel, I try to recreate this as much as possible. But at home, I have all the pillows, all the luxuries that I need to set up the perfect sleeping den in my bed. All right? And I don't necessarily have that when I travel. And I can't travel with all the pillows because then I would have trunks and trunks and suitcases full of pillows when I travel.
I probably sleep with, this is a little bit embarrassing, and maybe some of you do this too. So I cannot possibly be alone in this. I probably, let me count, one six, six pillows when I sleep. I can't travel with all those. So when I travel, I do the best I can and it works out just fine. But when I'm at home, I like to pamper myself with all the pillows that I need. Okay, there I said it. I love pillows.
All right. So even years after surgery, the sleeping arrangement that I have, if I don't stretch while I'm sleeping, I will feel my hips. And it's not the hip itself, it's the tissue around the hip.
And when I do accidentally or coincidentally sleep on my side, I have no problem with my hip at all. I wake up, I'm fine, but my shoulder's a little bit sore. So, I do try to avoid sleeping on my side, but when I do, it's not a hip issue, it's a shoulder issue.
All right. So things to consider when you're years after surgery regarding the hip and sleeping.
Number one, it's relatively common to have some aches and pains. All right? Just because surgery was a long time ago doesn't mean everything is perfect now. There's still going to be some aches and pains around the tissue, around the muscles, hip, lower back, upper legs, and that may be uncomfortable. And that all has to do with what did you do that day. Okay.
Number two, side sleeping. I know a lot of people sleep on their sides and they put a pillow between their legs. I always used to do that too whenever I slept on my sides. And even if I do it, if I sleep on my side today on accident, I will have a pillow between my legs. So when I'm sleeping and I roll over on my side, I grab a pillow somehow. I don't know how. It just happens.
But the side sleeping may be uncomfortable if you're doing it all the time. Maybe it's compressing the hips. Maybe it's a shoulder issue. But just know that yeah, that could happen years past surgery. Maybe try a different position. Maybe try sleeping on the other side. Maybe try a different pillow arrangement. A lot of things to do, a lot of things to figure out years after surgery.
Number three, the problem and the pain is likely not from the hip itself again, but from the tissues around it. So don't be too afraid that, oh my gosh, I'm stiff, I'm sore, this hurts, probably not the hip. Unless it's a sharp pain and sharp pain, maybe call the doctor. But if it's just soreness, it may be just the position and not the hip, not mean there's a real problem with the hip itself.
Number four, consider the mattress or whatever you're sleeping on. It might be too soft or too stiff for you. My mattress, I have one of those sleep mattresses, sleep number mattresses where you can increase or decrease the softness of it. And I have it jacked up as stiff as it can be, but still it's a little too soft for me. And I think that's because there's a pad on top of it, like a mattress topper on top of it, and that makes it a little soft.
So, my hips sink in and if I don't flip over onto my stomach, I'm stiff. Maybe you're having similar issues. Maybe your mattress is too soft or too stiff and you're sinking in or it's too hard and you're not getting the support and you're having some pressure points in your body because of the mattress. Think about sleeping on a different part of the mattress.
All right? Try different options with the mattress that you have, with the sleeping arrangements that you do have before you rush out and get a new mattress because you heard something on this podcast that maybe it could be the mattress. There's a lot of things you can try before you do that.
Number five, maybe you're stiff when you wake up. And again, it's probably not the hip component itself, the components themselves. Maybe it's simply the muscles and tissues around the hip. And the big question is, what did you do the day before? Are you stretching? Are you doing hip exercises? Are you overdoing it? Are you standing too much?
So, all of these things can create a stiff hip in the morning. Nothing to be too alarmed about, but it's a sleepreated issue. So that's why we're discussing it here. Maybe more stretching, maybe different sleep position. Try some different things. Okay? Just being stiff is not a cause for alarm by itself.
Number six, you may want to be changing positions more often or trying different things. I rotate a lot at night. But if you lay in the same spot all the time, maybe those tissues are getting a little bit sore just from being on them all the time. So, if your back is sore or your legs are sore or your hips are sore, it could simply be that you're on them too much or too long. Try laying in some different spots.
Number seven, the habits that you have and what feels good to you may change over time. So, if you normally sleep on your left side and that's causing a hip issue, maybe it's time to sleep on your right side. Maybe it's time to sleep on your back, on your stomach, and maybe that's the case in a year or a month from now. We don't know. Everyone's body is a little bit different. But don't be afraid to try something different and try something new because your habits are going to change over time. What feels good is going to change over time. And don't be afraid of that. Embrace that. Try something new and different while you're sleeping.
I was going to say try something new and different in bed, but that has a different connotation. So try something new and different when you're trying to sleep.
So, here are some tips for better sleep.
I am a big proponent of stretching. I stretch every night before bed. Yep. I've got my pajamas on or what I use for pajamas. Right before bed, it's dark in the room. I'm stretching. This is in addition to stretches and exercises I may have done earlier in the day.
But right before bed, I'll let one of my legs hang over the side of the bed while I'm laying on my back. I will let one of my legs hang over a side of the bed and I'll go to the other side of the bed or I'll just change positions and let the other leg hang over the side of the bed because then that stretches the front of my hips and that helps me sleep better. That helps my hips, my legs, my stomach, my sides, my back. Everything feels better.
Five minutes of stretching right before bed. Super easy to do. It helps me relax, too. It's great bedtime routine. So, consider some light stretches right before going to sleep.
Second thing, watch what you eat before bedtime, you know, eat good food at appropriate times. Maybe eating a big meal right before bed, not the best thing.
And also consider avoiding, and this is to help you sleep, consider avoiding the sugar, the caffeine, the alcohol anywhere near bedtime, maybe all day. Now, this is probably going to be the only place you're going to ever hear this.
If you're gonna drink alcohol, maybe it's best to drink alcohol in the morning. Because if you drink alcohol in the morning, maybe that scotch, maybe that bottle of wine, it's probably going to be out of your system before bedtime.
Now, I'm not giving anyone permission to go get boozed up at breakfast, but I'm not withholding permission either. All right? Like I said, this is probably the only place you're going to hear this because I'm a big proponent of sleep and getting the right amount of sleep that I would sacrifice other things for that. And if you're going to drink the alcohol, maybe the morning is the best time to drink alcohol. Get it out of your system before sleep.
And finally, know that you have a lot more control over your sleep than you think you do, over how your body feels, over how your hip feels regarding sleep. The hip is not really controlling you. You can control the hip and the pain and the discomfort by what you do throughout the day or what you don't do throughout the day.
So take care of your body throughout the day and that will help you throughout the night and into the next morning. Know that the hip issue, the hip replacement, you know, it doesn't stop us from living our best lives, but it does kind of it does sort of impact slightly touch us as we go about our lives. And one of those areas is sleep. But you do have control. Take care of yourselves.
Get that stretching done. If you have any pain points, pressure points, things, little aches and pains, I'm suggesting that a little bit of stretching can go a long way to help relieve that pain or that discomfort that you might be feeling.
Thanks so much for tuning in to The Hip Replacement Podcast. Until next time, I wish you the best recovery possible. Take care.
