Get Well Soon

Helping you to make a speedy recovery after total hip replacement

Planning for your return

Talk to your Occupational Health Service or General Practitioner (GP) to work out when and how is best for you to return to work. Depending on the nature of your job, you might want to ask your employer about returning to work on lighter duties at first. This means:

• spending more time sitting, rather than standing or doing lots of walking.
• doing work that is mostly paperwork, using a computer or telephone.
• not carrying heavy items significant distance.
• avoiding tasks such as prolonged loading or unloading, packing or unpacking.

If you have an HR Department at work, they will be able to advise you regarding sick pay or any other benefit you may be entitled to during your time off. Alternatively, talk directly with your employer. Depending on the type of work you do, people who’ve had a hip replacement sometimes find that in the long term, they need to be redeployed into a role which is less strenuous if they do particularly heavy work. If you think this is the case, talk to your workplace Occupational Health Service in the first instance, or your GP.

Confidence

It will take you a little while to regain your full confidence when you go back to work. You may be slower than normal at first, so don’t take on too much responsibility too soon. Don’t be too hard on yourself about this - it’s perfectly normal and you’ll start to get back up to speed after a few days.

3 Golden rules for a speedy recovery:

• Stay active and walk as far as is comfortable
• Keep a normal daily routine
• Keep social contact with people