Which day did you get back upstairs to your own bed, and how did you manage the stairs?

#1moira1963(Joined Oct 2025 · 16 posts)February 9, 2026, 7:33 pm

My op is a fortnight on Tuesday and I've talked myself into a corner about the stairs.

The house is a narrow Victorian terrace, fourteen steps, banister on one side only, and the only bathroom is up there. My daughter has been all for moving the bed into the front room and my brother says that's how people get stuck downstairs for six weeks and lose their nerve. I don't know which of them is right and the physio phone call I had was about ten minutes long and mostly about my shopping.

So: what day did you go up? Did you sleep downstairs first and for how long? And what's the actual technique, because I've been told a rhyme about good legs and bad legs and I've already forgotten which way round it goes.

#2pbike60(Joined Feb 2025 · 36 posts)February 9, 2026, 8:58 pm

Good leg up to heaven, bad leg down to hell. That's the one. Going up, the unoperated leg leads and the new hip follows onto the same step. Coming down, crutch first, then the operated leg, then the good one. One step at a time, both feet on each step, no attempt at a normal alternating pattern for a good while.

They made me do a flight in the hospital before they'd discharge me, which I think is fairly standard, so you'll have done it once under supervision before you ever face your own.

#3gardeninggwen(Joined Jan 2025 · 29 posts)February 10, 2026, 8:41 am

Went up on day two and never slept downstairs at all, but I had a banister on both sides and a bathroom on the landing, so I'm not a fair comparison.

The bit that surprised me was that stairs were easier than the bed. Fourteen steps twice a day is manageable and honestly good for you. Getting onto a mattress that turned out to be far too low, with a duvet I couldn't lift my leg under, was the thing that defeated me on night one. If you do go up, sort the bed height before you're standing next to it at ten at night with a crutch in each hand.

#4trev_lefthip(Joined Jul 2025 · 13 posts)February 10, 2026, 1:07 pm

Slept downstairs eleven days purely because the loo is upstairs and I didn't fancy the trip at 3am on crutches. No regrets. Went up when I stopped needing to think about it.

#5Ms Priya RamanSurgical moderator(Joined Oct 2024 · 91 posts)February 11, 2026, 9:26 am

A few things it may help to have said plainly, since this comes up in clinic every week.

Stairs are not the hazard people imagine, and they are not something to be earned over weeks. Most patients are taught the technique on the ward and are expected to manage a flight before discharge, which is why that assessment happens. The sequence pbike60 gave is the standard one and it is standard because leading with the stronger leg going up, and the crutch and operated leg going down, keeps the new hip from taking a sudden load at an awkward angle. One step at a time, both feet resting on each step, using the banister as the main support and carrying the second crutch in the other hand rather than trying to use both.

What actually determines whether someone sleeps upstairs in the first fortnight is not bravery, it is layout: where the bathroom is, whether there is a banister on the side of your operated leg, and whether you have anyone in the house at night. Trev's eleven days downstairs and gardeninggwen's day two are both entirely reasonable answers to different houses. The consideration I would add is that a bed at the wrong height is a genuine problem, because a low mattress forces the deep hip flexion that early precautions exist to limit, and getting a leg under a heavy duvet is harder than anyone anticipates. The practical business of beds, chairs, and bathrooms is set out in daily life after a hip replacement.

Moira, the specific answer for your house belongs to the physiotherapist who will see you before discharge. Ten minutes on the phone about shopping is not the assessment; ask them to walk your stairs plan through with you on the ward, and say the bathroom is upstairs, because that changes their advice.

#6moira1963(Joined Oct 2025 · 16 posts)March 4, 2026, 5:52 pm

Reporting back three weeks on. They did make me do stairs before letting me home, and the physio was quite firm that my house was fine as long as I went up once in the morning and down once at night rather than yo-yoing.

Slept downstairs four nights, then went up and stayed up. Gwen was right about the bed and wrong about nothing: we put the mattress on a spare divan base that's a good bit higher and it changed everything. My brother has been told he was half right, which he is insufferable about.