When did you first sleep on your OPERATED side? Fourteen weeks out, I've been cleared, and I'm too scared to try

#1sylvia1966(Joined Jun 2026 · 7 posts)September 26, 2026, 10:31 pm

Me again, the swollen ankle and comfort blanket crutch woman. Things are going well, stick is in the cupboard, aquacise is back on.

But. At my last appointment the physio said I'm fine to sleep on whichever side I like now. And I can't do it. I lie down on the operated side, feel the hip sort of press into the mattress, think "this is how it pops out", and roll straight back. I've been on my back or the good side with a pillow for three and a half months and I suppose it's become a habit, but it's also fear. When did you lot first manage it, and did it hurt?

#2Helen W.(Joined Apr 2026 · 14 posts)September 26, 2026, 11:02 pm

Oh I remember this. I was so happy to be cleared for the good side at six weeks I didn't think about the other side for ages. First proper try was around week ten and it felt like lying on a bruise. Not sharp, just tender where the scar is.

What worked was doing it for ten minutes while reading, not at bedtime. Then twenty. No pressure to sleep, just getting used to the feeling.

#3pbike60(Joined Feb 2025 · 36 posts)September 27, 2026, 8:15 am

About twelve weeks for me and the ache on the scar side was the main thing, not the hip itself. A softer mattress topper helped more than anything. The old firm mattress felt like lying on a kerb.

#4gardeninggwen(Joined Jan 2025 · 29 posts)September 28, 2026, 10:42 am

Pillow between the knees even on the operated side. I still do it now and I'm two years on. It stops the top leg dropping forward and twisting, and it just feels more secure.

#5Haidee MarshAdmin(Joined Aug 2024 · 268 posts)September 29, 2026, 9:20 am

sylvia1966 said:

think "this is how it pops out", and roll straight back

Sylvia, I did exactly the same thing. Cleared, lay down on my right side, felt the pressure on the scar and the hip, and was back on my back in about four seconds flat. The fear is completely understandable after months of being told what not to do. But lying on the operated side, once your own team has cleared it, is not one of the positions that dislocates a hip. Dislocation comes from the combinations on the precautions sheet, deep bending, crossing the leg over, twisting inward, not from the weight of your hip resting on a mattress.

What you're feeling is mostly the scar and the tissue around it, which stay tender to direct pressure for months. The ache Helen and pbike describe is the common pattern. It tends to ease as the scar matures, and a softer layer on the mattress takes the edge off in the meantime.

The way I got there was the way Helen describes: short practice spells in the daytime, not a big attempt at midnight. A pillow between the knees, as Gwen says, keeps the top leg from rolling forward. A second pillow tucked behind my back meant I could lean partly onto the side rather than lie fully on it, and over a fortnight I leaned a bit further each time. The whole sequence of how my sleeping changed, from the back-only weeks to normal, is in sleeping after a hip replacement, and why the old precautions say what they say is in hip dislocation precautions.

One boundary. Your physio has cleared you, which is the bit that matters. If lying on it ever causes a sharp pain rather than a tender ache, or the hip feels unstable, mention it to them rather than pushing through.

#6sylvia1966(Joined Jun 2026 · 7 posts)October 7, 2026, 9:55 pm

Progress report. Did the daytime practice with a book, ten minutes then twenty, with the pillow behind my back like Haidee said. Tender on the scar for the first few goes, less each day.

Last night I woke up at about four and realised I'd been asleep on the operated side. Didn't even notice I'd turned over. Lay there grinning in the dark like an idiot. Mattress topper is on order anyway, because pbike is right about the kerb.