This is the most predictable situation we work in. The date is known in advance, the recovery has a shape, and almost everything needed is temporary.
Which makes it the one where preparation pays most and where people still leave it until discharge.
Set it up before surgery
The single most useful sentence on this page. Every item below is easier to arrange in the weeks before than in the two days after.
Surgical teams provide guidance and it is frequently given at a pre-operative appointment that families half remember. Ask for it in writing, and ask specifically what movement restrictions will apply.
Hip precautions change the equipment list
Many hip replacements come with restrictions on how far the hip may bend, on crossing the legs, and on rotating the leg inward. Those restrictions, where they apply, are what drive the equipment.
Practically they mean seat height matters enormously: a low toilet, a low chair or a low bed all force the hip past where it is allowed to go.
Ask the surgical team which precautions apply, because they vary by approach and by surgeon. Then equip to them rather than to a general list.
What to have in the house
- A raised toilet seat, or a frame, sized to the precautions.
- A shower chair or transfer bench, because standing for a shower is tiring and stepping over a tub edge may be restricted.
- Grab bars at the toilet and the shower entry.
- A handheld shower head.
- A walker or crutches, fitted to height, which the therapy team will specify.
- A reacher and a long-handled shoe horn, because bending to the floor may be restricted.
- A sock aid, which sounds trivial and is the thing people call about.
- A bed riser or firmer mattress if the bed is low.
- A chair with arms, firm and high enough to rise from.
That list is a few hundred dollars and it ships free from our online shop.
The free things, done the week before
Rugs up. Cables off the floor. A clear path from bed to bathroom and from bed to a chair. Night lighting on that route. Everyday items moved to waist height so nothing needs reaching or bending. Pets considered.
The CDC puts lighting and floor hazards near the top of what reduces fall risk, and the weeks after joint surgery are exactly when somebody is least able to recover from a stumble.
Stairs
The decision most families leave too late.
If the bedroom and the only bathroom are upstairs, work out now what happens. The options are a temporary downstairs bed, or a stairlift.
A straight stairlift is two to four hours in a single visit and can frequently be in before a discharge date, subject to stock, so ask when the surgery is booked rather than the week of discharge.
Getting in the front door
Check the entrance before surgery rather than arriving to it. A threshold ramp for a single step costs very little. A handrail on the front steps, extending past the bottom one, is a joinery job worth doing anyway.
Our ramp guide covers what suits a short rise.
Getting into a car
The transfer people forget, and it happens on day one leaving hospital.
A swivel cushion lets somebody sit and then rotate their legs in rather than twisting, which matters where rotation is restricted. A car handle in the door striker gives something to push up from. Both are inexpensive and our transfer guide covers the technique.
Buy the cheap items
Almost all of this is temporary. Buy the cheap items and pass the rest on to an equipment reuse program afterward rather than leaving it in a garage.
Our used equipment guide covers where it should go.
Keep what was learned
A meaningful share of people who go through this discover the house was already harder than they realized, and that some of what went in for the recovery is worth keeping.
The grab bars, the lighting, the handrail, the raised seat. Our order of work is the version of this list for keeps rather than for six weeks.
What the first two weeks look like
Useful to picture, because the equipment list follows from it.
Short frequent walks rather than long ones. Rest between everything. Exercises several times a day. Ice and elevation. A walker or crutches for a period the therapy team specifies.
Somebody will be up and down more often than expected, which is why seat height and the route to the bathroom matter more than anything larger.
Set up a base camp
One chair, with arms, at the right height, with everything within reach: phone, charger, water, medication, remote, tissues, a bag for carrying things while using a walker.
That single arrangement prevents a large share of the unnecessary trips, and unnecessary trips are where falls happen.
Ice, elevation and the practical version
Elevating a leg needs pillows and somewhere to put them, and doing it in a chair that does not recline is awkward.
A footstool at the right height, or a recliner if one is available, makes the prescribed routine something somebody will actually do rather than skip.
Watch for the things that are not normal
Increasing rather than decreasing pain, redness or heat around the wound, fever, or sudden calf pain or swelling. Any of those is a call to the surgical team rather than something to wait out.
Agree in advance who to call and at what threshold, because families hesitate.
Second joint, later
Many people who have one replacement have another within a few years. Keep the equipment, or note where it went.
And if the first recovery revealed that the house was already difficult, that is worth acting on rather than filing away. The CDC covers the general fall-prevention picture, and our evaluation guide covers what a proper walk-through turns up.
What the equipment costs, roughly
The whole small-items list comes to a few hundred dollars and most of it is reusable or donatable afterward. Medicare covers portable durable medical equipment where documented, and fixed items such as grab bars generally fall outside it.
Our coverage guide explains the line.