Hip replacement surgery is both common and extremely effective at improving hip mobility in people with degenerative joint diseases such as arthritis. Unfortunately, hip replacement surgery also has a lengthy recovery time—you may spend up to three months in post-surgical recovery.

Hip replacement surgery can greatly decrease your mobility at the waist while you're recovering, and moving your replacement joint too much can cause it to become dislocated. Because of this, recovering from hip replacement surgery on your own can be a risky exercise. Thankfully, home care agencies provide aides for people who are recovering from surgery. Read on for three ways that hiring a home care aide can help you stay safe until you have recovered.

1. Reduces Risk of Injury by Helping You With Daily Activities

While you're recovering from hip replacement surgery, you'll have difficulty performing common tasks that require you to bend at the waist. Bending over to put your socks on in the morning or bending over to pick up an item that has fallen on the ground are both off-limits for you while you're recovering. These movements place too much stress on your joint replacement, and they can potentially cause your hip to dislocate.

Having a home care aide watch over you while you're recovering is much safer—your aide will help you with daily activities that may require bending at the waist. You'll reduce the risk of damaging your joint replacement or dislocating it accidentally by moving it too much.

2. Helps You Navigate Potential Trip Hazards

When you're recovering from hip replacement surgery, walking is often extraordinarily uncomfortable. You'll feel discomfort whenever you raise your legs off of the floor, since this motion places stress on your hip joints. Because of this, many people find themselves shuffling slowly throughout their homes while they're recovering from hip surgery.

Shuffling your feet can be dangerous when there are trip hazards on the floor such as area rugs. While you can always remove your area rugs, some trip hazards cannot be easily removed from the home. An example is the slight change in elevation when laminate flooring transitions into carpeting. For someone who isn't recovering from surgery, the transition would be unnoticeable. When you're shuffling your feet due to your hip pain, however, it represents a major trip hazard.

A home care aide will remove all of the potential trip hazards from your home and help you navigate the ones that cannot be easily removed, which helps you stay safe while you're covering.

3. Calls Emergency Services When Necessary

If you were to trip and fall in your home while recovering from hip replacement surgery, you would find that getting back up is nearly impossible—it requires you to move your hips in order to pull yourself up off of the floor. Struggling to get up from a prone position also runs the risk of dislocating your hip replacement, since it has not yet fully adhered to your natural bone.

When a home care aide is watching over you, he or she will be able to call emergency services if you fall. An emergency rescue team can help you get back on your feet without dislocating your hip replacement in the process. If you didn't have a home care aide, you may be stuck on the floor unable to move or get up, which is a very dangerous situation.

Overall, it's much safer to hire the assistance of a home care aide when you're recovering from hip replacement surgery. Your mobility will be greatly decreased while you're recovering, and you're also at a greater risk of injury.

A home care aide for hip replacement surgery is only a temporary arrangement—recovery typically lasts around three months, and you'll be able to manage daily activities without pain or risk of dislocation after you have fully recovered. If you're undergoing hip replacement surgery, stay safe and ask a home care agency for help with your post-surgical recovery.