A Hip Replacement?? Damn. Say it ain't so.

In My Humble Opinion
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** Big Disclaimer Type Of Note: I know - don’t solicit medical advice on the Dope. I’m not. I’m asking for personal anecdotes. **

What a drag. At 55, I discover I’ve had a misshapen femur head my entire life. Instead of a ball I’ve got a round socket and a mushroom-shaped femur head. I’m bone on bone. After living through a fractured L3 vertebra 17 years ago, I thought I’d a pretty good handle on what chronic pain is.

I do. And this is different. I can understand how people become completely consumed by opiates.That said, I’ve not taken a one. Naproxyn Sodium is my ( barely working ) drug of choice. ( No interest in Pot, edible or otherwise. )

I’ve got the replacement surgery in 4 months. Losing weight is VERY damned hard of course. Doing P.T. 2x a week at a facility + some mornings at home is a good way to A)increase the pain and/ but B)strengthen the muscles all around the hip socket area.

Who here has undergone hip replacement? What type of material was used? How was the pre-op PT work? The procedure? The post-op recovery?

Do you measure it as a success or failure in terms of quality of life?

Any thoughts and personal situations gratefully accepted.

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My aunt (60) has had both hips replaced. She didn’t seem in THAT bad condition before each but she’s also tough so who am I to say?

She followed her PT, had an uneventful recovery both times and was up and about again pain and limp free within the time frame they told her.

My brother and friend have both had torn labrums in their hips repaired and not only did recovery take 3x as long as my aunt’s hip replacements, two of their three total surgeries didn’t “take” and they’re in just as much pain as before.

I’m down with hip replacements!

3

A friend of mine had hip replacement surgery last fall. There were some complications, but they got through them, and he’s now projected to have full, 100% function in that hip by sometime this winter.

Just in time for the other hip to need replacement.

He said that they did anticipate something like that happening, but that they can’t do both at once, because it makes the follow-up PT impossible.

EDIT: Oh, one thing that caught him a bit by surprise: He was planning a lot of activities involving sitting for his convalescence period, because he anticipated that he wouldn’t be able to move around much. But it turned out that sitting was the most painful position for him, especially sitting for an extended time. He could stay in a chair for a half-hour at most before he had to get up and walk around.

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A friend of mine from the gym is 87 and walks two miles three times a week, plus using a few of the weight machines and riding a recumbant bike. She had a hip replaced 8 years ago. She said she has had no pain at all since the surgery. She said sometimes she forgets she has an artificial hip. I kind of admire her. :slight_smile: I probably will need a hip in a few years and I want to be just like her. (I have one fake knee and it doesn’t hurt, but on the other hand I never forget it’s a fake, either.)

Good luck with yours, Cartooniverse.

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I had my right hip replaced last May(2016) at age 70. I’d had an injection of some synthetic fluid about two months earlier, but it did not last as long as hoped.

Operation went well and I was only in the hospital two nights. Had a physical therapist 3 times a week for two weeks. Used a walker for about two weeks, then a cane for another three weeks.

I was prescribed Oxy/Tylenol at a low dose, but only took it for two weeks or so then switched to just Tylenol.

If you have specific questions I’ll try to answer.

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I have a Facebook friend who just recently had hip-replacement surgery. He’s in his late 30s, and had something where the bone in his hip was dying. He came through it very well, and is now in the rehab phase. He seems much happier and in a lot less pain.

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Best thing ever, according to my mother.

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A friend had a hip replaced and came through the operation well. She also followed all the post-op instructions rigorously. When she went to PT they told her that she was already better off than many of their patients after PT. Now (several years later) you would not know she has an artificial hip. She swims regularly and always has.

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I had a hip replacement in my 40s. I weight 110, so the doctor used a ceramic model made for children. I have a series of sutures that resemble a zipper on my thigh. Now they make a smaller incision. Seems I went from crutches to a cane quickly. I did not keep up leg lift exercises, and as a result I can’t cross that leg over the other. Stumping my toe hurts like hell. Do the exercises.

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Two co-workers have had hip replacements - one had both replaced inside a year.

One was in late 50s, one early 60s.

Both are in much better shape then they were (one still wears high heels) and very happy with it.

The only issue they have is taking prophylactic antibiotics before dental work… which is no longer recommended, but their dentists haven’t read the memo. Antibiotic Prophylaxis Prior to Dental Procedures | American Dental Association

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No personal info to relate, just “friend of a friend who” stuff, which hinges on how long the fix lasts–iow, the parts/labor have a certain lifespan of their own. Presumably, you’ve got all that type of info at hand.

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I’ve known numerous people who had hip or knee replacements. Every single one of them mentioned how glad they were that they’d had it done.

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I forgot about that. It kills the good bacteria in my cut as well, and makes me ill.

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Another replacement here, and very glad I did it. Was pretty faithful following the PT exercises, and a friend who’s seen a number of replacements says my recovery was remarkably fast. I was determined to do well, and kept a positive attitude no matter what, which I think helped.

That said, I do have some small negatives to tell you. First, while you’ll get back on your feet fast (and you need to), getting more-or-less full strength back is a slow process. I’d say it took me over a year to reach what I’d consider an end result, and I had some ups and downs of pain along the way – never as bad as what led up to the surgery, but not fun. Even today, four-plus years out, I will have occasional quick catches of “Ow!” as I move and (as my orthopedist explained) catch a bit of tissue just so on the implant. X-rays show it’s firmly in place and the hip works as it should; it just reminds me now and then it’s there.

Second, you may not get full strength back in that leg. After all, they will be doing some major carpentry in there, and that’s gotta have some effect on the soft tissue they have to disturb. Now, my weakness may also have something to do with the fact that both of my knees have longstanding problems, especially on the replacement side, and I’ve never been able to regain the amount of physical activity I had before the presurgical pain cut me back to a cane and an inability to do the usual exercise stuff (mostly barn chores) I’d done before. I tried resuming those activities at a reasonable point in my recovery but couldn’t do it. My exercise is mostly walking now, with some light paddock-picking now and then. You may be more fortunate; I hope you are.

Third, if you don’t have a comfortable recliner you can sleep in, I recommend investing in one. That was the only place I could sleep at all the first few days back home from the hospital. I work as a proofreader at home, and even before the operation sitting in a task chair had become so painful that I had to set up a laptop, printer, scanner office around my recliner to work; back home, once I was back to work I found I still needed to work there, and to this day I can’t sit in a task chair for more than a couple of hours at a time without feeling discomfort.

Still, all in all, it was the right thing to do and I’m very glad I had the surgery.

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What you need is Saccharomyces boulardii – it’s a yeast probiotic, and very useful when taking antibiotics, because, unlike most probiotics, it’s a yeast rather than a bacillus, so the antibiotic doesn’t kill it. Supposed to be protective against C. diff.

Florastor is a brand name that’s available OTC in pharmacies, but it’s pricey. You can search Amazon and find much less expensive vendors of Saccharomyces. I took it three times a day during my latest round of antibiotics for a dental abscess and my gut was a lot happier than usual. In fact, I continue to take it and things are working better than usual in normal life now, too.

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Thanks!

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Yo, hungryvegetable! I had the same surgery, for the same reason, 2 years ago at age 52. The key phrase that you want to discuss with your surgeon is “anterior hip replacement”. The upsides are huge and the downsides are few. The only negative to my outcome is some numbness around the incision scar (which is about 4" long on the outer front of the thigh, beginning about at the waist).

The advantages are:
*shorter hospital stay - for me about 24 hours. I could have been less, but the Dr wanted me to participate in 2 exercise classes before I went home, one the morning after and one in the afternoon.
*no restrictions - you can bend fully and twist without fear of hip dislocation, so sitting, PT and general recovery is much easier. The only limiting factor is pain - do as much as you can handle and don’t worry that the hip may slip out - which is a real concern in traditional hip replacements. Whenever I asked the surgeon “When can I expect to do X?” His response, for every value of X, was “As soon as you can stand the pain”.
*quicker recovery - I was on a walker for about a week, cane for about another 10-14 days, pain free within 30 days. I was back in the office in 2 weeks (desk job but with a good amount of walking) and back on the golf course in about 45 days.

Not every surgeon does anterior hip replacement, though. It requires more technical skill and takes longer. For a surgeon who cranks out dozens of replacements each week it would cut into their income - that’s not me being cynical, it’s my own surgeon’s words.

I am now completely pain free. I didn’t realize how constantly that joint hurt until it didn’t anymore.

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Knee & hip replacements are not uncommon among my circle of friends although I’m all original equipment … so far.

By and large the consensus is knees involve a lot more difficulty in the recovery and have more residual non-function than hips do. As much as hips sound to a layman like they’d be the bigger deal, they’re apparently not.

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Man I am so ready for this thing.

To address some of the posts up there. I’m having posterior not anterior. Because of the kind of specific work I do, having the anterior cut and placement would be problematic. As for popping out the implant, I’m aware I have to learn some new movements and methods.

That’s fine by me.

I also don’t get to do the Irish jig 2 days post-op. I’m not having cement used. Too young. I’d outlive the cement and the process of removing a 15-20 year old implant and digging/ boring/ scraping out the failed hunks of cement would be incredibly risky at 60-65. I’m 55.

Instead I am forced to go with a more fail-safe implant but one that requires about a month of life on crutches. The implant is aluminized ceramic and the socket is high tech plastics. The upper portion of the femur implant is porous. My body will introduce osteoblasts into that material. They are the precursors to bone and bone marrow growth.

Given time, my body will grow INTO and through that part of the implant, permanently anchoring it. No cement to degrade, etc.

I’m hoping to be alive at least 20 more years. This seemed the smartest method by far.

I’ve got friends who were very aggressive in their insistence that I should ONLY consider anterior and any surgeon not willing to do it is a hack, or incompetent. Kind of insulting and poorly informed pressures, I’d say. Anterior is quite new. It’s the hot thing. That doesn’t mean that in 15 years its success rate long-term will exceed that of posterior, which already is a well-proven and mature technique.

I researched every combination of materials for femur, head, socket and receiver/ anchor. I’m satisfied that the combinations of materials is wise.
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Oh- surgeons, like all Doctors, are insanely ego-driven. I’ve no doubt that Doctor Jackson’s Dr believed all of what he said. And I’m happy to hear that the recovery is so positive. I assume mine will be as well.

Here’s a physical truth: The degree of motion without hip displacement has exactly zero to do with anterior or posterior implant and everything to do with the size of the femur head/ socket used. The larger the socket, the larger the degree of rotation before you hit the end of the arc.

Why not give everyone the largest? ( There are 4 or 5 prime sizes ) Because the largest wears out the socket faster, and the smallest displaces easier. You go for the sweet spot for your size/ weight/ femur/ other factors.

Big sweeping statements such as " Go with Anterior ! You can return to Kickboxing in a month and win the National Title ! " is in fact woefully wrong.

Anterior hip replacement surgery carries a risk of hip displacement.

Despite what ego-driven surgeons insist.
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