As posted elsewhere, my wife had a hip replacement (left side) last month. At age 58, she’s not really ready to go into a nursing home yet, and she has some questions regarding how much or how little she can expect her activity level to be curtailed in future. We’re talking typical all the way up to best-case scenarios, if we can keep that in mind.
Should she expect some level of limping for the rest of her life?
She has been a guide dog user for the past thirty years, and is pretty convinced that she is NOT a candidate for retraining to right-side harness use (so let’s take that off the table at once). Should she anticipate being able to go back to using her dog once she’s out of the walker?
What about returning to PiV sex? Any ideas for where we might be able to find some positions that will be easier for her?
I’ll be grateful for all informative responses, but I’d like to be clear that I’m particularly looking for informed responses. Thanks very much.
sex positions for Hip replacement clinical type site with little line drawings of people in the appropriate positions. You should probably ask your doctor for advice but many are reluctant to talk about sex. Physical therapist are also a good resource.
It is certainly quite possible that your wife will be able to walk without a limp once she has healed and with a great deal of physical therapy, both from therapists and from exercising on her own.
I am an RN who works mainly with the elderly, many of whom have had total hips.
My aunt had hip replacement a year ago and has no limp. I know that she was more cautious on stairs early in her recovery (~2-3 months), ans she used a cane for a few weeks. But now she seems to be functioning with no limitations, and no noticeable limp. She’s actually moving better than she was before the surgery.
Good luck to you and your wife. I hope things work out well.
My father had bilateral minimally invasive complete hip replacement a few years ago.
He’s in his early 70s, is diabetic, has lost something like 40% feeling in his feet due to peripheral neuropathy, and has always been generally clumsy.
He was full weight bearing the next day, although for rehab purposes, he was in a wheel chair for most of a month.
He just came back from a tour of Europe where he was able to keep up with my Mom on most of the excursions.
He does have a slightly odd gait, but I seem to recall he always had that.
-D/a
My friend had one hip replaced at age 52 and has no limp whatsoever. He was able to resume practicing that Philippine stick-fighting martial art whose name I don’t remember.
Kaylasdad99, my wife had her left hip replaced about 9 months ago. She has no discernible limp, and was able to walk all around Walt Disney World two months after the surgery (during the Christmas holidays).
Following the surgery, she rapidly progressed from a walker to a cane to no assistance at all. This took less than 2 months, since she didn’t bring a cane with her on vacation.
She has not really had any other limitations since she healed from the surgery.
She feels “200% better” than before the surgery, but she was pretty debilitated going in, having probably waited a bit too long before getting the surgery.
I am 61 and I had a new hip put in last year (a “hip resurfacing” actually). Every once and a while I will revert to slight limp, but I think it is more a matter of habit than anything else. I have no pain. After the rehab is complete there should be no limp due to the hip. Obviously if there are other problems (like the knee) there could be a limp, but not because of the hip.
Unless there are other complications she should expect to be 100 %.
When you say bipolar, do you mean bilateral (both sides)?
No. If I understood correctly, it means that both the ball at the top of the femur, and the socket in the pelvis had been replaced.
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Wikipedia refers to total replacement (replacement of both the ball and the socket, as you describe) and hemi replacement (replacement of one half of the joint, typically the femoral head).
