Coupla caveats. IANAD. IANAL. Personal medical experiences are just that. Anecdotal.
That said,
I’m 57. Had a right hip replacement in Feb 2018. I chose the posterior for a variety of reasons. The anterior is supposedly a quicker heal. Coupled with a good cement job, it allows patients to get back to their lives faster. My surgeon at HSS ( Hospital for Special Surgeries in NYC ) is old-school and does not perform anterior. My trust level with him was more important than my desire to try out a relatively new technique. Not saying it’s bad or dangerous. Just not what I chose.
Also- like you at 58- I’m relatively young for a replacement. I did NOT go with the cement job. Instead I went with the porous titanium implant. It’s a terribly complex and attention-heavy method in terms of recovery. Every single step for the first few months could NOT be more than 50% of body weight. No matter what. The bone matter within the femur ( more accurately marrow ) slowly grows into and through the implant, making it an embedded part of my body. No concerns that I would outlive the cement. This is a serious concern. Better to struggle moment to moment for a few months and then know the implant is a part of me than worry that in 15 years, the cement will degrade and the entire implant will have to be removed, the femur reamed out and a fresh implant cemented into place. No thank you !!
The recovery went exactly as planned. Zero infections. The bone slowly grew into the implant. I was home after 3 days/ 2 nights. Twilight sleep, no general anaesthesia. Careful application of heavy narcotics in the hospital, and a managed and tapered regiment once home got me off of them after roughly 12 days with no after-effects.
Visiting Nurses came. PT people came. They were utter professionals and understood my particular concerns regarding being so protective of the weight-placement issues. ( The first Visiting Nurse was mortified that I was still on the walker after a week, and demanded that I set it aside and start working that hip. That was an ugly moment, but she called her office, and they called my surgeon- right from my living room- and she apologized for her instructions to me once it was all cleared up. And, gave me superb treatment. )
Learning to walk without a limp, controlling weight distribution and gait was a bitch. I went from walker to a new design of crutches that worked for me. I chose them because once able to be on crutches, I had to get to the NYC subway system and negotiate stairs. I felt better about the ergonomics and workability of these opposed to the classic design. There are even smarter ones out there too, but I didn’t find them before ordering the ones linked above. A good choice.
The cane lasted a LONG time, and as I said, weaning off of the cane and learning a smooth gait was a force of will. Being sedentary for a few months robbed me of a lot of muscle density in the legs and lower back. I’m 5’10 and 250+ lbs, so the added weight was an added burden. Listen to your PT. Do all of the leg lifts and hip rotation work you can possible endure at home.
Get a notebook. Make regimen pages. Force yourself to do the workouts as proscribed. Post-Op, early days and weeks, some of it is bed-ridden work. After that, standing and doing. Do every rep. I’m not a gym rat. I detest working out- but knew this was my path to a normal life Post-Op and forced myself. My legs are healthier for it.
One huge issue is infection control. In the hospital and once home. It sounds like you’ve found a superb facility. Ask them- not on the day, but now- for their documentation on infection control percentages. My surgeon is a zealot about this. As is the case with most surgeries, a successful O.R. day doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful outcome because of infection risk.
HSS is pretty infamous for the work it’s done on infection control globally not just in the O.R. suite. Again, not taking a dim view of your hospital. Just encouraging you to do EVERYTHING you can to avoid infection. Silly little things. Like not taking a suitcase with you to the hospital for your short stay.
Why? Cause sidewalks and hallways are unspeakably filthy places. Dogs shit on the sidewalk. Rolling suitcases roll on the sidewalk. Hospital hallways are sometimes not so clean, on the bacteria level. So, HSS insists that you bring your stuff in a plastic bag. They even give you one or two Pre-Op to use. Just one significant angle of infection, well-managed.
Does your surgeon lay out all possible outcomes? Does she/he explain the full arc of processes? Complete success, partial success. What level of pain might you have Post-Op after the implant has healed and/ or cement is set and good? In my case, I face pain daily. The implant is snug as a bug in a rug. But I have femur bone pain because of the limp I’m managing due to a left knee injury. It alters the downward pressure of the femur as I step, and that presses the implant to the outside of the right femur. And so on- ask tons of question. Take notes at home. Every stupid question you think to surgeon will roll her/ his eyes at? Ask them. They occurred to you. It’s your corpus. Ask them. If the surgeon isn’t suffering too much from the classic M-Diety Complex, they will be respectful of your concerns and will encourage tons of questions.
Likely there are hand-outs/ booklets given before hand. I read mine through at least twice. Plenty of my questions were answered. Also, Pre-Op group classes are a requirement at HSS. You attend one. It goes for a few hours. The entire process of arrival, admission, Pre-Op, Surgery, Recovery, Post-Op, hospital room, etc are gone over by a senior nurse on staff. Again- I would assume any top-drawer hospital doing this surgery has similar programs. If your place has a great rep but doesn’t do a lot of formal prep for patients, go poking around to get info from other places. ( I don’t think I have my booklets from HSS any more. If I do, I’ll be glad to send them your way. )
Positive attitude ! Indulge yourself with food when needed ! ( If you’re diabetic, well…you know. ) I reduced my alcohol intake to zero before the surgery and a few months after. Nothing to interfere with the bone growth in any way, and I didn’t want to be any more unstable on my feet.
Looking forward to your input in this thread. Feel free to PM me if you wish if you’ve questions you’d rather not put in the public thread !
And, as they say in the theater, break a leg !! 
ETA: The phrase " bone-on-bone " is one of the most frightening phrases in the English language. I’ve SO much understanding and respect for people who live for years, decades with chronic very deep pain. Been there, suffered that, no longer dealing with it.
I get opioid addiction now. I really do. Don’t touch anything like that. But man, you live bone-on-bone pain long enough, you’d do ANYTHING to be shed of it.
She got the glue because- and I mean no disrespect- most patients at 82 will not outlive the lifespan of surgical cement ( 10 years: Assumed. 15 years: Average. 20 years: High end ) They did the right thing by her.
