I just got home from the hospital after undergoing a total hip replacement on my right side. The left side was done in June, just 90-days ago. I'm writing this to encourage any fellow forum members who are suffering from hip arthritis to get the replacement (or as in my case the "replacements"). I was at the breaking point 2 years ago but like many others I put it off out of anxiety about the disruption it would cause in my life.
5 minutes after waking from the first one I knew I had made the right choice because the persistent and unrelenting referred pain I was suffering in my left knee from the degenerated hip was gone completely along with the groin pains. Yes, there was surgical pain to deal with, but unlike the pain from the arthritic hips, the surgical pain was controllable with painkillers and all but gone within a week of surgery. I was back to driving a car by week 2, taking three daily 1-mile walks by week 3, ridding a recumbent trike as far as cared to do so by week 4, and hiking off-trail 4 to 5 miles once a week by week 6. By the time I went in for my second hip at week 12, the first surgery was 99% healed.
The second operation has been a bit more rough because they had to do more manipulation of my leg and torso this time due to the additional muscle I had acquired from all the post-op rehab I did after the first surgery. (I had a lot of atrophy leading up to my first surgery because I was unable to exercise for about a year before the surgery). The additional manipulation has caused a little more swelling that will take an extra week to 10 days to resolve. Once the swelling is gone, the additional muscles I had built up will take over and speed up recovery. So I should be back in the woods in time for big game shotgun season, although I think I am only going to do tracking this year (I'm a licensed leashed dog tracker in NYS.)
If you are a candidate for hip replacement my advice (just like the advice I got but ignored) would be don't put it off. One hip takes only 3 months to fully recovery, two hips done in sequence like mine takes only 6 months to fully recover. Some doctors will even do both hips at once if a patient needs both done and the circumstances allow for it, thereby reducing the total recovery for both if done in sequence by 2 to 3 months. I was able to return to 90% of my activities within 1 month after the first surgery.
But in any event, your quality of life will be greatly improved and you'll curse yourself for not having it done sooner.
5 minutes after waking from the first one I knew I had made the right choice because the persistent and unrelenting referred pain I was suffering in my left knee from the degenerated hip was gone completely along with the groin pains. Yes, there was surgical pain to deal with, but unlike the pain from the arthritic hips, the surgical pain was controllable with painkillers and all but gone within a week of surgery. I was back to driving a car by week 2, taking three daily 1-mile walks by week 3, ridding a recumbent trike as far as cared to do so by week 4, and hiking off-trail 4 to 5 miles once a week by week 6. By the time I went in for my second hip at week 12, the first surgery was 99% healed.
The second operation has been a bit more rough because they had to do more manipulation of my leg and torso this time due to the additional muscle I had acquired from all the post-op rehab I did after the first surgery. (I had a lot of atrophy leading up to my first surgery because I was unable to exercise for about a year before the surgery). The additional manipulation has caused a little more swelling that will take an extra week to 10 days to resolve. Once the swelling is gone, the additional muscles I had built up will take over and speed up recovery. So I should be back in the woods in time for big game shotgun season, although I think I am only going to do tracking this year (I'm a licensed leashed dog tracker in NYS.)
If you are a candidate for hip replacement my advice (just like the advice I got but ignored) would be don't put it off. One hip takes only 3 months to fully recovery, two hips done in sequence like mine takes only 6 months to fully recover. Some doctors will even do both hips at once if a patient needs both done and the circumstances allow for it, thereby reducing the total recovery for both if done in sequence by 2 to 3 months. I was able to return to 90% of my activities within 1 month after the first surgery.
But in any event, your quality of life will be greatly improved and you'll curse yourself for not having it done sooner.
