JoeyRamone
new member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2024
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- Age
- 50
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- United States
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- Female
I’m scheduled to have my right hip replaced next week, direct superior (superpath) approach, ceramic on ceramic, outpatient in a surgical center.
I’ve done a lot of reading here in the past few days after seeing references in the Reddit sub and the Hip Runners group in fb. Everything I’ve found in various places is really helpful and I have a good idea of what to expect for the surgery and in recovery. I’ve bought all of the stuff - my husband can tell when I stay up at night reading obsessively because we get boxes of various post-op things soon after.
The part in all of this that’s really freaking me out is I’ve never had surgery before. The plan is to use an epidural and propofol, no general. I was scoped several years ago (different body part) so have been under anesthesia, but only then except when my wisdom teeth were removed in my late teens many, many years ago. I talked to my mom and she said the worst part for her was the incision healing - she said your skin feels like when you get stitches. I’ve never had stitches. I have no frame of reference for this. Any advice?
Anyone else have a THR as their first experience with surgery? (I did a couple of searches for first surgery and variations but could not easily identify any, apologies if I’ve missed a thread.) Thank you!
Some background if that’s helpful:
I started running in 2008, going from fun runs/5ks eventually to my first marathon in 2011. I continued doing marathons (not quickly) but started having problems with my right hip. It would occasionally give out, I would feel a sharp stabbing pain and it wouldn’t support my weight, then I would be fine again and could continue. I went to drs, got referred to PT for an impingement and continued running, eventually doing several 50ks, and a few longer distances, all without significant hip problems. Between work and the pandemic, my training fell off for a couple of years 2020 to 2022, but I started again, built up slowly and last year finished a few 50ks last year. During training, my right hip was pinching again but not consistently. During the 2nd 50k last year, I experienced a new kind of pain in my right hip. I was fine for 26 miles, was even back to my old pace, then for the last 5 my hip was just done. It was a new kind of discomfort, like my hip was out of place and I couldn’t get it to pop back in. I took it really easy for the next several weeks and felt fine, so went ahead with the next planned race. I was tired the whole race and went quite slowly, but finished with no problems, had absolutely no hip pain during or after the race - until 2 days later when I could not walk on it at all. I was in terrible pain for the next week, hardly able to walk.
I was able to get into see a dr in an orthopedic practice a few weeks after and they saw nothing in the X-rays, ordered an MRI and saw mild arthritis, no narrowing of joint space, and ended up telling me that what they could see suggested I was fine so nothing they could do.
I sought a second opinion from the surgeon who had replaced my mother’s hip 8 years ago - she absolutely loves him, Her surgery went well and she went back to running half marathons after - in her late 60s through early 70s. I shared the X-rays and MRI with him and he said severe focal osteoarthritis. He is conservative in his approach and did not recommend surgery for my mom until she felt her quality of life was being affected. We talked about pain management and what I could try, so I’ve been on celebrex and I guess hoping I could avoid this for a few more years. The celebrex helps, but not enough that I can run, or even walk more than a few miles at a time. I stopped taking it for a while in December because I convinced myself it wasn‘t really helping. It was really helping. It was really, really helping.
So I did all of my research on approaches, questions to ask, concerns people have had, and went back to the surgeon and asked him everything. He was great at taking time to answer everything, explained what he does and why he does it the way he does, and generally addressed all of the concerns I have that he could address. I have no concerns about him doing the surgery.
I travel a lot for work and we set the April date for my surgery back in December so I would have a few months between trips to really focus on recovering. I have been worried about this since we first talked about surgery as a possibility almost a year ago, but I am really losing a lot of sleep now with it being less than a week away.SoII
I’ve done a lot of reading here in the past few days after seeing references in the Reddit sub and the Hip Runners group in fb. Everything I’ve found in various places is really helpful and I have a good idea of what to expect for the surgery and in recovery. I’ve bought all of the stuff - my husband can tell when I stay up at night reading obsessively because we get boxes of various post-op things soon after.
The part in all of this that’s really freaking me out is I’ve never had surgery before. The plan is to use an epidural and propofol, no general. I was scoped several years ago (different body part) so have been under anesthesia, but only then except when my wisdom teeth were removed in my late teens many, many years ago. I talked to my mom and she said the worst part for her was the incision healing - she said your skin feels like when you get stitches. I’ve never had stitches. I have no frame of reference for this. Any advice?
Anyone else have a THR as their first experience with surgery? (I did a couple of searches for first surgery and variations but could not easily identify any, apologies if I’ve missed a thread.) Thank you!
Some background if that’s helpful:
I started running in 2008, going from fun runs/5ks eventually to my first marathon in 2011. I continued doing marathons (not quickly) but started having problems with my right hip. It would occasionally give out, I would feel a sharp stabbing pain and it wouldn’t support my weight, then I would be fine again and could continue. I went to drs, got referred to PT for an impingement and continued running, eventually doing several 50ks, and a few longer distances, all without significant hip problems. Between work and the pandemic, my training fell off for a couple of years 2020 to 2022, but I started again, built up slowly and last year finished a few 50ks last year. During training, my right hip was pinching again but not consistently. During the 2nd 50k last year, I experienced a new kind of pain in my right hip. I was fine for 26 miles, was even back to my old pace, then for the last 5 my hip was just done. It was a new kind of discomfort, like my hip was out of place and I couldn’t get it to pop back in. I took it really easy for the next several weeks and felt fine, so went ahead with the next planned race. I was tired the whole race and went quite slowly, but finished with no problems, had absolutely no hip pain during or after the race - until 2 days later when I could not walk on it at all. I was in terrible pain for the next week, hardly able to walk.
I was able to get into see a dr in an orthopedic practice a few weeks after and they saw nothing in the X-rays, ordered an MRI and saw mild arthritis, no narrowing of joint space, and ended up telling me that what they could see suggested I was fine so nothing they could do.
I sought a second opinion from the surgeon who had replaced my mother’s hip 8 years ago - she absolutely loves him, Her surgery went well and she went back to running half marathons after - in her late 60s through early 70s. I shared the X-rays and MRI with him and he said severe focal osteoarthritis. He is conservative in his approach and did not recommend surgery for my mom until she felt her quality of life was being affected. We talked about pain management and what I could try, so I’ve been on celebrex and I guess hoping I could avoid this for a few more years. The celebrex helps, but not enough that I can run, or even walk more than a few miles at a time. I stopped taking it for a while in December because I convinced myself it wasn‘t really helping. It was really helping. It was really, really helping.
So I did all of my research on approaches, questions to ask, concerns people have had, and went back to the surgeon and asked him everything. He was great at taking time to answer everything, explained what he does and why he does it the way he does, and generally addressed all of the concerns I have that he could address. I have no concerns about him doing the surgery.
I travel a lot for work and we set the April date for my surgery back in December so I would have a few months between trips to really focus on recovering. I have been worried about this since we first talked about surgery as a possibility almost a year ago, but I am really losing a lot of sleep now with it being less than a week away.SoII
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