Good afternoon all,
I came across this forum a year or so ago while beginning to seriously consider and research the pros and cons of my inevitable bilateral THR. It has been a great source of information, realism, and reassurance. Thank you for all of your contributions. I'd very much appreciate any feedback and wisdom you may have for my situation. My apologies in advance if this is too long.
I'm a soon to be 50-year-old guy with a reasonably active past. I've always enjoyed the outdoors, particularly hiking and multi-day backpacking trips in the West. Around February 2020, my left hip started - for lack of a better term - catching. It sould click and thump, but I'd just limp for 10 minutes or so and it would work itself out. Later, in the summer of 2020, just a after returning from a 5-day hiking trip in the Wyoming, my left hip just seized up - almost a full stop. It was difficult to walk and go up the stairs even though the I'd carried a pack over a mountain pass the prior weekend - crazy! I assumed it was some latent injury and it would go away. It did not.
After a few weeks, I went to get x-rays to confirm nothing was dreadfully wrong; no cancer, fractures, anything like that. Instead, it was, in the technician's terms, "just some arthritis." OK ... well, I figured I'd see if it would subside and I could get back to normal. Once again, it did not.
In the Spring of 2021, I went to two orthopedic surgeons. They both said my left had "severe" degenerative osteoarthritis. Both noted the latest x-rays showed deformation of the "ball" with the "socket" closing up to prevent dislocation; thus the decreased range of motion. Both said the left hip was basically bone on bone. My right hip (this portends nothing good) had "moderate to severe" OA.
The first doc strongly discouraged me from doing THR because of my age (then 48). He said I could expect to get only 10-12 years out of an implant, maybe less, and would then face multiple increasingly risky revisions - in short, sucks getting older. The second said I was a prime candidate and gave me the clearance forms. I liked the second doc b/c I liked his advice and b/c an older acquaintance had used him for a THR following a serious pelvic fracture and had nothing but rave reviews of the second doc (the patient/acquaintance now bikes, hikes, etc. as well as any 65 year old out there).
I did not do the surgery. I was still holding onto the hope - as irrational as it may have been - that I'd hit a window of time where it didn't bother me too bad and I could squeak out a few more years. And I did hit that window in the summer of 2022. There was about a three month window where the symptoms really subsided. So much so that I was able to do a very short but very fun hiking trip out West followed by another in the Appalachians. Fast forward to now, and BOTH hips are constantly stiff, achy, and sometimes downright painful. I can walk around with short steps. I walk gingerly b/c any step can result in a fairly sharp stab of pain. Yet, I can do my daily activities. I just got back from the gym, where I do upper body workouts without much limitation. I do a lower body workout with very restricted range of motion and very slow movements just trying to keep range of motion and some leg strength/endurance as a form of "prehab" for any future THR. I avoid anything that hurts and stop if it does. So, while I'm limited, I'm by no means disabled. I'm tired of the constant ache and the inability to to walk around the neighborhood or in the woods. But the symptoms gotten worse and my physical limitations have increased noticeably and progressively over the last three months. The current trajectory is not great.
After all that, I guess I just am interested in any feedback from others who have undergone THR, particularly those who underwent THR years ago while in their 40's or early 50's. I know results vary and its my decision. I understand I may well with any luck) outlive an implant and require a riskier revision surgery. But there is also life to live now. Anyway, I'd value any feedback and perspective positive or negative. I think I should probably do it, but that decision is irrevocable and I want to go in eyes wide open.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to any responses and, if and when the time comes for me to get a THR, paying it back by offering my own experience, good or bad. Thanks again for all the contributions to this forum - I've learned a lot.
I came across this forum a year or so ago while beginning to seriously consider and research the pros and cons of my inevitable bilateral THR. It has been a great source of information, realism, and reassurance. Thank you for all of your contributions. I'd very much appreciate any feedback and wisdom you may have for my situation. My apologies in advance if this is too long.
I'm a soon to be 50-year-old guy with a reasonably active past. I've always enjoyed the outdoors, particularly hiking and multi-day backpacking trips in the West. Around February 2020, my left hip started - for lack of a better term - catching. It sould click and thump, but I'd just limp for 10 minutes or so and it would work itself out. Later, in the summer of 2020, just a after returning from a 5-day hiking trip in the Wyoming, my left hip just seized up - almost a full stop. It was difficult to walk and go up the stairs even though the I'd carried a pack over a mountain pass the prior weekend - crazy! I assumed it was some latent injury and it would go away. It did not.
After a few weeks, I went to get x-rays to confirm nothing was dreadfully wrong; no cancer, fractures, anything like that. Instead, it was, in the technician's terms, "just some arthritis." OK ... well, I figured I'd see if it would subside and I could get back to normal. Once again, it did not.
In the Spring of 2021, I went to two orthopedic surgeons. They both said my left had "severe" degenerative osteoarthritis. Both noted the latest x-rays showed deformation of the "ball" with the "socket" closing up to prevent dislocation; thus the decreased range of motion. Both said the left hip was basically bone on bone. My right hip (this portends nothing good) had "moderate to severe" OA.
The first doc strongly discouraged me from doing THR because of my age (then 48). He said I could expect to get only 10-12 years out of an implant, maybe less, and would then face multiple increasingly risky revisions - in short, sucks getting older. The second said I was a prime candidate and gave me the clearance forms. I liked the second doc b/c I liked his advice and b/c an older acquaintance had used him for a THR following a serious pelvic fracture and had nothing but rave reviews of the second doc (the patient/acquaintance now bikes, hikes, etc. as well as any 65 year old out there).
I did not do the surgery. I was still holding onto the hope - as irrational as it may have been - that I'd hit a window of time where it didn't bother me too bad and I could squeak out a few more years. And I did hit that window in the summer of 2022. There was about a three month window where the symptoms really subsided. So much so that I was able to do a very short but very fun hiking trip out West followed by another in the Appalachians. Fast forward to now, and BOTH hips are constantly stiff, achy, and sometimes downright painful. I can walk around with short steps. I walk gingerly b/c any step can result in a fairly sharp stab of pain. Yet, I can do my daily activities. I just got back from the gym, where I do upper body workouts without much limitation. I do a lower body workout with very restricted range of motion and very slow movements just trying to keep range of motion and some leg strength/endurance as a form of "prehab" for any future THR. I avoid anything that hurts and stop if it does. So, while I'm limited, I'm by no means disabled. I'm tired of the constant ache and the inability to to walk around the neighborhood or in the woods. But the symptoms gotten worse and my physical limitations have increased noticeably and progressively over the last three months. The current trajectory is not great.
After all that, I guess I just am interested in any feedback from others who have undergone THR, particularly those who underwent THR years ago while in their 40's or early 50's. I know results vary and its my decision. I understand I may well with any luck) outlive an implant and require a riskier revision surgery. But there is also life to live now. Anyway, I'd value any feedback and perspective positive or negative. I think I should probably do it, but that decision is irrevocable and I want to go in eyes wide open.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to any responses and, if and when the time comes for me to get a THR, paying it back by offering my own experience, good or bad. Thanks again for all the contributions to this forum - I've learned a lot.