Sonia,
Are you contemplating simultaneous bilateral THR? I had that done in May of 05. There are no guarentees in surgery, but I can tell you how my surgery and recovery went.
First of all, most surgeons have a set of criteria you must meet before they will consider you for simultaneous. Some surgeons just will not do both at the same time. From my experience, if you do not meet the criteria, I would not consider simultaneous. If you do, it is a great way to go with only 1 surgery/recovery and legs healing together.
My surgery was extra long because my left hip was in worse shape than expected. However, my recovery was very fast. I was up and walking on crutches, weight bearing, the next morning, doing stairs by afternoon and home the next morning. Within four days, I was starting to forget my crutches when going room to room. The grinding hip pain is instantly gone and the pain from the surgery is easily controled with the very nice drugs they provide. That being said, my recovery is unusual, but I had some good things going for me, which is why my surgeon even considered simultaneous for me.
If you are considering simultaneous, take a hard look at yourself and lifestyle now. This is not meant to be mean or hard, but this is a hard fact. If you are overweight at all, if you are not muscular/ strong, if you do not have a great home support system, or if you are not strongly motivated to work hard at recovery, you may not want to do both hips at the same time. If you decide to go ahead with simultaneous, then start working out with weights right now and work as hard as you can till your surgery date. This can make a huge difference in your outcome.
John: I have no doubt you will make the cut!! Keep up the good work.
Noffa: I had my hips replaced due to OA so I am not sure about AVN, but my hips definatly allow me to do a fair amount of running. Find a great surgeon and make sure hubby stays strong both before and after surgery.
Andrea