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THR 1st Surgery has 2nd Surgery

Bionic said:
@JoeKnows
Sorry you are too late for the one legged tap dance today. I have already entertained the dog and cat. Although come to think of it they weren't very entertained either. Ah well, thats life
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Oh @Bionic, looks like you stumbled in only a few minutes after @JoeKnows! I must have forgotten to leave the lights on and you just missed each other. Surprised no one has cleaned up in here since the party! That's the trouble with a bunch of one legged party guests on canes and crutches..... No one can bend over to clean up! Call in the Spouse Brigade!!!
 
1stSurgery said:
Very helpful information @Jaycey thank you! Just what I had suspected but it made too much sense .. Lol

My left was very bad but did great, the right collapsed while rehabbing the left and then had to wait an extra few more months due to OS schedule so, like you, was in very bad state until surgery date, largely immobile even. Poor beat up femoral head!! I am SO HAPPY TO BE A DOUBLE HIPPY!! It's like I can relax after recovery for the next few decades anyways. Most likely. Thanks again!
Would like to hear from other double hippies about healing time versus deterioration levels.
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I am answering late here, but my doc told me last week that AVN/collapse makes for a longer/protracted recovery. :yikes:
 
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Hi, @1stSurgery! I'm late chiming in but, as a double hippy, I wanted to share my experience. I'm now six months out on the left and just had my three month anniversary for the right this past Saturday; and it has been, despite a setback or two, life-changing!

I was one of those Hippies who had BOTH hips collapse (my docs were all questioning how I was still walking - ummm, I'm single and my own breadwinner, I had no choice but to keep functioning!!!); but the right one had been the first one to give me trouble, and so was the "older" damaged one. Despite that, the left one was the one paining me the most by the time I found my OS; so we decided to go with that one first.

It was a breeze. I took one week of vacation, then worked from home for five weeks and was back to commuting and in the office week 7.

Then... the second (again, older damaged) hip was handled.

I wound up back in the hospital a week after the surgery because my wound wouldn't stop... errrrm.... flowing (they put me on an industrial sized wound vac; sent me home with a... home-sized...? one). The hip itself stayed creaky far longer - I'm guessing in part because of the muscles, which had totally rearranged how they worked in order to keep me moving prior to diagnosis/surgery.

Now, at three months out, I'm finally starting to feel that things are back on track with the newer hip; but it's definitely been more of a process than it had been with the other hip.

So. That's my story in a nutshell. Congrats on getting to the healing side; wishing you all the best!!
 
Thank you @ladylorn ...wow, quite a story. It is seeming to me the more damaged of the two hips ends up being the harder, longer recovery ...but I'm not sure. I mean it seems so logical, but I'm learning THRs are prone to all sorts of illogic as well. We all appear to go to the surgeon first with the one giving us the worst pain, regardless of X-ray readings. I did too. Righty was worse on film but lefty was rocking a nasty Labral tear and I (mistakenly) thought righty could hang in while we dealt with that.

I'm curious about the term "collapse" because I've used it too but am not sure if that actually occurs or if we just feel like that hip stopped functioning completely? Does a hip collapse? Or is that when you have AVN? I honestly don't know even though I've described my right one that way after the perilous bend-to-pet-the-cat day ....and it literally no longer served as a hip.

I also wonder if right handed people naturally lead with the right leg and therefore may have a worse damaged right hip later. I know it's that way with kicking in dancing or sports. And I notice lots of right hips being done on the single hippies. The baby hipsters. :)

Thank you for the account and congrats on your 3 mo hippivesary! Glad the right one is coming on track and you're on that brighter side of this long road!!
 
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@lovesstars Do they know the cause of AVN? I've not heard any theories on that here. And a fair number of hippys here have sufferedfrom it. Some of the younger ones I've noticed as well.

When I saw my video of the femoral head in my surgeons hand, and he rolled it around in his glove, there was little semblance of a "globe" or ball shape in most of it. Just at the bottom and front a bit, there was some remaining spongey cartilage there ....but where it mattered and was needed, at the crown, there was only a patch of hard shiny white bone. And at the back and sides... you don't want to know. Let's just say that ball would not roll anywhere. Bone spurs and all kinds of stuff that didn't belong on a sphere!

I'm presuming in AVN the sinovial fluid dries up or something so the cartilage is no longer nourished and becomes necrotic? That's all just guesswork, I have no clue. But I find it all fascinating as its really the main ball bearing of our mobility, that ball and socket.
 
In the meantime, thought I'd set up an all night cafe here for hippys who wake up in the middle of the night and need someplace to stumble to for coffee. Coffee's free. Just leave tips on the counter.

[Bonesmart.org] 1st Surgery has 2nd Surgery
 
The current thinking is that blood circulation stops going to that area of bone and the bone dies (necrosis).

Causes can be lupus, alcoholism, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, autoimmune disease, Gauchet’s disease, pancreatitis or pancreas disorder, high doses of corticosteroids or idiopathic/unknown (that’s me...idiopathic).

Hope that helps!
 
Ahh, So, the bone dies, and lots of possible causes then. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just so curious about all this hip business now that I'm in the trenches.

When I was young, it was our friend's grandmas who had arthritic hips - white haired in their 80s- and today it seems to have traveled right down to the middle-aged as a common demographic for THR. I find that kind of astonishing and wonder what became of our general health to have so many people in 40s and 50s suffering arthritic or damaged hips. Could be the sedentary computer-seated at a screen lifestyle, although I think most people exercise now as well to offset that. Could be something environmentally or diet changes. I just don't recall when my parents were middle aged, any of their contemporaries having arthritis.

Sorry. It's Tuesday, my muse day. :what:
 
1stSurgery said:
So, lots of possible causes then. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just so curious about all this hip business now that I'm in the trenches.

When I was young, it was our friend's grandmas who had arthritic hips - white haired in their 80s- and today it seems to have traveled right down to the middle-aged as a common demographic for THR. I find that kind of astonishing and wonder what became of our general health to have so many people in 40s and 50s suffering arthritic or damaged hips. Could be the sedentary computer-seated at a screen lifestyle, although I think most people exercise now as well to offset that. Could be something environmentally or diet changes. I just don't recall when my parents were middle aged, any of their contemporaries having arthritis.

Sorry. It's Tuesday, my muse day. :what:
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I think it’s a great question. I have wondered why my femoral head died at 56. Did I do too much and wear myself out? Probably. Diet is good. Exercise good. My doc told me not to overthink it.


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I was given Toradol when I had an overwhelming rush of pain after anesthesia cleared off about 6 hours after I came out of recovery into my room. Definitely Amazing and fast acting.:yes:
Hope you have a restful day, 1stSurgery.:curtsey:
 
Regarding AVN, I saw a study saying the most common cause is corticosteroids. That's what they think caused mine, I was using them quite frequently for asthma and allergies. It's a rare side effect though.

In the AVN context, "collapse" is quite literal... The bone dies and essentially crumbles like rotten wood. Not a fun time... I was asymptomatic until it collapsed in July.
 
@lovesstars Well I hope that your doc is overthinking it then! Because with these numbers of relatively young "dead" hips going around... somebody sure should be doing some in depth thinking and research on it.... It doesn't strike me as natural.

And wowza @JoeKnows thats quite a graphic description of what happens! I had no idea it literally crumbles and collapses. That's awful! And you feel that as it happens?! :yikes: <--(Using @lovesstars patented emoji here without copyright) Eeeeek.

@Mojo333 I'm loving this Toradol but I'm sad as I peer into the bottle and see one lone pill left for tonight. They're pretty strict about only 3 days of it. It seems to have been extremely useful in pain and inflammation. Like a super strength NSAID I guess. No more NFL quarterback passes for me after tonight.
 
1stSurgery said:
@lovesstars Well I hope that your doc is overthinking it then! Because with these numbers of relatively young "dead" hips going around... somebody sure should be doing some in depth thinking and research on it.... It doesn't strike me as natural.

And wowza @JoeKnows thats quite a graphic description of what happens! I had no idea it literally crumbles and collapses. That's awful! And you feel that as it happens?! :yikes: <--(Using @lovesstars patented emoji here without copyright) Eeeeek.

@Mojo333 I'm loving this Toradol but I'm sad as I peer into the bottle and see one lone pill left for tonight. They're pretty strict about only 3 days of it. It seems to have been extremely useful in pain and inflammation. Like a super strength NSAID I guess. No more NFL quarterback passes for me after tonight.
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@1stSurgery — @JoeKnows has got it right. That is precisely what happens. Mine collapsed as well. To me it got so I couldn’t even stand and I was on the couch for eight weeks (plus crutches/nonweight-bearing) waiting for surgery. I was constantly worried I would fall to the ground spontaneously.)

It’s super weird. I know that people who have cancer wrack their brains to wonder ‘how it happened’ — as it is with folks who suffer from other disease processes.

My doctor told me that AVN is a ‘disease process’. I couldn’t help but think, all those weeks lying around with too much time to think, that somehow my femur had ‘betrayed me’. But now...I am so focused on just getting stronger and getting my life back that I just won’t let my mind ‘go there’.

Plus — now I have the LOVELY distraction of the new wallpaper! (This she says after 35 years of steaming and scraping wallpaper from four other houses...and I swore I would never have any!)

And of course — the complete enjoyment of the emojis. :flwrysmile:

[AND — today me and my walker stood in the kitchen and made cookies]
 
It seems the old wear and tear theory does have a degree of validity.... None of us here were exactly couch potatoes it would appear. Most of us were active - did sports, dance, horses, and all manners of contortion acts! Apart from those involved in accidents, falls, injuries.

Some have theorized that it's more genetic predisposition or some pelvic floor abnormality, I've even seen flat feet and bunions blamed. But I still think the preponderance of younger people here alone on BS getting THRs is ...alarming at best. When I was diagnosed in my 60s --I thought it was decades too early for such a diagnosis! Seriously. I was a hiker, not an old lady. Lol!

I was talking to an ESPN sportscaster this week who was saying how many young football players he knew with hip surgeries. That isn't surprising, like gymnasts and the hyper flexible. But I still think we have some kind of deficiency going on in general that's depriving cartilage of its nutrients....or something like that. My OS said from day one my bones were all excellent and strong. Nothing to do with the cartilage and connective tissue. Good bones. Bad joints. How does that happen?
 
You make some excellent points, @1stSurgery. I admit to having spent hours and hours at 3 am researching this sort of thing on my phone in the past five months...
 
@lovesstars i get it, onward and all, it's healthy. But I'm the daughter of an engineer and I think the need to figure out the mechanics and parts of how it all works and happens ..is in my blood! It sounds horrific though, the collapse.... I wonder if ladylorn had that as well? Anyways, congrats on the new wallpaper and please....share the cookies! I'm giving away free coffee here!! Coffee...cookies... Good match? :beer:
 
1stSurgery said:
@lovesstars i get it, onward and all, it's healthy. But I'm the daughter of an engineer and I think the need to figure out the mechanics and parts of how it all works and happens ..is in my blood! It sounds horrific though, the collapse.... I wonder if ladylorn had that as well? Anyways, congrats on the new wallpaper and please....share the cookies! I'm giving away free coffee here!! Coffee...cookies... Good match? :beer:
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Daughter of nuclear biochemist here. I totally got that research mind as well.
 
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