Endstage hips all of a sudden?

maeve0522

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I am 52 and have run, including 10 marathons, over the years, I have bilateral hip OA with osteophytes but i have definite cartilage remaining on my Xrays. With mild moderate joint space loss.

Within a month i went from mild and very chronic symptoms to severe left, mild right hip pain to, 10 days later, severe right and moderate left hip pain.
I can't do any normal activities and can't sleep and have resting pain..... Is this rapid change typical?
 
Hi @maeve0522 and welcome to Bonesmart!

I’m sorry to read about your pain, sadly this is how it happens for many of us.
It can be very devastating, especially when it worsens quickly, meaning we all have busy lives and then all if a sudden we aren't sleeping or walking well.
This is how my first hip was. I had no clue what was going on under the surface until one day at work, I could barely walk down the hallway to the bathroom.
I found that copious amounts of icing helped while navigating the research of surgeons, etc.
I needed time to come to grips with it, also.
Good luck and this forum can be a huge help with your questions, etc.
 
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Yes, things can change rapidly. You'll read people on this forum ... who knew they had some arthritis and some pain ... who held off on surgery a bit ... and then the pain suddenly increases and yes the pain can increase suddenly to excruciating levels. And sometimes the person has to wait months after they schedule the surgery.

As for your X-rays ... talk to the surgeon. There isn't a strict correlation between pain and loss of cartilage as it appears on the X-rays. Some people might show moderate arthritis and be in excruciating pain ... My sister just had bilateral surgery ... She reported very moderate pain ... but after the surgery, her surgeon said he couldn't believe how bad her hips were, how bad the arthritis was.

Plus, I've heard surgeons say that X-rays don't always reveal the total picture, that sometimes the arthritis was much worse than what had showed on the X-rays.
 
thank you for the replies. I can't help but think i am going to go back to my normal mild difficulties and these changes will leave as mysteriously as they came.

That being said , i am all for THA bilateral give quick recovery and excellent satisfaction. Wondering is i am being to agressive re THA Thoughts?
 
Is this rapid change typical?
Very typical. I went from tolerating left hip pain to not even being able to walk literally overnight. What I didn't know is that my hip collapsed. Horrid pain and planning life around needing to move.

When was your last x-ray. You might want to get a new set. Then at least you can make a comparison between old and new and might be able to see what changed. Thinking about THR sooner rather than later is a good idea. Not waiting means here will be less damage and a less complicated recovery. I didn't wait for my right THR and that recovery was much easier.
 
@maeve0522 Welcome to BoneSmart :) And yes do find a surgeon who will do a bilateral procedure for you -- IMO it's the best way to get things fixed up when you have 2 wonky hips! Alas these rapid changes you've experienced are not very likely to go away :( But with new hips you should be able to return to doing the things you love - though do ask your surgeon about competitive running - each person is different and each surgery/recovery is uniquely their own.

If you go over to the recovery side, look for a green bilateral tag. Click on one such tag and you'll get a list of all the bilateral threads here -- there are quite a few of us. Those will give you some ideas of what others have gone through on this life changing journey called joint replacement

Best of luck to you --- and keep us informed on how you are doing. And we love to answer questions!
 
My hip "crashed" rapidly after being sent for PT by the first doc:bignono:
"You have some arthritis but I dont think you need surgery"...severe error in diagnosis
Maybe his glasses were not clean when he reviewed the xray they just took before our enocunter

All the referred pain came on like gang busters and my leg basically collapsed in an airport on the way to Bonaire ( next to Aruba) for a scuba vacation. I had to come home wheelchair assist the next day after getting there. $$$$ and pain

I cant comment on bilateral, but am about 13 days post op for my right hip.

Muscle loss related to the PT "injury" and the referred pain starting in May are making my recovery more difficult. It is the greatest piece of advice I can give, #1 avoid PT #2 if your surgeon can get you approved dont get the cortison injection, it delays surgery 90 days. You can degrade in that time. For me it was 4 1/2 months of degradation...These are my experiences. I would have been much better off seeing the surgeon first instead of a doc in the group who was no longer a surgeon...

I played amateur ice hockey several times a week until 2011 and after an achilles reconstruction ( not hockey related) in 2012, when totally healed in 2013 was on the treadmill 30+ minutes a day since then till late April this year..I degraded to use of a cane and walker in home and cane outside...
 
I started with right hip pain and inability to put socks on without much pain and had to use a sock assist device from my left hip surgery. Luckily, since I had similar pain with left hip I knew that it was the hip so called the OS right away. My x-rays showed mild to moderate arthritis in the right hip only. However, on examination and discussion of my symptoms we agreed that I needed a THR- I knew it would get me back to living and enjoying life again. X-rays do not always correlate and an OS will correlate the symptoms with the x-rays.

I am sorry you are in pain but like the others I can recommend that a hip replacement is worth it.
 
Nope...me either!
:chuckmarch:
 
@maeve0522 I doubt that there is a "too early" .... surgeons and insurance companies have criteria for doing procedures like joint replacements and if one does not meet those criteria it does not get done. And alas some folks are made to wait longer than really necessary because of insurance companies insistence that one try "less invasive" (AKA cheaper) options like PT or steroid injections.
 
sorry messed up post, had posted below and thought I was here and can't delete now :'(
 
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My hip "crashed" rapidly after being sent for PT by the first doc:bignono:
"You have some arthritis but I dont think you need surgery"...severe error in diagnosis
Maybe his glasses were not clean when he reviewed the xray they just took before our enocunter

All the referred pain came on like gang busters and my leg basically collapsed in an airport on the way to Bonaire ( next to Aruba) for a scuba vacation. I had to come home wheelchair assist the next day after getting there. $$$$ and pain

I cant comment on bilateral, but am about 13 days post op for my right hip.

Muscle loss related to the PT "injury" and the referred pain starting in May are making my recovery more difficult. It is the greatest piece of advice I can give, #1 avoid PT #2 if your surgeon can get you approved dont get the cortison injection, it delays surgery 90 days. You can degrade in that time. For me it was 4 1/2 months of degradation...These are my experiences. I would have been much better off seeing the surgeon first instead of a doc in the group who was no longer a surgeon...

I played amateur ice hockey several times a week until 2011 and after an achilles reconstruction ( not hockey related) in 2012, when totally healed in 2013 was on the treadmill 30+ minutes a day since then till late April this year..I degraded to use of a cane and walker in home and cane outside...
WOW! Sounds kind of like what I went through with two "(sports injury) doctors" between late August & October of 2018. One "pinged" which did no good so went to the other (2 or 3 times) who told me I had a groin injury like hockey players get and that it would take a long time to get over so just do some exercises.
I gave up on both and just hobbled until March of this year when the pain was keeping me awake a good share of the night. Hubby suggested I go to Urgent Care as I had no primary physician and couldn't get one anytime soon thru the hospitals here.
They got me to a primary care who got x-rays done that should have been done in 2018. Hip is junk.
 
I am 52 and have run, including 10 marathons, over the years, I have bilateral hip OA with osteophytes but i have definite cartilage remaining on my Xrays. With mild moderate joint space loss.

Within a month i went from mild and very chronic symptoms to severe left, mild right hip pain to, 10 days later, severe right and moderate left hip pain.
I can't do any normal activities and can't sleep and have resting pain..... Is this rapid change typical?

It sounds familiar. I was still able to make it through 18 holes of golf (knowing I would hurt afterwards) until I went to physical therapy in July. Two weeks of PT caused a huge increase in pain level, enough of an increase that I can't golf, sleep is interrupted, walking hurts, sitting hurts, etc.

Then came all of the diagnostics. Dye injection MRI, Steroid injection, the wait to see the Ortho, etc.

Now I'm in limbo, waiting for my January surgery date. Like the others said avoid the steroid injection if you can. In my case it caused a possible October surgery date to be moved to January.

Bruce
 
Looks like many of us have experienced poor diagnostic skills from people who may have a medical degree, but cant read an xray.
 
Like so many of us on this thread .... Had RTHR in July .... Left hip went bad with snapping every time i moved and pain .... Got progressively worse so having the left hip done in the morning .... I can't wait as pain is bad with every step and movement .... Best of luck .....
 
@maeve0522 I think we all have that hope in the beginning that the increased pain and discomfort will just miraculously go away and we'll be fine. Pretty much not the case it usually just continues to get worse until we finally admit to ourselves that it's time to go see a Surgeon.

Getting my hip done was one of the best decisions I've ever made! It's changed my life completely and think most on here will echo that. :console2:
 

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