THR Herts hippy recovery

Wow! Just been catching up on your awesome progress.brilliant! My health club does Barre classes so might give it a go. Swimming and walking for me atm.
 
@Constanze Hi - I read your thread. Your recovery was very impressive! I am on a slower path but am still making good progress - climbed Scafell Pike, England's highest peak yesterday in 2 hours 10 minutes which is quite good (3.5 miles and almost 950 metre ascent on rough terrain). I leave marathon running to my wife and still struggle to run - my muscles are not quite strong enough. But I will be back to skiing next year. We used to ski mainly in France (Chamonix, 3 Valleys, and Val D'Isere) but have started to go to Austria where the hotels are more hospitable and are better if you don't ski from first to last lift.

We go to Welwyn Garden City a lot including to shop at the John Lewis store (10 minutes drive). Unfortunately they are shutting much of the very good sports centre at WGC (Gosling). St Albans is very nice with old buildings, shops, restaurants and 20 minutes to Central London on the train but it is not good for cycling - we have to take bikes in the car to cycle on tracks - the roads here are too narrow for me. The cycling in your region sounds great - I envy you!

The walk round London (the Capital Ring) goes near train and underground stations so you can split it as you wish - people travel to the start each day rather than stay in hotels. There are several long distance walks in the UK now with hotels stops - I would like to do the Coast to Coast walk which goes across North England - it is 190 tough miles so you need to be fit and have good equipment.

One other question: Is your other hip ok? I've been told if someone has arthritis in one hip, the other one will usually "follow". But this hasn't happened to me yet - my right hip is all right.
When I was x-rayed almost 4 years ago it showed FAI on my better hip with bone spurs but no bone degenration. I am hoping to avoid another THR in the near future but know it might happen. I get some clicking in the hip and occassionally get slight pain. I am hoping that exercise will stop the hip getting worse.

Good luck with the running and triathlons.
 
It does sound like you are on top of the world!:yahoo:
So glad to hear how well you are doing!
Hope lefty hangs in there.
 
Six+ month update – climbing mountains but not back to normal yet

I thought I would provide an update now I am more than 6 months post-op – it is helpful for me to have a note of progress in the event I need hip 2 replaced. And it may be of vague interest to some others.

Climbing mountains – at 6 months I spent a few days walking in England’s Lake District. Walks included climbing Scafell Pike and Helvellyn (highest and third highest mountains in England). The hip coped very well with walks of up to 7 hours over some very steep and very uneven terrain (I had been training in months 4 and 5 with regular walks on falter terrain of 10 to 20 miles). I was not as fast as when I was younger but I was still quicker than most. It was good only having to stop to get my breath back rather than to have a rest for aching joints. The only minor issue was that I was a bit tentative stepping down with the operated leg not wanting to jar the hip. Getting back into the mountains this Spring was a pre-op goal which I am pleased to have achieved.

Not back to normal yet – while I have made reasonable progress, I feel I am still quite some way from being back to normal, although much better than I was 4 years ago when the OA really started to give me problems. While not fast, my progress has been steady with no problems (other than being a bit fed up about progress in the early months) and even at this stage I can regularly feel improvements. For example, around month 5 I could start to climb 2 stairs at a time with each leg (helpful for the hills). But I don’t think I had my first pain free day until about month six although for quite some time pains were only really level 1 aches and zaps. I still cannot run properly – my muscles just won’t let me. I cannot do some exercises yet; eg standing from sitting on the operated leg or sitting from standing balancing on the operated leg. The motion of the hip feels very good but the muscles around it need to get stronger. I suspect if I had done more work in the gym I might have progressed a bit faster – or if I had not waited for so long before having THR. 12 months does look like a realistic target for full recovery which I am more than happy with.

I do find it interesting to read other threads where people get back to normal in a couple of months or so. While each recovery is different and depends on so many factors, I wonder whether people have very different views of what returning to normal is. For me “normality” is returning to where I was pre-OA and that includes running and playing squash and tennis at a moderate level which is still quite some way off.
 
Thanks for this update @HertsHippy . It is fascinating. Your achievements so far are amazing. I liked your post earlier this month about having the highest artificial hip in England! But even so, there is progress still being made after 6 months. This is reassuring.

I have just been reading Melanie Reid’s memoir of her life with tetraplegia. She describes being encouraged when she was a year post accident by someone who was still seeing small improvements many years on. His view was that greatest gift for anyone recovering from injury is time. “We are quite unused to the time required to fix these incredible bodies of ours, more complex than a galaxy”. And he liked to imagine myriads of tiny medics working inside to repair us, while we look after the big stuff of eating right and exercise.
 
His view was that greatest gift for anyone recovering from injury is time. “We are quite unused to the time required to fix these incredible bodies of ours, more complex than a galaxy”. And he liked to imagine myriads of tiny medics working inside to repair us, while we look after the big stuff of eating right and exercise.
That is a beautiful analogy, thank you for posting it :yes: I haven't been up Helvellyn since 1995, but remember it as an amazing experience...........
 
@Klassy
His view was that greatest gift for anyone recovering from injury is time. “We are quite unused to the time required to fix these incredible bodies of ours, more complex than a galaxy”. And he liked to imagine myriads of tiny medics working inside to repair us, while we look after the big stuff of eating right and exercise.

That is a brilliant quote. I sometimes read Melanie Reid's Spinal column in the Saturday Times (which I get for the cryptic jumbo). Quite remarkable and makes me realise how lucky I have been.

I also read on another thread that a forum member's OS said that you can expect to be 50% healed after 3 months, 70% after 6 months and 90% after a year. That seems realistic to me. In month 7 I have continued to feel improvements and am becoming stronger and more flexible. However I still feel there is quite a lot more improvement to come although there are very few things I cannot now do - other than those activities which involve a lot of running. At 80% healed I am now a lot better than I was several years pre-op and I suspect I am now in much better physical shape than many people my age which puts me in a pretty good place.
 
It’s my hip’s one year anniversary today. I thought I would provide an update as not many people do so at this stage.

My THR has been a great success and given me my life back – I feel a good ten years younger than I did a year ago. I am still feeling improvements even at one year out – I would say I am now about 95% although it is difficult to assess when getting a bit older.

Key points from my recovery include:

  • I should have had the operation much earlier (possible 2 or 3 years) – I probably understated pain levels and did not ask the right questions when I first saw medics.
  • I was remarkably calm for the surgery – probably because I knew it was needed and the success rate is high. The operation went very smoothly – spinal with heavy sedation. Care from hospital staff was excellent.
  • Recovery was much longer than some suggest. 6 months for me to get virtually ache free and 9 to feel close to recovered. I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that my recovery may have been quicker if I had had the operation earlier. Otherwise recovery was smooth – although I did get a bit down about the time it was taking!
  • In months 4 and 5 I made significant improvements and I became much more mobile.
  • The main activities to support my recovery were (a lot of) walking, Pilates twice a week and swimming.
For those interested here is summary of my progress - for interest and not for comparison as everyone is different. By way of background I had been quite active (skiing, trekking, racket sports) before OA struck and this was my first surgery. I was in very good health although around 10lbs overweight pre-op. By the time of surgery I could not walk half a mile without a lot of pain, I struggled with shoe laces and I was limping very badly. The muscles in the right hip had atrophied – my left leg was much bigger than my right! I had posterior and had my bad leg lengthened.

Week 6 – stopped using the cane and able to resume all basic activities including driving. Back to the pool and gym for light work and “easy” Pilates classes. Hip still feeling quite weak and getting tired quickly. I could not stand on operated leg for long and walking was quite slow. Lots of aches and stiffness. I was sleeping on my side but could not lie comfortably on side on Pilates mat.

Week 9 – Walking faster but still getting tired. Did 15,000 steps for the first time. Now feeling a lot better than pre-op.

Month 3 – Doing all normal activities comfortably but still suffering from lots of aches and stiffness and feeling a long way from being fully recovered. Back to advanced Pilates and swimming up to 1km.

Month 4 – First 10+ mile walk and 30,000+ steps. Walking speed moderate. Swimming up to 2km. Still quite a few aches and stiffness after sitting.

Month 5 – First 20+ mile walk and 50,000+ steps. Walking at moderate to fast pace. Aches and stiffness declining.

Month 6 – Much fitter now and able to trek comfortably up England’s highest and toughest mountains. But still very conscious of the new hip and taking longer to go down hills than up them. Walking speed now fast. Aches and stiffness mostly gone except after vigorous exercise. However still felt quite some way from being fully recovered.

Month 9 – Back to playing squash at moderate club level. Post exercise stiffness had gone and close to feeling normal again.

Month 12 – I have pretty much forgotten hip now – the only thing I do not feel comfortable doing is running anything other than a short distance – probably not helped by the left hip being arthritic. I am still noticing some improvements although they are more subtle.

My left hip has FAI. An X-ray 4 years ago showed bone spurs and I have mild OA pain. I have no significant mobility issues in that hip and I hope that I will not need another THR soon but if the pain gets bad I will be straight to my GP.
 
Hi @HertsHippy ,
I was very pleased to read your update. Like you, I also felt, I was improving beyond the period of 1 year.
I like your mountaineering and long-distance swimming. Do you swim in a lake or the swimming-pool. There is a lake near where I work in Langen (Hesse) near Frankfurt where you can do supervised long-distance swims. It's organised by Sailfish, the company that manufactures swim wear and wet suits, and the supervisors are from the German rescue company and make sure we are safe. The lake is also the swimming lake where the swim of the European Ironman Championship takes place.
Now for some other good news: I haven't got OA in my other (right) hip (yet).
Enjoy your exercise - many more hill walks - Constanze
 
Hello @HertsHippy and @Constanze - I had my op in July 2018 and I was just saying to a friend, who's had the op more recently, that I felt that 14 - 15 months was my real turning point - although the op went well, and recovery was fairly smooth (although I did go backwards at one stage when I overdid it!) - it's in the last month or so that I've totally forgotten that I've got a new hip! The op site used to get a bit red and swollen if I exerted myself, but now I seem to be able to keep going as long as I've got the energy, and not notice the scar on my hip.
 
Happy Happy One Year, my friend.
Thank you also for all of your contributions - support, advice, and encouragement!
 
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@Cassidy ---I had to laugh at your comment about forgetting you had your hip done as long as you didn't look at your scar. The same thing has happened to me. I'll go all day and never think about it, and then start drying when I get out of the shower and the scar kind of surprises me. One night I thought I might be losing my mind--- I saw the scar on the front of my thigh and my first thought was, "Where did that come from?" :rotfl:
 
Lovely to hear all this positivity! Like Cassidy (who had her op date at a similar time to mine) I think 14 months out was the real turning point for me too. Lovely for all of us to be getting our lives back. Hang on in there Elf!
 
Do you swim in a lake or the swimming-pool
- I swim in a nice warm indoor at my health club and can have a steam or sauna afterwards. Outdoor swimming is far too tough for me! 1km to 2km is not that far really and I do that before breakfast - good swimmers (and I am certainly not one) blast these distances.

Unlike many others here I am looking forward to the winter so I can go to the EU for some skiing!
 
What a wonderful update @HertsHippy Couldn't be any happier for you.
Thanks for sharing and laying out your progress as you did. I'm sure many following behind you will appreciate and be inspired by it.
Also to @Constanze and @Cassidy thanks for weighing in. It goes to show
that while this surgery does give us our life back, it's gradual, not instantaneous. May those new hips serve you all well for many years to come!
 
:mcoffee: Good early morning (for me) @HertsHippy.
Hope all is well with you and you have a pleasant weekend planned.
Hope your hip is happy.:happyfeet:
 
Hope this finds you well, @HertsHippy
Lovely weather in my neck of the woods for almost December..
And I have a bit of a reprieve due to our Thanksgiving holiday.
 

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