How long to wait before surgery?

[brendaM]

I have been diagnosed with fairly extensive avascular necrosis of LH, via x-rays and an MRI. I do have discomfort with limited motion. Walk with a limp at times. Not able to do a lot of walking. We travel, I'm afraid this will collapse while away from home sometime. My pain is not severe, like I read from other postings, I wanted to have the surgery done end of Sept.. or should I wait till the pain is more severe.

 

[Troweltalk]

I can only think of two reasons to wait:

1. You have some other underlining medical issue that would put you at greater risk than the general population for surgery.

2. If you don't want the pain to stop yet.

 

[Josephine]

You've got limited motion and you're not able to walk far. You also worry about what might happen. This tells me you are contracting your life to accommodate this condition.

How much more of your life do you want to lose before you claim it back? It's not all about pain, it's about deciding to put a limit on how disabled you become before you take the plunge! Get it done and claim your life back. I take it you're a 'mature' adult. You have no idea what's around the corner. Why wait?

BTW welcome to BoneSmart!

 

[Judles]

Welcome, Brenda! And my question to you is,,,,,,why on earth would you even WANT to wait?

 

[brendaM]

Thanks Mudpro:
I am nervous over having this done, but I didn't know if the pain had to be severe before they operate. I want to golf this summer, if my hip allows, then have the surgery in the fall.

 

[brendaM]

Thanks to everyone that has responded. You must think I'm crazy, but I'm really not. I'm afraid if I have the surgery, and it doesn't go well, maybe I will never be able to golf again, so I want to try and golf some this summer. I will be 60 in August, so I guess that will be a birthday present to me.

 

[prairienut]

Hi Brenda, I am 58 and just had a THR 2 weeks ago. I was not in severe pain prior to surgery. However, I was not able to take long walks (>1/2 mile) without the pain starting and causing me to limp. I hesitated to travel where I would need to walk long distances to sightsee or negotiate airports. I could no longer take long hikes in the Catskills. It was difficult to mount my bicycle with my stiff hip. My hip was starting to limit my favorite activities. I was surprised to learn from the x-ray that I was bone-on-bone and it had been that way a while -- femur was flattened, the cup was starting to remodel. I was told that I needed surgery within a year because the more the bone was destroyed, the less optimum the outcome of the THR. (This latter point may be debatable.) There was too much bone destruction already to be considered a candidate for resurfacing.

I thought long and hard about having surgery. I finally decided that I would not wait until the pain became unbearable. It was a tough decision for me and I knew that it would be several weeks after surgery before I would reap the benefits of it. Those who are in excruciating pain just before surgery see the benefits within hours or days after surgery -- the constant, nagging deep pain is gone. My surgeon selected a ceramic-on-metal prosthesis for me which should have a lifespan of 20-30 years. I am hoping not to need a revision. But even if I do, at least I get the benefit of it now when I am still healthy enough otherwise to be active.

This forum is a great place to gather information, case histories, and opinions. I find it to be a continuing help to me as i work my way through the recovery phase.
Gail

 

[Josephine]

I'm afraid if I have the surgery, and it doesn't go well, maybe I will never be able to golf again.

The results for THR are pretty darned good and there are many thousands of people walking around out there with one or two THRs and you'd never know it! Provided you've made a good choice of surgeon, meaning one who is experienced and fits the parameters I've put in the "How to choose a surgeon" post at the top of this forum, you should be just fine.

 

[Troweltalk]

I felt very much the same way before I got serious about researching the procedure. Serious complications from surgery occur less than 1% of the time. How many procedures occur world wide per year, Jo? 14,000, 20,000, or rmore?

Before my surgery I met a man who had two THRs, one was a mess the other excellent. He blames the VA hospital for botching the one; which is not to say all VA surgeries are botched, that is certainly not true at all. So for me, researching orthopedic hospitals and doctors and getting comfortable with what I read was a big part of me making my decision. I found this group after my surgery, and i can honestly say that if you read through many of our accounts, its a pretty fair bet your experience will be similar to many of ours. We are a random sampling from all over the place, with different doctors, different countries, and different devices implanted. But as you read, you will find far, far more simularities than differences. The one glaring simularity is most of us kick ourselves in the butt for waiting as long as we did.

 

[PRGal]

Brenda, since golf is obviously a passion for you, thought I'd point out that Jack Nicklaus played in a tournament 12 weeks after his hip replacement. Tom Watson just had a THR this past October . . . Bottom line--Yes, there IS life after THR and it's way better than it used to be, so why wait? And welcome to Bonesmart--come back often; you'll find lots of kindred spirits here!

 

[Jamie]

Brenda, welcome to BoneSmart. We sincerely hope you find the friendship and discussions here useful to you as you make your decisions about hip surgery.

Of course no one knows YOU as well as you do and we all know it is difficult to decide exactly when to have an elective surgery. But....when your life is limited...to me...it's time! As others have said, why wait when you could be enjoying the things you want to do NOW. The most important thing is to choose the right surgeon, then put yourself in their hands completely. There are plenty of people here on the forum in all stages of waiting for, having, and recovering from surgery. So you can ask almost any question and find someone who has personal experience with whatever you describe.

Just rest assured that there is absolutely NO written guide that says you must have THIS MUCH pain going on before you replace your hip!! And you don't want the AVN to progress to the point where your hip surgery is more difficult....don't know from your post if that could be an issue or not.

 

[Josephine]

How many procedures occur world wide per year, Jo? 14,000, 20,000, or rmore?

It's in the "How to choose a surgeon" post.

Statistics:
US: 225,900 primary hip replacements and 431,485 primary knee replacements were carried out in 2004 according to data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample
UK: 27,814 primary hip replacements and 75,629 primary knee replacements were recorded in the broken link removed: https://www.njrcentre.org.uk/njrcentre/Healthcareproviders/Accessingthedata/StatsOnline/NJRStatsOnline/tabid/179/Default.aspx in 2008

 

[Curlynne]

Hi Brenda
I agree with what mudpro said, I had my right hip replaced almost 7 weeks ago and Im so, so glad I did it. I just wish I hadn't held off for four years. If I had known about this web site then (if it was around then) or any others like this, I know I would of done it back then. I just kept being told that I was very young to have it done, now I find that in comparison to some people on here I am in fact just the right age, because it's not about age its about how you feel and what you want to do with your life.
Lynne x

 

[Josephine]

First member registered here in Jan 05 but it was not terribly active for the first couple of years.