THR My Story (long)

[Charlie33]

@dw152 like you 'accommodated' my hip from age 35 when I was told I was headed toward having a hip replacement to my surgery at 54 last November. My vice was ice hockey and continued to play even though I could hardly tie my skate. Gave up running years ago but avid biker like you.

Looking back my mistake was not having the first replacement five years ago. Like you, not really so painful and had a high level of activity which kept everything strong enough to get by.... But ROM and 'normal' movement and bilateral hip mobility compromised.

Already working on timing for second replacement. Like many here once you do one side a lot quicker to make decision to do the other

 

[trailrunner]

@dw152
You mention having given up several activities that you use to do regularly. Back when you first signed in here you were given a list of articles to help with pre op. The first one was "How bad is my hip?" and contains several check lists to assess how bad things have really gotten. If you already filled out some or all of those check lists - review them to remind your self what you've already given up.

Yes, I remember doing that. It's certainly a good reminder of where I was and where I am now. I have altered my lifestyle a lot and I'm still just getting by.

@dw152 like you 'accommodated' my hip from age 35 when I was told I was headed toward having a hip replacement to my surgery at 54 last November. My vice was ice hockey and continued to play even though I could hardly tie my skate. Gave up running years ago but avid biker like you.

Yes, "accommodating" is a good way of describing it. Putting on my bike shoes has become very difficult, because the buckle is on the outside of my foot, below my ankle. I can barely get the strap through the buckle, and then it's hard to ratchet it down.

Have you gotten back on your bike yet? The good news is that everything I've read said that I should be able to bike 100 percent after the hip replacement. How about hockey?

 

[Charlie33]

@dw152 I do some light outdoor biking but prefer Peloton. Yes, 100% you will be back on saddle and fine. For me, outdoor biking causes my other hip which needs replacing to get grumpy. My replaced hip totally fine.

On hockey I am retired. I've had two very minor concussions in last 10 years and find its too easy to get randomly injured from collisions/falls or stupidity. Many choose to continue after a hip, just not me .

Best advice I got preop was that surgery will fix 40% of what's wrong. The other 60% is 'all you'. Totally true.

Also I've seen more improvement post op in last 6 months than I did for 5 years working on the 'old' hip. That's why you'll read here time and again folks will step up and do replacement #2 much more quickly as they have experienced the benefits.

 

[djklaugh]

@dw152 For a successful return to hockey experience check out this thread! She recently reported being back on the ice https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/a-new-ride-begins-the-puckheads-recovery.72865/

 

[Charlie33]

@thepuckhead a fantastic thread!

 

[trailrunner]

@djklaugh @Charlie33 Thanks for pointing me to the other thread. I don't play hockey (I've never ice skated in my life). I was mostly asking to get a feel for the ability to return to sports.

Welp, the surgery scheduler just called. My work is pretty supportive, but I have a few constraints. I found myself telling the scheduler that the earliest I could get this done is mid-July. Geez, that's soon. This is getting real. She told me that September or October is more realistic. OK, I like that because it's longer away and I can pretend it isn't happening.

I still can't believe I'm going through with this. I had an easy bike ride this morning and felt fine. I did a short run yesterday. The first mile felt fine but then later I took a long stride to step off a curb and had a stab of pain and it felt like my hip was going to collapse. After my run, I was tight the rest of the day. I was at a conference this week, and one day I had to walk about a mile from the parking lot to the building, and I was limping. I used to love to walk but now I dread it, like I dread putting on my shoes and socks. The point I'm making is that some days my hip is bad, and some days I feel great. I wish the scheduler would have called me on a day when I was hurting so that I could be sure of my decision to go through with this. I have a lot of weird emotions about this (that I won't bore you with), and those emotions are fighting the analytical, objective side of me. Yeah, I overthink things.

 

[Layla]

Hi dw, I hope you're having a good weekend.

The point I'm making is that some days my hip is bad, and some days I feel great. I wish the scheduler would have called me on a day when I was hurting so that I could be sure of my decision to go through with this

Many of us felt this way and it is confusing. I didn't suffer constant pain, rarely took pain relievers, mainly because I don't like them, I certainly could have used them. My hip was bone on bone and it wasn't going to improve, only get worse. Consider the things you are struggling with and how this "is not your normal". Why have bad days, when you can have all good days in relation to your hip? You are as young and possibly as healthy as you'll ever be so you may as well live your best life now. None of us are promised tomorrow and I often reminded myself of that as my world continued to shrink due to pain and the physical limitations of a deteriorating hip.

I have a lot of weird emotions about this (that I won't bore you with), and those emotions are fighting the analytical, objective side of me. Yeah, I overthink things

Most everyone does this. No one wants to lose their natural hip to a prosthetic one. Sadly, your natural one has seen better days and in reality, we're blessed we live in an era that allows us a second chance.

Joint replacement surgery is one of the most prevalent surgeries performed worldwide. The outcomes of these surgeries have become excellent based on a number of techniques changing over the years. The implants are durable and long lasting, with longevity much greater than before offering an increase in the likelihood you’ll never have to experience this procedure again.

Since I vacillated just as you are, I finally decided to bite the bullet and just schedule surgery, reminding myself I could cancel anytime if I changed my mind. I knew that I wouldn't, only to go through the agonizing emotional roller coaster all over again.

I wish you clarity in making decisions and peace of mind with whatever you decide.

 

[nasruddin]

I didn't catch your post/thread when it 1st appeared but saw it just now. I can certainly relate to the high level of activity and the shock one gets on the diagnosis - I thought I had some kind of bursitis. I also would've gotten it earlier (guessing see below) if it hadn't been for COVID lockdowns, I avoided Drs &al for over a year, didn't think I had any problems worth attending to.

You still seem to be able to maintain a high level of activity - a 6 mile hike mentioned recently. I did a fiver thru a wildflower area about 2 months ago and that was tough - out of range now as it is clear the hip is headed downhill at a more rapid pace now. HOWEVER, today is one of those really good days where I ask myself why I scheduled this surgery. Until I had to climb in the car.

For me, what should have been an early indicator was cycling. Not a sport I did a lot of recently but I would do post-lecture class stationary bike at the gym on the campus until COVID shut us & everything down. I lost the ability to do that rotary motion just about the same time as the lockdowns started and today it is by far the most painful thing for my hip to try. I should have known - that was weird.

I do know a little about Kaiser surgeons in the SF Bay Area, if that's useful.

 

[Gloucestergal65]

@dw152 I was going to respond but having read what @Layla wrote, I think I would have pretty much said the same thing.

 

[Charlie33]

@dw152 IMHO don't make mistake I did and wait too long.. the key thing I've observed reading this forum is 1) the stronger/more active you are going into surgery , the faster the recovery. Many folks like me who waited too long and hit the wall for 2-3 months before surgery (i.e. very limited activity) experience a different recovery process i.e. longer and more frustrating. This has nothing to do with the surgery itself.

Post Op my ROM and muscle shut down was so bad I wondered how it could get better as I waited too long....week after week I'd just think is this the best it can be? Then my right hip started to give out faster than expected around 6 weeks post op. I researched accupuncture, massage, trigger point therapy, went through 2 PT's....some stuff worked, some didn't. But not because of the replacement... this was self inflicted as I waited too long. And I was told you won't get the ROM back....yet Bonesmarters said 'rubbish' and posted evidence it can get better even at a year plus. So, I grinded away and kept at it.. and they were right!

7 months post op? Much much better shape and back to living life, even with a failing right hip. Replaced hip responding to everything I throw at it, but it took more time.

Telling you all this to spare you from what could be a longer recovery process and encourage you to take action sooner. My replaced hip feels 100% natural. Hope this story helps!

 

[trailrunner]

Thanks all!

After feeling so great on Friday just before I made my last post, I did an outside ride on Saturday. It's a shorter, easier route (about 90 minutes) that I used to do in the off season. However, my left leg was aching the entire time. It turned a pleasant ride into an unpleasant ride, and I was definitely slower. Yesterday (Sunday) I did a two mile walk in my neighborhood, and my left leg was stiff and I was walking with a limp. But this morning (Monday), I did a three mile run with some friends. They are younger than me and I ran harder than I normally would, but I felt fine. Go figure.

Yeah, I'm planning on going ahead with the surgery. I'm going to stay as active as I can up until then. I think will help prepare myself for rehab, plus I just can't stop myself. I'll probably swim, bike, and run each 2x a week, with some hiking and walking mixed in there. I have a lot of family activities planned over the next several months which will prevent me from doing this schedule consistently, but that's probably a good thing so I don't overdo it.

 

[Hip4life]

Due to a couple of factors, I had waited way too long and was desperate for a surgery date. Even then, you start to wonder if you're making the right decision. It's a weird part of our psychology. The bullet point is: it won't get better and only degenerate. So, sooner is better. Did you get a firm date for your surgery?

 

[trailrunner]

Due to a couple of factors, I had waited way too long and was desperate for a surgery date. Even then, you start to wonder if you're making the right decision. It's a weird part of our psychology. The bullet point is: it won't get better and only degenerate. So, sooner is better. Did you get a firm date for your surgery?

Your bullet point is the objective fact that I keep telling myself.

I'm still waiting for a date. I have Kaiser, and they are mostly good, but each step seems to take a week or two. I talked to the scheduler last Friday, and she is supposed to get back to me with some possible dates.

 

[Momo Lee]

@dw152 I am 2 days away from LTHR, and I sometimes question whether I made the right decision. At the end of these internal interrogations, the answer is always YES!
I also have Kaiser, and I totally agree about the looooong process. I worked at Kaiser for 37 years, and things have changed. You have to be your own advocate and drive your medical care, because the team doesn’t always connect the dots. Sadly this has become the norm and not the exception.
Stay on top of the Scheduler to ensure you get the possible dates.

 

[trailrunner]

@dw152 I am 2 days away from LTHR, and I sometimes question whether I made the right decision. At the end of these internal interrogations, the answer is always YES!
I also have Kaiser, and I totally agree about the looooong process. I worked at Kaiser for 37 years, and things have changed. You have to be your own advocate and drive your medical care, because the team doesn’t always connect the dots. Sadly this has become the norm and not the exception.
Stay on top of the Scheduler to ensure you get the possible dates.

I try to be kind to everyone, including the schedulers, even when I'm getting caught in the bureaucracy. I grew up in the military health system and I work for the government, so I'm used to big organizations like this. Mostly my issue with them has been confusing information, or a lack of information. But I agree that I need to be my own advocate, and I do have a breaking point. I'm not there yet.

I wish you the very best for your procedure!

 

[Momo Lee]

@dw152 that’s awesome that you are kind to everyone!
May your healing journey be swift and manageable!

Thank You for the well wishes!

 

[trailrunner]

Update since my last post.

Surgery scheduling called me a week or two ago and told me a date had become available in August. If I didn't take that, the next availability would be maybe September or October. I told them I needed to check with my wife because I knew she had a trip planned around that time. When I talked to her, she told me she would cancel the trip and strongly encouraged me to take the August date. That's not what I wanted to hear but she's right. I need to get this over with. I called back and took the date. Reality started to set in. Since then I've been dealing with my HMO (Kaiser) scheduling everything else. I think it's all mostly settled now.

For better or worse, I'm super busy now with work, family, home stuff, and my hobbies. On one hand, this is keeping my mind off the surgery, but on the other hand, I have a lot of things to do between now and then, including a week of travel for work and a week of vacation. Between now and surgery, it's going to be hectic.

I've cut way back on my exercise. Now I'm going two or three days without exercising, which is not something I usually do. The really bad pain went down after I stopped playing tennis earlier this year, but I still have that nagging tugging tightness in my upper leg. Depending on which bike I ride, cycling ranges from slightly to definitely uncomfortable. My run this morning wasn't too bad, and walking is sometimes completely uneventful, and sometimes I'm limping because my leg is stiff. Some days I can barely get my sock on, and I dread putting on my shoes.

I had a dream the other night that I had just finished the surgery, and then I woke up. I reached down and felt my hip. Nope. Sorry.

One lingering question I have is -- how do they align everything? I'm an engineer, and have been thinking about this a lot. I've heard that pre-surgery, the leg on the arthritic side will be shorter than the other leg because of the missing cartilage, and that this will be corrected in surgery. But that's typically 0.25-0.5 of an inch difference over a three foot length of leg. When they reconstruct the hip, they have to worry about the length from the femur to the hip socket, and the angle between the top of the femur and hip socket, both vertical and rotational, plus the angle of socket in the hip. I assume that the implant and other hardware come in different sizes and configurations, but people have a lot of variation in these parameters and yet they are claiming a 0.25 inch tolerance. How do they get the implant in the femur at the right angle? And so on. I have confidence that smarter people have already thought about these things and that it will all work out, but I'm a little fascinated by these aspects.

 

[djklaugh]

@dw152 So what is the date they gave you? We can finally make a signature for you and add you to the monthly roll call for hip replacements.

Your surgeon knows how to get the right length and size of implant to fit your needs. Partially from the exam he did on you and partially from x-rays and MRI (if you had one). Please don't worry about that too much. It really is rare for there to be a leg length differential problem. BUT it is going to feel like there might be a problem right after the surgery - why? Because you've been limping on the bad hip for quite a while and the muscles on the bad side have shrunk while the muscles on the other side have stretched .... so it is going to take some time to get those back to the way they are supposed to be. So no matter how lop sided you might subjectively feel be patient and give yourself time to heal and get the muscles reconditioned. As for getting the implant in at the right angle LOL that is the surgeon's area of expertise!!! He knows how to fit those implants in just as they are supposed to be.

 

[Caison113]

@dw152 — As @djklaugh said, don’t worry about the leg length too much going in. Surgeons are experienced in this and they use the x-rays to align your pelvis which in 90% of the cases, is the reason for leg length discrepancy. Most of us develop a tilt one way or the other due to the hip issues. That will usually resolve itself after the muscles adjust to the new and proper hip.

All that said, it is not unusual to have weird, lingering pains or issues for a while that pop up as your body adjusts. For me, with my second hip, it was the IT band on my operative leg causing issues with my knee. It took a few months to sort itself out with lots of stretching and rolling. Basically my muscles had to adjust to the proper alignment and that was causing the IT band to pull on the attachment point at my knee. Fun stuff!

But all in all, the hip replacement has a high degree of success. Get the surgery and then force yourself to ease into recovery. Don’t try to “shortcut” your process as that can often lead to set backs.

 

[trailrunner]

@dw152 So what is the date they gave you? We can finally make a signature for you and add you to the monthly roll call for hip replacements.

15 August.

Your surgeon knows how to get the right length and size of implant to fit your needs. Partially from the exam he did on you and partially from x-rays and MRI (if you had one). Please don't worry about that too much. It really is rare for there to be a leg length differential problem. BUT it is going to feel like there might be a problem right after the surgery - why? Because you've been limping on the bad hip for quite a while and the muscles on the bad side have shrunk while the muscles on the other side have stretched .... so it is going to take some time to get those back to the way they are supposed to be. So no matter how lop sided you might subjectively feel be patient and give yourself time to heal and get the muscles reconditioned. As for getting the implant in at the right angle LOL that is the surgeon's area of expertise!!! He knows how to fit those implants in just as they are supposed to be.

@dw152 — As @djklaugh said, don’t worry about the leg length too much going in. Surgeons are experienced in this and they use the x-rays to align your pelvis which in 90% of the cases, is the reason for leg length discrepancy. Most of us develop a tilt one way or the other due to the hip issues. That will usually resolve itself after the muscles adjust to the new and proper hip.

Yeah, as I said, I'm confident she will get it right. I was just mostly curious. It's an engineering problem and I like to think about those. As I said, I'm sure a lot of people a lot smarter than me with a lot more experience have thought about this.

All that said, it is not unusual to have weird, lingering pains or issues for a while that pop up as your body adjusts. For me, with my second hip, it was the IT band on my operative leg causing issues with my knee. It took a few months to sort itself out with lots of stretching and rolling. Basically my muscles had to adjust to the proper alignment and that was causing the IT band to pull on the attachment point at my knee. Fun stuff!

Agree with all of this. Cyclists are pretty sensitive to changes in seat height, which affects how far away the pedals are. I've noticed that since I developed this hip problem, my left pedal feels further away, which is one of the reasons I can't develop as much power on that side. It may only be a half an inch, but I can feel the asymmetry.

I mentioned upthread that I had major shoulder surgery about 30 years ago. I think this experience will be comparable to that. I was out of work for six weeks back then. I remember the first week or two were sort of rough, but each day got better. As my life returned to more normalcy, just getting on with normal life helped to work out the kinks, some of which still lingered for a while afterwards.