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scared to death of HRS!

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creblue

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I AM A 58 YEAR OLD WOMAN, WITH NO CARTILAGE IN LEFT HIP AND ALMOST NONE IN MY RIGHT HIP. i HAVE HAD 2 DRS. OPINIONS THAT i NEED HIP REPLACEMENT SURGERY. i AM IN MODERATE-TO SEVERE PAIN. i HAVE NEVER HAD ANY TYPE OF SURGERY OR ANESTHESIA. i GUESS THE ANESTHESIA PART AND THE RISK OF BLOOD CLOTS SCARES ME THE MOST. pLEASE, GIVE ME SOME REASSURANCE, THAT ALL WILL BE WELL
 
Welcome, creblue! So glad you found the forum. There are many, many posts here in the section on hip replacement surgery that should give you comfort. I'm from the knee side, but a good friend of mine recently had a hip replacement as did our neighbor and both are doing wonderfully well. The recovery is not quite as long or painful usually as knees and, from what the "hippies" say, it is life changing! You have done your due diligence by getting a second opinion. Now you need to go for it!!! Don't feel bad about being anxious regarding the surgery. That happens to everyone!! Please read some of the hip threads and post as often as you like here. There will always be someone available to answer your questions or give you support. You have LOTS of good company as you go forward in this adventure.

As far as blood clots go, that always is a possibility, but it does not happen frequently. Heck, you risk a blood clot just sitting still for several hours (like in a car or airplane).....it's something you should be aware of, but not worried about.

Here's your first ((((HUG))))) to get you going!
 
All will be well, creblue. I promise. Read this post How to choose a surgeon and a prosthesis. In it you will find some statistics of how many hips were done in the US in 2004. If you figure that the problem rate of these is around 0.5%, you can see that 99.5% of the patients are just fine.

And you said you aare scared about the anaesthetic. Is that because you have heard some horror stories from other people? Or read about them in papers or magazines, heard about them on TV? Well let me tell you that at no time in our history have there been so many safety protocols concerning all aspects of surgery and anaesthetics and it's the safest it's ever been. You can see from the bottom of my post that I have been an OR nurse for over 50 years and I can tell you, hand on heart, I have NEVER seen a THR patient die on the table or even collapse, not for any reason. Apart from the safety and skills of the anaesthetists and surgeons, patients are all screened and checked to make sure they go into it in the peak of health. And that includes preventative measures regarding clots.

Does this all help? Is there something specific you are anxious about that I haven't addressed?


By the way - would be much appreciated if you would take your caps lock off. It's not easy reading a post that is all capital letters. Thanks.
 
I AM A 58 YEAR OLD WOMAN, WITH NO CARTILAGE IN LEFT HIP AND ALMOST NONE IN MY RIGHT HIP. i HAVE HAD 2 DRS. OPINIONS THAT i NEED HIP REPLACEMENT SURGERY. i AM IN MODERATE-TO SEVERE PAIN. i HAVE NEVER HAD ANY TYPE OF SURGERY OR ANESTHESIA. i GUESS THE ANESTHESIA PART AND THE RISK OF BLOOD CLOTS SCARES ME THE MOST. pLEASE, GIVE ME SOME REASSURANCE, THAT ALL WILL BE WELL

Hi Creblue!

I am a 48 y/o woman and scared to death too..... I am having my hip replaced this Wednesday! I waited too long due to fear and procrastination and the pain level and mobility reached the point where I am equally fearful of NOT having the surgery....so its a draw now.
I know that the pre-surgery anxiety will be much worse than the actual event and recovery, it always is I hear.
I will be giving myself anti-clotting injections for 10 days after surgery as per my OS.
If you get the best OS in your area......the one that does hundreds of hips every year, you can trust that you are in good hands and fear less.
An OS trained in minimally invasive surgery is a plus too.

I can't get those 5 years back that I wasted staying home in pain, while everyone else enjoyed their life, but I am not giving up any more quality of life. It's even worse that being trapped in a bad marriage.
I will keep you updated on how my surgery goes......hopefully I will be back home on Thursday.
 
Welcome Blue! You've certainly come to the right place! You will get your life back!Good luck!!! :)
 
correction *than* being trapped in a bad marriage. (I am married to a prince now, 2nd time around)

Thanks Jo......your reply helped me calm down a little too :) Those statistics are comforting.
 
I'm sure your family would have. loved THAT, Hop!!!! :)
 
I AM A 58 YEAR OLD WOMAN, WITH NO CARTILAGE IN LEFT HIP AND ALMOST NONE IN MY RIGHT HIP. i HAVE HAD 2 DRS. OPINIONS THAT i NEED HIP REPLACEMENT SURGERY. i AM IN MODERATE-TO SEVERE PAIN. i HAVE NEVER HAD ANY TYPE OF SURGERY OR ANESTHESIA. i GUESS THE ANESTHESIA PART AND THE RISK OF BLOOD CLOTS SCARES ME THE MOST. pLEASE, GIVE ME SOME REASSURANCE, THAT ALL WILL BE WELL

Welcome Creblue,

I was 48 when I had my hip replaced and have never regretted it, not for 1 second. It gave me my life back. I completely understand your anxiety about the surgery and blood clots, but it is such a widely done surgery that the OS and hospitals have all bases covered for it to be as successful as possible. Jamie is correct saying you can get clots from sitting too long anyway.

Go for it, get it done and get some quality of life back.

Good luck making your decision and best wishes.

Chris :)

Jo, I had to go with the quote because the last post didn't have a quick post under it. Not sure what happened there, hopefully mine will rectify it.
 
creblue
Welcome to our family
I am 51 and had a hip replacement last June. It is the absoulute best surgery. I love my new hip. You should be reassured that all will be well, but here is one more vote to do it. In your case with that much pain, do it quickly.
We were all worried about anesthesia and the surgery. Jo our wonderful nurse just told how safe the anesthesia is.
Just get yourself a great surgeon and you will be on your way to a great painfree life
Judy
 
Creblue--I'm 51 y.o. and have never had surgery before as well and I'm probably about 2-3 months ahead of you on the timeline. I'm going forward with bilateral THR on April 1. Why? Because I want my life back. And even now, I'm getting excited at the thought of the things I might be able to do again. My wife and I talk about it often and we are planning. For our 6 year anniversary on April 26--that's 26 days post-op, we're going to take a walk around our neighborhood with the dog. This morning, I was looking for something in the basement of the home we moved into 4 years ago and I saw all of the boxes of things representing what I used to do-still in boxes- because I haven't done them in 4+ years: cycling gear, flyfishng gear, hiking gear, camping gear, gym gear, etc. And I became so hopeful for the future that I resolved to do it all again.
So Creblue, take your time, pray on it or just think about it, see another doctor or 2, evaluate your options, read the posts, evaluate the risks because they do exist, think about how fortunate we have been to not have had any surgery or major medical problems before, and think about what life will be like without hip pain.
Good luck!
Tom
 
i GUESS THE ANESTHESIA PART AND THE RISK OF BLOOD CLOTS SCARES ME THE MOST. pLEASE, GIVE ME SOME REASSURANCE, THAT ALL WILL BE WELL

Having reread your post, I think you should know that nowadays it's usual for spinal anaesthetics to be used which are much less problematic than generals where you are totally put out. For this, the anaesthetist puts a small injection in your back and the lower half of your body goes numb. He will then give you a light sedation which means you'll be unaware of anything in the operating room. In fact, you won't know anything until you wake up in the recovery room and then the spinal will still be working for a few more hours so you'll be painfree as well! Has to be said that having the needle in the back isn't the most pleasant experience in the world but many people here have said they didn't think it was too bad and worth it for the post-op pain relief.

As for blood clots, it's now standard practice for patients to be given anti-clotting drugs during the surgery and to have them for a few weeks after. These are very effective and have reduced the incidence of thrombosis to a very low level. However, they do happen occasionally and you should be given information on what to look for. Swelling in the calf is one of the symptoms but it often occurs as a result of the surgery as well, so don't panic about that right away! If worried you can phone your surgeon and ask him. You can, of course, also post here and get some extra info. That's what this forum is all about.

Hope this has helped a little.
 
Being a big tough construction guy, I wasn't afraid at all --- NOT!

I never had any other durgeries either and the thought of them doing what they were planning scared the bejesus out of me. But after doing the math, I grinned and beared it, and glad I did.

The MATH:

I was taking a variety of pain killers to get through my work day and to sleep at night; accumulatively these would eventually do damage to my lliver and kidney's, probably shortening my life expectancy.

I was unable to do things I once loved and some things that I just needed to do as a role-model for my young son.

I was in at least moderate pain most of the time, and severe pain whenever I tried to push myself.

After adding it all up, I gambled that I would get my life back and live longer against a 1/2% chance I could kick the bucket or have some life altering detrimental outcome.

I won, and with odds of 99.5% : .5% you probably will too.
 
,,,,,Sold me, Mud!!!! Isn't it GREAT to just feel GOOD?? :)
 
,,,,,Sold me, Mud!!!! Isn't it GREAT to just feel GOOD?? :)

I does!!!

I'm in Ft Lauderdale this week on biz and brought the wife and 12 yo down for a ong weekend getaway. We played in the surf for hours, something I could not have done before; and all I have to grumble about is a sun burn!
 
I thank all of you who responded.I am so glad for this forum! I have selected a great OS in Houston med. center. I am a "Young" 58-active,small and fun-loving. I am a teacher and need to wait til june1. Will I be able to go on a vacation in July?
 
Depends what kind of vacation and how far. Be a bit soon IMO.

But glad we've been able to help you.
 
Vacation,,,,where????!Blue???
Local? On a plane? Be more specific!!!
 
I wanted to go on a nicew vacation somewhere, maybe a week-10days. on a plane or driving, with lots of stops. No??
 
Can you give it another month? Then you'll be hot to trot!
 
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