I am noticing something of a trend going on in these forums. In the two years since I first started reading these boards, we skewed toward people in their 50s and 60s. We had a sprinkling of 40 somethings, and an even tinier handful of "youngsters." At least that's how I remember it. But now it seems hardly a day goes by that we don't have a new poster in their mid-30s or 40s.
Our youngest posters....20- 30 somethings usually have had some kind of congenital issue or disease, or perhaps accidents that have created conditions where a THR is the optimal solution. The decision to go ahead is perhaps a bit easier...whatever the reasons, lives have been deeply affected. Pain is crippling. Plans for a future are on hold.
For us older folks, the decision is also easier. Often we have seen a gradual descent into a loss of mobility and accompanying pain. Our doctors may have told us earlier on that we should wait as long as possible, so our new hip would not wear out before we did. But here we are in the magic age range....old enough to probably need only one go-round, and young enough to withstand the rigors of surgery. It's really a no-brainer, although many of us in our 60s realize after-the-fact that we wish we'd done it sooner. Sometimes you don't realize how much you've lost until you get it back.
But for a variety of reasons, there is a larger population in their 40s now who are finding out that they have serious hip degeneration. This is occurring at a time when medical technology has turned THRs into an assembly line procedure. It's still major surgery, but the complication risks are pretty small, and the end results are usually pretty terrific. It's also a time when the results have a pretty good chance of lasting a lifetime, so the earlier arguments for waiting are no longer valid.
Twistycap, as you can see from other posters, you are indicative of a growing group of hip patients trying to make decisions about a condition that is not life-threatening, and has not yet become debilitating. The key question for each individual is how much is too much? How much limping is acceptable? Knitter4444 said it...limping is not normal. It is a sign that there is a problem. It's a problem that only gets worse. How much soreness is acceptable? How many activities that have to be modified, or given up entirely, is acceptable? Crippling pain makes it easy to decide, but when the pain is tolerable enough that we can still bumble around, we tend to put up with it.
But here's the thing. We seem to want to justify our decision to get the THR. Oh the pain was unbearable....I got to where I couldn't stand in line at a movie without pain....I couldn't get on the floor to play with my kids/grandkids...these are valid justifications. Here's another very valid justification....I could see the handwriting on the wall and I wanted to get it done while I still had good health otherwise. Or...I am in the peak of my life and I want to maintain that for as long as possible.
TC, take all the time you need to make this decision. Eventually, you'll know what to do. Something will change, or your thinking will change, and you'll know you're ready. The surgical assembly line will be ready whenever you are. If you live in an area where waiting lists are long and can take many months, it doesn't hurt to get on a waiting list. It also doesn't hurt to cancel....someone out there is wishing for a spot to open up due to a cancellation. You just keep your options open until it's clear what you need to do, and when you need to do it.
Sharon
New Zealand
