Total hip replacement, 3 weeks on

PeterJ

Hello @nannanorman and welcome to the community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that that will be your experience as well.

I understand that you have arthritis in your hip and are having a replacement on the 15th Dec. Hopefully it will be a good, early Christmas present. Our website has a lot of useful information as does the community and also a good search facility and is worth a look around. To help I've put a couple of links in below which may be of interest.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/surgery/hip-replacement-surgery/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/osteoarthritis-oa-of-the-hip/

I hope it all goes well and please do keep posting and let us know how you get on.

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)

RogerBill

@nannanorman Glad you found some of our postings helpful. I hope your operation goes well. In the meantime I'd urge you to do whatever exercises you can manage, make sure you have bought any bits and pieces you need and, if you need to, practice tackling stairs with crutches. I'm sure all this helped my recovery and confidence.

I think it'd be useful if Versus Arthritis posted some "case studies" on the website from people who have had hip and knee replacements. Like you I found searching through this forum was really useful and I think a few "case studies" would make it even more so. There needs to be a number to illustrate the variety of situations as everyone is different.

PeterJ

See

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/your-stories/natalies-story/

There is also Louise's story in

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/your-stories/

but we are always looking for more, so let us know if you want to share your story

RogerBill

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/687578#Comment_687578

Hi @PeterJ I'm more than happy to share my story. It's just over nine weeks since my hip replacement operation and I think it would be better to wait a few weeks longer so as to provide a more complete story as at present I'm still recovering.

Coddfish

@nannanorman I hope your operation goes well. Obviously people’s experiences will vary quite a lot. I am conscious my recovery has been easier than many and am glad to be a beacon of hope. Be aware recovery isn’t linear and there will be days that feel worse than others. Try to look at the week by week changes, I promise they will be there, even if they are small at first.

Coddfish

My new hip is 3 months old tomorrow and I notice it less and less each day. No pain. Limited reliability on aids (still can’t quite cut the toe nails on my right side, but no longer need the sock aid to get socks on). Walking range pretty well unlimited, general fitness coming back pretty well. Sometimes I think I am one of the lucky ones, as I had very little pain right at the beginning, and have had a pretty well seamless journey. At other times I think it’s because I have worked on it from day one. I really don’t subscribe to the view that resting is a good idea, and I do strongly believe in glute bridges, clam shells etc. Others can make up their own minds about the right way forward, but actively pushing boundaries has worked for me.

Anyway, it’s time for me to move on. Thanks to everyone whose comments have helped and good luck to everyone with their journeys. I am not likely to check in quite so often from now on as I think it’s time to stop thinking of myself as someone who has a replacement hip, and just think of myself as someone with an excellent hip.

Blondie

Hi I had my left hip replaced 3 weeks ago, I could barely walk and hip and knee were so painful I didn’t sleep much either. Despite this I was dreading the operation as I am 75 and live on my own and I was worried how I would cope. Plus I have back problems and knew I would have to sleep in my back which I find hard. The operation went well, I had an epidural and sedation, I was up the next morning and climbing stairs in the afternoon. My daughter came and worked from home so I had help to start with and you definitely need that but I have been in my own for a week now and I am managing well. The was worried about stairs but they teach you have to do it safely. I am getting myself simple meals and best of all that awful nagging pain has gone. I ache after my walk and exercises but it’s nothing like the pain I was in before. I had minimally invasive surgery and my wound is small and well healed. If you live in your own and are worried please be assured you will be able to cope but you need to get prepared. You will need help for the first couple of weeks, I know it’s not easy to organise and not everyone has family who can stay but accept any offers of help offered. Make sure you have the equipment you will need. I have a seat over the toilet and a perching stool in the shower which means I can manage a shower in my own now. I have one grabber upstairs and one down and I have the empty laundry bin next to the bed so store my crutches in to stop them falling over. It is not easy coping on your own and I do get very tired as everything action has to be planned but hopefully in another three weeks I will be walking unaided and will be able to drive. I hope this helps anyone worrying about coping in their own.

PeterJ

Hello @Blondie and welcome to the Community. We are a friendly and supportive group.

I understand that you had a left hip replaced 3 weeks ago and that the recovery is going well. Great news and also some good advice in your post about being prepared and also being prepared to ask for help. I hope that you continue to go from strength to strength. Our website has a lot of useful information and I would recommend having a look around. to help I've put a couple of links below.

The recovery bit of the following might be of interest:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/surgery/hip-replacement-surgery/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2021/november/ways-to-help-manage-hip-pain/

Please do keep posting and let us know how you are getting on and I hope that you continue to make a full recovery.

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)

Coddfish

It’s a while since I have posted. On the hip front, everything is great. I would say that somewhere in the 4-6 month post-op period, I had made a complete recovery. I am running really, really well, much better than I have for several years. I can tackle hilly hikes of the sort I had been avoiding for several years. I have no pain, I have a full range of motion. 

Unfortunately life has a bit of a habit of coming back to bite you. An abnormality on my routine mammogram in January turned out to be breast cancer. Early stage but a very aggressive subtype. I had a wide area excision and sentinel node biopsy 3 weeks ago and the surgeon was happy it came out with clear margins and that the lymph nodes were clear. I have yet to meet with the oncologist to discuss the benefits and risks of chemo, and I definitely need a course of radiotherapy. Whilst I have every hope that treatment will be successful, it’s thrown a curve ball into my life. I am quite grateful I am not trying to navigate my way through this with an arthritic hip. As one bonus, the surgery didn’t worry me in the slightest having had a hip replacement last year, and the recovery was no issue at all. Back to running 2 weeks post-surgery wearing 2 sports bras, and back in the pool for the first time today with a sports bra under my costume. 

So for anyone wondering whether to get surgery now or later, do it now, if you can. For anyone wondering whether they will “wear the implant out’, don’t worry. You only have one life. Enjoy it. None of us know how long we have left.

stickywicket

I'm so sorry to read this. Your THR went so well and you must have felt 'fixed'. If it's of any help at all, I had breast cancer a few years after my two TKRS and before my THRS. That was well over 20 years ago. My lymph glands were affected but, due to the arthritis in the shoulder, they could only get 3 out and couldn't manage radiotherapy. However, chemo sorted me out and I've never looked back. I hope, whatever route you go down, it will be as successful and you can get back to enjoying your new hip. I'm sure you'll give it your best shot.

Bella59

I wish you well in your recovery from breast cancer.Your hip replacement has been a great success well done.I myself had first hip replaced six months ago it has been a success.Last Tuesday I had other hip replaced still in pain but it will ease, bruised a lot more this time.I have to wear compression socks for six weeks and use injection nightly to my abdomen to reduce risk of dvt.Hopefully this hip will turn out as good as first one.Best Wishes.

Coddfish

Thanks @stickywicket and @Bella59

Lilymary

So sorry to hear this @Coddfish , but amazingly I've just been through the same almost to the letter, (apart front the great recovery from THR, which I’m very pleased to hear has gone well for you). Almost 6 months to the day post THR I had the same diagnosis and same treatment. I had the same WLE surgery in November, same outcome, and I've just finished a course of 5 days radiotherapy. They decided chemo would give so little additional benefit (in my case reduced the risk of recurrence by less than 1%) I didn’t need it. As you say, after THR surgery, the breast surgery was a piece of cake.

The thing that upset me most was that it might set back my very slow progress with my new hip (which it has, a little) but as I need further treatment to sort the hip out which will be another 20 week wait, it probably hasn’t made much difference. Feeling pretty tired after the RT 3 weeks on, but they say that can last 4-6 weeks. I take the view they found a bit of misbehaving flesh, cut it out, chucked it in the bin and fired radiation at me to give it a good kick up the u-know-what, now on hormone pills, getting back on with life. I was back at work 2 weeks after surgery (only because the anaesthetic knocked me sideways) and worked on and off during the RT, and was back at work part time 3 days after the course ended. I know so many breast cancer survivors, who have been so matter of fact about it, and supportive, that I think I rather surprised some people how relaxed about it I was. I’m pleased to hear you’re getting back on with life too, I’m sure this is the best way to deal with it. Don't let it break your stride xx

RogerBill

Hi @Coddfish Sorry you're having to face this setback. I did things the other way around!!! I had prostate cancer a few years ago and then a THR last September. I understand breast and prostate cancers are similar although the operations are obviously very different. But in both cases survival rates are very, very good if treated early. If you're going to get cancer it's one of the best types to get. Clear margins and lymph nodes is the absolute best news you can have after a cancer op. Your recovery from the THR operation was much better than mine, so with a modicum of luck you should continue with your good recovery from your cancer treatment.

Coddfish

Sorry to hear of your similar history @Lilymary and glad you have got through the treatment. I think chemo is more likely in my case as I have grade 3 triple negative breast cancer, so despite being small, clear nodes etc, it’s got a high chance of recurrence and it doesn’t respond to oestrogen or human growth blockers. I had an easy time of the surgery (as I did with the hip) and only had to halt my running for a couple of weeks. All the best in your continuing recovery from your hip.

Thanks @RogerBill, I think I had seen you mention your prostate on an earlier post. Survival rates are pretty good but unfortunately I have the most aggressive and least treatable form of the disease which also has the poorest prognosis even when caught early. One day at a time. I don’t think it can set me back on hip recovery because I am fully recovered, but I am still working to rebuild fitness and chemo will drive a bus through that.

Lilymary

I’m sorry to hear that @coddfish. I was luckier, mine’s hormone reactive, so the hormone pills should keep it at bay. I hope you get better news soon, and that you get all the support you might need. xx