How long to wait before THR

Cosmic_Babe

hello I’m new and have been diagnosed with OA in my left hip. I’m 44 and have been managing this for almost 2 years. I have been told today my hip is that of a 65 year old and should look into getting the surgery. However my question is; how long would you wait? Or can I wait? What happens at the worst and of the scale? Currently I don’t need to take pain meds and I can still walk fine and go to the gym. The thought of surgery is horrible.
thanks

Anna

Hi @Cosmic_Babe and welcome to the online community,

It’s a very personal decision about when it’s the right time to consider surgery - it will be interesting to hear how other members have determined when the time is right. Generally, the things to think about are how much impact the pain and stiffness is having on your daily activities, whether you’re no longer able to manage the pain using other options such as painkillers and exercise and you’re finding that this is having a detrimental affect on your quality of life.

If you want to read about how to manage osteoarthritis in your hip, I’ve posted a link below:

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

Do let us know what you decide,

Anna ( Moderator)

Fran54

@Cosmic_Babe

I found that my quality of life was gradually decreasing day by day as I found that even walking up the road to post a letter or walking round the supermarket once a week was such a drain on my energy and mobility. I was always quite active with walking and gardening and in the end I could not even do these for long without hurting the same day. I was taking Naproxen but that was getting less effective. Also my mental health was worsening and affecting my relationship with family turning me into a grumpy woman. It gets to the stage where I said enough was enough and spoke to the person from MSK who set the ball rolling for me to get my hip replaced.

Now it has been 5 months since my right hip replacement and I am so glad that I had it done as I feel like a different person. There is no pain and I am gradually getting back to doing more and being more active. I have been able to get out and do more walking now than I had been able to do for a couple of years. I don't think anybody likes the thought of surgery which is quite a major thing to be done. But it is definitely worth it.

I hope that I have been able to help answer your questions. Take care🙂

Cosmic_Babe

thanks you this is very reassuring