Total Hip Replacement Surgery with Spinal Anaesthesia / Epidural - My Experience

Thank you all for posting about your experiences. It's really helpful and reassuring to be forewarned of what lies ahead. Had not heard about spinal vs general. I'm 58 and last summer finally put on a waiting list for right hip replacement that may happen this autumn/winter. Deteriorated since to bone on bone & too painful to walk far now (& find a stick hinders) with Paracetamol before trips out & nightly. Left hip worsening to compensate. Menopause symptoms still too. Keep moving & cheerful anyway.

Hi @Whiskey26, I has my right hip replaced on 3 Feb and left hip replaced on 22 Apr, this year. Both were done with spinal and sedative. With the first, I was out like a light and woke up in the Recovery Room afterwards.

With the second, they altered the ‘recipe’ slightly as my BP was very low for a few days after the first op. It took a little longer for the spinal to work and I woke up 2 or 3 times during the op, spoke a few words with the anaesthetist, couldn’t feel a thing or hear anything awful!

Let the anaesthetist know your worries, they will do their absolute best for you and don’t want you to be anxious. Good luck.

Hi there,

To those who have had a hip replacement, what sort of levels of activity are possible after the surgery? Would it be possible to play football again for instance? I know that it was a very recent operation for some, so not everyone will be able to answer that yet

Hi @Izzypeach I haven't had an orthopaedic assessment yet, but like you, I have no doubt that I will spend the whole appointment in tears. Fear of the unknown I guess. I don't fancy a general anaesthetic and therefore, I'll probably ask for the epidural and also, to be very heavily sedated. Don't get me wrong, this scares me as much as a general anaesthetic, but my way of thinking is, I've had two epidurals when I had both of my daughter's and I felt nothing, so it can't be any worse, can it????? I'm just trying to get my head round that when the time comes, I just need to focus on the hope that I will be pain free eventually and my dream is to walk without a stick.

Hi@pmas thanks so much for explaining your experience. It's fear of the unknown for me, having never been in hospital for anything other than childbirth. I will need heavy sedation I think, just to make sure I can't hear or see anything. Whenever my time comes (I'm not on the list yet) I will just have try and think that the outcome will be so much better than my quality of life right now.

Glad you got sorted out in 3 months I’ll be waiting 4yrs on a hip so it gives me a bit of hope seeing others get there hip done.

Going in for left hip replacement on 30th july, golden wedding anniversary! So family party not happening. Had right one done10 years ago and been very successful. I did all the exercises as prescribed and followed instructions rigidly.

To those anxious about epidurals/ procedure I would say think about long term gain in quality of life. You already know that everyone is a bit different. Think positive.

I would suggest remember not everyone has a speedy recovery. Dont push yourself to keep up with what you hear othets have been able to do. Your surgeon, physios and your own body should be your guide. As for driving- I could not drive for about 3 months. It is vital to be able to do an emergency stop and if you do have an insurance claim driving when jot properly fit to do so can invalidate it.

Hi all I had my first hip replacement on 23rd of June, ( due to have second one around 6 weeks time), I also have epidural and something to make me unaware of what was going on, it all went fine thankfully, I will say day 2-5 was pretty awful for me anyway but from day 5 onwards I felt great improvement daily, I can now feel the difference in my left leg that horrible arthritic pain has gone which is fantastic and my mobility is greatly improved as I could barely take a step beforehand, I do just take things daily, as its not even been 2 weeks yet but for anyone in my position who has 2 bad hip's bone on bone the relief from first surgery is emmence, I Had been in such a bad way mentally and physically with horrendous pain 24hrs a day I can honestly say I'm starting to feel human again, more myself as every minute of my day is not consumed with pain

Lorraine

Thank you @C1955J and everyone in this thread for sharing your experiences. I found this thread after googling personal experiences, as I'm going in next Friday (4 Aug '23) for my hip replacement under spinal anaesthesia. I'm 42 and my hip has deteriorated from Perthes disease in childhood. I can still walk reasonably well and only use a stick on longer walks (20+ mins). I have to stand up slowly and stretch my hip (painfully) before I can walk. Some days are good with minimal pain, and other days the ache is terrible and goes down the length of my leg. I don't know how I managed Download Festival this year but I did! The heat seemed to really help as did using a walking stick. However I can literally feel my hip getting worse month by month so this replacement is happening at the right time.

I'm also very anxious about having surgery under spinal but I think I would be equally nervous if I was having it under general, but the quicker recovery is my goal. The personal experiences shared here are definitely helping to quell my nerves a little, but I'm sure on the day I'm going to have a bit of a cry when I go in. I'll be happy to come back and let you all know how it goes.

Thanks @Ellen! I'll check it out :)