Hip Replacements, Anyone?

[Ron Carlton]

I've wondered about the minimally invasive total hip replacements. Seems like a good way to go...less surgical trauma, non-weight bearing for 6-weeks. Roughly 2-inch incision.

For the most part elective hip replacements do very well. I have about 14 years of experience rehabing patients with orthopedic surgeries working as a physical therapist in the acute setting.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I've wondered about the minimally invasive total hip replacements. Seems like a good way to go...less surgical trauma, non-weight bearing for 6-weeks. Roughly 2-inch incision.

For the most part elective hip replacements do very well. I have about 14 years of experience rehabing patients with orthopedic surgeries working as a physical therapist in the acute setting.

I asked my guy about that. "Some people have started using that procedure. I'm not not of them." But this guy and his team were organized like a NASCAR pit crew. I was very impressed wtih the discipline and efficiency in the OR. He does many hunderds per year.

My hat's off to people in your profession too, Ron. My PT was a talented young woman, kind of slight in stature.......but she brooked no crap. Period. I was bored silly, of course, and was taking a prohibited extra lap or two around the wing with my walker, rounded a corner and there she was with a knee patient. I stopped cold - she says "you are so busted. I'll be in your room in 5 minutes and you butt had better be in bed."

Threatened to confiscate the walker and have a catheter put back in, ratted me out to the surgeon, ratted me out to my wife. After that, I did my best boot camp imitation "Ma'am, Yes Ma'am" for another day and a half - she'd just give me a teriffic smile and say "Damn right!!.'

[Ernie Nyvall]

Tom, my oldest brother is in his 60s and had a hip replacement. Not sure how long it took, but he's out playing tennis every day.

I just had my left knee replaced in December, and it is coming along well. My brother told me "DO THE EXERCISES THEY GIVE YOU EVEN BEFORE THE SURGERY". I did, and I am doing much better than people who had their operation 2 months before me. I was not the exercising type either, and it's not something ya really feel like doing, but the problems you can have if you don't scared me so bad that I did everything they asked. Anyway, because of the exercising, I was walking a mile/day 2 weeks after my surgery without the walker, and I never went to a cane like they said I would. Now I walk 2 miles/day with no limp, although it does take a few steps for me o get my mind around NOT limping. I think part of that though is because I had limped for 2 years before the operation.

I am still sore, but the joint is smooth, and no pain from that part at all which is where all the pain was before the operation.

One thing to just get set for is that Physical Therapists are EVIL.

[John alder]

Im 72 and have had knee pain for several years,a year ago my doc put me on fish oil and cq o 10 pills.I dont know if one or both worked but I can now go up and down stairs without pain.

[Don Bergren]

My mom had her hip replaced on December 21st. She is 83, has pretty much dragged that leg around for close to two years, and came through the surgery great. She went in for surgery at 1 pm on a Monday and was back home the following day at 3:30 pm. Living two hours from the hospital, it was 24 hours from the time she entered surgery to her discharge from the hospital.

The day after surgery she was using a walker and could get out of a chair better than she has for a few years. She got in and out of her chair a lot the day after surgery. She used a walker for one week, then went to a cane. At the end of two weeks she was given the go ahead to drive if she felt like it, but she waited much longer before driving. By the third day after surgery she was already in the mode of running her kitchen and preparing meals, doing laundry, and other things. Since the surgery, we have someone come in and vacuum, dust, and wash the floors, but that will end soon.

Physical therapy has been done twice a week right at home, and a checkup with the surgeon on Feb. 12th will determine if she needs any additional therapy. It is now abut six weeks post surgery and she walks normally, but still uses the cane outside due to conditions underfoot during the winter months of Maine.

The surgery was minimally invasive and lasted only an hour. They call it "the 24 hour hip" She went into the operating room at 1 pm and the surgeon was reporting the success of the surgery at 2:15 pm. The single incision is only about three inches long, and her hip pain was gone when she awoke from the anesthesia.

The key is to follow the advice of the therapist and do the exercises faithfully. She still has sore muscles in the leg as she continues to build up the strength that was lost over a few years of not using them. Honestly, the worst part of it has been the lame muscles she has dealt with as the therapy has gone on. But that pain has been nothing compared to the hip pain. The hardest thing is to give up her old habits of favoring the leg, limping, etc.

She has had to get into a new mindset and realize that now she can do the things she couldn't before. A big help is to have a family member act as a coach and tell her to walk normally when they observe her using an old and now unnecessary habit. The mind has to learn that the body is now healthy.

She still is in the healing stages, but that is only the muscle lameness at this point. She drives, cooks, does laundry, and lives a much better life than before surgery. She feels like she has been let out of a prison of pain.

She will be having the other hip replaced later this year, and has no reservations about doing it. She expects her recovery from the next hip surgery to be much quicker as that hip isn't bothering her that much at this point. She had been told four years ago that she needed her hip replaced, but only did it when the pain became too hard to bear. The hip to be done next is nowhere near as bad so her body will be strong going into surgery, unlike the first time.

[Tom Winship]

Well, I got it done last Thursday and came home Sunday. Will be on home healthcare for a couple of weeks then to outpatient Thursday. Have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, especially with the comments from many of you concerning your personal experience. I think I will wait and see how recovery goes before I commit to doing the right hip as it isn't bothering me that much.
Thanks again,
Tom

[Robert McGowen]

Good luck with your recovery, Tom!

[Michael Weber]

Wife had both knees done. She always gets frisked in airports and she looks about as unlike a mad bomber as anyone could. Also, she just returned from Washington DC on some education business and she was frisked at the entrance to every building she entered that had metal detectors. One guard ask her if she had been frisked before, she just rolled her eyes and said "Oh yes".

[Kent A Bathurst]

Best wishes. The PT is important, and in my case and yours, a literal PITA.

I have my "gear" decorating a far, unuseable, wall in the shop - the 3 stages of recovery - walker, crutches, canes........ Am planning on never taking them down, but you never know......Oh - I also have a strap-on walker boot from a subsequent broken foot - labelled Das Boot.

Am sure you will be delighted with the results in a very short time.

[Jason Roehl]

My FIL had his hip done a few years ago after changing docs--the original doc was focusing too much on his knee problems, which went away with the new hip. He's a beef-cattle farmer, and the doc said he'd be lucky to get 15 years out of it, so the doc didn't want to do it. But, at the time, he was about 55, and he told the doc that most males in his family don't live past 65, so he didn't figure he'd live long enough to wear it out. They did the surgery.

I think that everyone I've talked to with replacements are happy with them--if they did ALL the physical therapy. Those who aren't, didn't.

Also, from my FIL's experiment, take whatever pain medication is necessary for you to get moving. Movement is the key to healing, and he didn't want the pain meds at first, and couldn't even sit up after a day. They finally talked him into some pain meds and had him up and walking within hours.

[Mike Archambeau]

Tom; here's hoping you have a fast recovery!

[Leigh Costello]

Tom, Good luck and have a speedy recovery. That is one thing my ortho didn't get to do for me before he retired. Drink your milk and do your therapy. Have a great spring!

[John Shuk]

My mother in law had both hips replaced. She felt better immediately after the first hip and couldn't wait to get the second one done. She gets around just fine now with no problems.

[Bill Cunningham]

My knees don't bother me at all no matter where I'm walking, in the bush, on a sidewalk, up a hill or even crossing a plowed field, but they made me give up my love of back country Canoeing. After paddling a canoe for a few hours, my knees are simply in agony trying to get up and out of the canoe again. I'm 63, and I can't see this getting any better. My kids were getting worried with me spending 8-10 days solo Canoe camping, and although I still have my Canoe, I miss the camping trips. I bought a bigger canoe (24' 260 hp, sleeps 4) but it's not the same.. Replacement knees would solve the problem, but I doubt if the doctors would allow me to do it seeing I have no other problem with them.. It's SUCKS to get old!

[Tom Winship]

Well after being out of the shop for almost 3 weeks, I ventured out yesterday to make a cane out of a scrap piece of mesquite. Started plaining it round and the the sounds of the shavings were sweet. Healing is more than just skin growing back together. In a few weeks this will be just a memory.