My left hip has severe OA with no virtually cartilege visible on x-rays. My orthopedic surgeon strongly recommended I have a total hip replacement this summer. He has already successfully operated on me five times (2 carpel tunnel releases, arthritis-related thumb fusion, ganglion, and rotator cuff tear) and has an excellent reputation.

However, when he told me all the things I would NEVER be able to do again after the hip replacement ... such as: cross my leg, sleep on my side with my knees drawn up, sit on the floor, sit in the bath, lift my knee to tie my shoe, and so on, these restrictions seem so limiting that I am having second thoughts.

My current symptoms are not that awful -- practically no hip pain although I do have nagging pain from around my knee and running down the front of my leg toward my ankle. I walk with a limp, mainly because my leg is shorter from the loss of cartilege (I wear a shoe lift but I can't get the height quite right) but otherwise I have no difficulty getting from Point A to Point B.

I think I would rather manage the pain I now have (which I do semi-successfully with prescribed pain medications) than lose my ability to garden, to play on the floor with my dog, to dress myself in socks and shoes, to clip my toenails, to take a bath, to turn when swimming laps, and to do probably many other things that probably haven't occurred to me yet.

Would I be foolish to cancel the surgery until I have more symptoms? Am I risking greater problems in the future by putting it off? Does anybody have any experience either way?

FYI, the surgeon only does non-cement replacements.

Thanks for any guidance

Welcome to our board, omaggi. If you follow the thread with 5 stars named 6 months after hip replacement, you will discover a wealth of info on THR and recovery spanning several months. There are alot of posts, but you can skim along and read what interests you. I was a ballet teacher when I had my hip-replacement 10yrs ago. I was back to teaching at 11 eleven weeks and eventually back to all normal activities. Your Dr sounds like he is being way too negative. I do anything I want from bike riding, hiking, swimming, etc. You do have to be very careful the first year for the body to heal and the implant to totally stabilize, but as time goes by, you will be able to do so much more. The bad hip will NEVER get better and you will be dealing with pain. After the THR, if all goes well, the hip pain will be gone. You will just be dealing with recuperation. There are certain angles and movements that you have to be careful about, but as time goes on, you will get stronger and adjust. Read that thread and you will learn alot. Good luck and keep us updated....balleteach

HI...and welcome to the board omaggi. I had my THR in January and it was one of the best things I ever did. I know you said you aren't really in pain, but if it is arthritis it will just get worse and worse. ONce you do get that pain it becomes totally unbearable and the surgery will become something to look forward to. I am really happy that I did do it...the pain is gone and I am on with my life. I have posted alot and as balleteach said, you can go back and also check my posts. I am back at the gym, also do lots of walking and I am looking forward to an Italy/Greece vacation with no worries. Last summer I went on vacation and was miserable the whole time and was constantly looking for someplace to sit down. I am now 56 and I felt like I was 90 years old. Good luck with whatever you decide...and don't forget to visit here often and ask lots of questions. There is always someone here who can answer your questions...and you will be surprised how helpful this can be....we have all gone through similar things...

Hi all and welcome omaggi!!! I don't have much time but I did want to say that I sit in the tub and on the floor!!! Don't sit with my leg crossed or cross legged on the floor however, but couldn't do it before the THR!! :) Took me 8 months to get down into the tub and floor, but my Physical Therepist showed me how to do it.

I will definately come back to this thread this evening.....

Hey omaggi,

Well now I can finally post with some experience. I have only been here to ask lots and lots of questions, but now that I have had my surgery, I can tell you how I feel about it.

Like you, I had practically no cartilage in both my hips. For 2 years I have tried just about everything to delay surgery. Now I think it was foolish.

I just had both my hips replaced at the same time 11 days ago. One thing that the dr told me was there was a lot of bone loss also, which does not show on mri as much. As it was, he had to use a screw on the left socket since there was not enough bone left. So waiting ended up costing me that way. There were also a lot of bone spurs that had to be removed. All this meant a much longer surgery (over 4 hrs).

The only restriction that is lifetime according to my hospital is sitting with your legs crossed, which is a bad thing anyhow. The rest comes back slowly. And as we have all learned from balleteach, we must have patience:) My dr even is ok with me running again in the future.

After bilateral replacement, I was home in 2 days and recovering wonderfully. I did have a huge setback when the hospital found that the wrong ball was used in the second hip and I had to go back the following week to have it changed. Fortuantly that surgery was much faster and easier.

All that said, at 11 days from surgery #1 and 3 days from #2, I can not believe what I am already doing! With no pain, mostly just some stiffness. I am really looking forward to what I can do again now. And if I had waited much longer, there may not have been enough bone to have this good a result.

Do some research online. You may even need to find a different sugeon. I can highly recommend finding one that can do a minimally invasive procedure. There is a big difference in the skill levels of surgeons for hip replacement and the outcome can be very influenced by that.

Only you can decide what is right for you, but for me, I sure wish I had done this 2 years ago!! Good luck!

Morning everyone!

I wanted to pick up where I left off yesterday.

I will admitt. It did take a long time before I was comfortable "trying" to take a bath, kneel on the floor, sit with my dog and play, etc. But I did it and without pain. I learned how to do it without putting stree on the new joint and it's really fine. I clip my own toenails now, put socks on without the aid. I actually do the same things I did prior to the surgery; just more slowly and carefully. I will admitt that I have to discuss one thing with my dr. When I bend from the waist down, when I get up it's a little painful in the thigh area. Am I bending "too" far over????

Personally I think the longer you wait the longer the recovery could be. That's my opinion. Why don't you talk to another doctor and get another opinion. Talk to some PT's and OT's also. They were VERY important in my recovery. Let us know what you decide and if you have any more questions ask away!!

Welcome Omaggi...
I had all your concerns beforehand and sometimes I feel like I did the THR too soon. It was painful and ached but the real reason I did the THR was to get back the freedom to play with my son and participate in the family again. I am only 46 and had mine 6 months ago. I can do pretty much everything I could do before the arthritis now (but some things you have to be careful about). The careful means that you do it a little slower and try never to jerk into a stretched position. However, I can get on the floor (I do Pilates that is up and down and all sorts of positions and I find that I can do most all positions that I have the strength for). I have done gardening (I really love that) all day long on several occasions without feeling any pain that day or even the next day. I will say that instead of squatting to weed as I did when I wanted to get a quick weeking done, I have to kneel instead. But, that's better on my back as well. If I want to bend over I just stick my THR leg straight behind me and bend the other leg to get down. This was difficult to get used to at first, but I do this all the time now.

I think you need to get as many opinions from doctors as possible. There are all kinds of doctors out there with different philosophies about rehab and limitations. My doctor never says that I SHOULD bend past the 90 degrees but he says that he has a patient that has done the yoga lotus position without any problems. I think every person is different and neither us nor any doctor can say exactly what the surgery will yield as far as restrictions later. What we CAN say (and do all throughout these posts) is that without the surgery you will only get worse. The pain will be greater and the flexibility and quality of life will be limited. For some reason, when a joint gets arthritis, the human body does NOT heal it. It knows there is a problem and the reaction is to stabalize the joint with bone spurs. Eventually the spurs can grow into the joint and 'freeze' it. That is why it feels so good to take all that out and have your freedom again. Just one more comment... I have been told that the longer you wait, the harder it is for the surgeon to smooth out the joint and the more damage you do to your existing joint. It's important to be as healthy as possible for the surgery and to have as much muscle before you go in. When the arthritis gets too bad, you don't exercise as much and you tend to get out of shape. I suppose if the surgeon is good that would not matter, but it is something to consider nonetheless.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I hope you find some peace and comfort in our sympathies. It is hard - no one can deny. But, if you have patience and prepare yourself with as much information as possible you can get through this. Keep asking as many questions as you can think of and read all the posts in this section. We are all here as resources for you. Good luck! :wave:

Hi O'maggi: I'm with everybody else, surgery was the best thing I did for myself. I am sorry I didn't do it sooner. I never had a lot of pain but I could no longer get up and down from the floor as I had no strength in my right leg. Now I can get up using either leg. I could no longer put my socks on unless I backed up to the bed and laid my leg on the bed so I could reach behind me to put the sock on. I can now get my right foot up to my knee and put my sock on with no pain. I just never knew what pain was until after the surgery. I had pain every day but just buried it. It is wonderful to get up pain free every morning. The only thing I don't do is cross my leg. I had surgery in December so it has been 5 months. Your Doctor doesn't sound very encouraging. Talk to other people who have had the surgery and check up on your surgeon before you go through this.
Nancy E

Greetings to you all. I just got back from two hours of swimming with my grandaughter...sooooo much fun. I love to swim in the summer and I know it is great exercise. I'm glad the "hippie hipsters" are posting alot. It's fun to hear about the progress you are all making. I'm glad we are able to be of help to the newbies. Pretty soon you will all be "old" veterans like I am. Talk to you all later...balleteach

I'm new to message boards, so I'm not sure exactly how to thank everybody who replied to my original message, but I do want to send a big THANK YOU to Balleteach, MrsLinda, silver515, Ripanco, hip2it and Nancy E for taking time to write and for your helpful information. You've persuaded me to go ahead with the surgery as scheduled, and I feel a lot better having come to a decision. Thanks again!

[QUOTE= I will admitt that I have to discuss one thing with my dr. When I bend from the waist down, when I get up it's a little painful in the thigh area. Am I bending "too" far over????

QUOTE]

Try holding something, a chair or countertop, for balance and as you bend over lift your operated leg up behind you. This changes the 90 degree of your bend to a safer position for your hip. Just make sure you keep your balance.

Can anyone explain why you can't bend forward after THR? That sounds horrifying to me; I stretch that way every single day, and could not go painfree without that stretch. I understand a little "stiffness" would occur, but why so drastic a reduction in being able to bend forward? Thanks.

Qweeneev....its me again:). the restrictions are only temporary! They are to reduce the risk of dislocation after surgery when your muscles, tendons, ligaments have been damaged by the surgery and they are not as able to hold the joint in its socket. The restrictions only last for 6-12 weeks, depending on your type of THR. I can already touch the floor bending forward, almost with flat hands. It still feels good! There are only a few lifelong restrictions, mostly not crossing your knees, but most of your stretches will be fine.

(I see you are purusing all the threads today...)

Ah, that is so nice to know! I don't care about the crossing legs thing. I haven't really been able to do that in comfort anyway, due to the angle of that bad hip, so not a big deal! I always cross with the other leg, which is double-jointed (or dis-jointed, I suppose).

Well, the downside of postponing it is you're not getting any younger, so why spend more time in the discomfort that I know (from experience) you must be in or will be in. I assume you suffer from osteoarthritis and that condition just doesn't get anything but worse and sometimes rather rapidly. I'm a veteran of two hip replacements.

I looked at your list of the things that your surgeon has said you'll never do after THR.
"cross my leg, sleep on my side with my knees drawn up, sit on the floor, sit in the bath, lift my knee to tie my shoe,"

So now I must ask you, can you cross your legs comfortably now, lift your knee to tie your shoe (what's wrong with sitting down and putting on a shoe?). Is crossing your legs (I couldn't do this for years before surgery and can't do it now. So what?) The bathtub part - in the short term maybe, but some truly dedicated-to-tub-bath folk figure it out eventually. I don't happen to be one of them. Nor do I understand telling you you can never sleep on side with knees drawn - again, in the short term certainly. But there is such a thing as recovery and return to a pretty normal life. I sleep on my side all the time now with a knee drawn up to my chest. Where did your doctor get this stuff?

During the weeks and months following the surgery, yes, you will definitely be given restrictions about position and movement. But these things don't last forever and I think you may have misunderstood your surgeon's meaning or he/she is terribly conservative and doesn't want to promise you anything except maybe relief from pain.

In addition, you say: "lose my ability to garden, to play on the floor with my dog, to dress myself in socks and shoes, to clip my toenails, to take a bath, to turn when swimming laps, and to do probably many other things..."

This just isn't true. Where did you get these ideas? I do all these things (except I don't have a dog to play with or a pool to swim in and I got out of the tub-bath habit when my arthritis was so bad). It has been 3 years since my THRs. I am going tomorrow morning to walk a 7-mile hiking trail after which I will probably go out and pull some weeds in my garden.
Last week I cut and buffed my own toenails. This morning I put on socks and tie shoes all by myself.

Granted, it took many months for me to be able to do these things. It was hard work to get strength and some flexibility back. I was terribly debilitated from years of arthritis. I am now in my 60s and I will never be as agile or flexible as I was when I was 30. That's a given.

I waited so long to have the surgery that I couldn't take a step without a cane. I waited too long and lost a chunk of living because of it, quit my job and essentially my world got smaller and smaller. That is my only regret because in hindsight I consider the procedure a real life-changer.

Finally you say that you aren't in very much pain and have no trouble walking (except you limp?) so maybe it is too soon for you. Or maybe your symptoms and disability aren't limiting you significantly yet. When they become so, you will know.

In reference to Tobias2's post: I cut and buffed my own toenails

I still find it very difficult to reach my toes, and since I live in sandals during the summer, and want my feet to look pretty, I have been getting pedicures. They are wonderfully relaxing, a great way to pamper yourself........I have become addicted and am pretty sure I may never be *able* to cut my toenails again! :D Hey, I'm worth it! :)

hi

i had a hip resurface done instead of a total hip replacement cos im nly 25. it means that the ball of my joint is metal and the socket. in about 25 years i will need a full replacement. i assumed the resurface had the same bad side effects as the full replacement but seeing as how i couldnt sit n the grounda nyway or tie my lace i didnt think i was missing out on anything anyways so i went for it. when i decided to go for it i asked my doc all abut it and he said i should be abe to do normal things, just will take a while until my leg is that strong again. my point is, i would do anything to make my hip pain go away. yeah i cant sit on the ground, so i will sit on a bench instead. yeah i cant cross my legs, so i can crossmy ankles instead.
you just have to look at t he positive side. the surgery has changed my life. i cant believe im not in pain anymre