Anyone had hip replacement surgery? Come and tell me about it.

[ApolloandDaphne]

After an x ray I have had confirmation that my hip is a mess and hip replacement is probably on the cards. I really want to be pain free and able to walk and kneel and do normal things easily but i feel a bit anxious at the thought of the operation and recovery. I'd like people who have had this procedure to tell me their experience. Also how long was the NHS wait? I could go private. Thanks.

Nothing on waiting lists but my dad fractured his hip being stupid in 2006 aged 73! 20 years on replacement still going well!

Oh yes. DM was on a 9 month waiting list to see the surgeon for an initial appt, after which she’d have gone on to his 9-12 month long waiting list for surgery. She paid privately and saw him in 3 weeks, op 4 weeks later. Would have been sooner if I hadn’t been going on holiday! S Yorks.

i had two years of pain before surgery and was on the waiting list at an NHS hospital with no idea how long it would take. The wait was 42 weeks after seeing the consultant but no indication of how long that would be. I was 68 when I went privately. I had a very supportive DH. The hip pain went immediately but I found the post surgical pain a problem for the first month.
i bought a huge wedge pillow from Amazon and used it for about 2 months.
I really liked my leg lifter and had a frame for the toilet.
i got back to the gym after 6 weeks and was quickly back to normal.
My right leg (bad hip side) is still weaker than my left but I'm working on it. I can do anything I want to now. My other hip is fine.
Good luck

I've just had an appointment to see a consultant in around 6 weeks so that seems excellent given some of the wait times I've seen on this thread. Either my health board is very efficient or my hip is very bad!

Sorry for hijacking your thread OP, but can I ask you all how it all started out?

I have pain in my groin that sometimes takes my breath away. It started 2 years ago but doesn’t last - a few days at a time and I manage it with pain relief. It’s back with a vengeance again and I’m aware that my gait is altered to compensate. I’m 52.

My DH had his done in January. He went privately through his work health care.

He found the ice pack with a strap to hold it in place very useful for the first couple of weeks. The toilet seat riser was also very useful. We had a child home from uni for the first few weeks of his recovery which took some of the pressure off me as I work full time and we have a younger child.He took the full six weeks off work and was assiduous about pain relief and physio.

I've never had pain in my groin. It reall started as impingement, as in I couldn't rotate my hip and my muscles were very tight. The pain is on the outer side of my hip and then if I do too much the pains shoots down the inside of my leg. So it is a combination of deep aching and shooting pains plus tightness. The physio deals with the muscles tightness which helps. The pain is always there at some level. Sometimes my whole leg gives way which is disconcerting. I'm constantly testing it before I commit to stepping fully on it. I have a persistent limp now.

That's exactly how mine started and at the same age. I paid private physios £££ over the years as they all told me it was groin strain. I finally got a replacement age 60. I should have had it done a good few years earlier if not for the mis diagnosis.

Go to your GP and they will send you for an x-ray.

You will make things much worse and damage other joints by over compensating to avoid the pain.

Thank you @hippieHips and @thenightsky
Hope you get sorted OP. It must be awful for you.

I got an appointment through for my pre op anaesthetic assessment thing. The consultant said it was about six weeks from there to the op. It’s a bit sudden, I’ve only been on the list a couple of weeks. 😬

I have had both hips replaced, in 2024 and 2025. In both cases I was home the day after the op, managing stairs etc and coping on my own. Friends helped by doing my shopping and laundry for the first few weeks - when I had the first one done I was told not to bend forward more than 90 degrees. I slept a lot, but did not take any painkillers once home and was merely uncomfortable. Discomfort was due to swelling during the healing process and quickly subsided.

It”s been an absolute godsend. I am fully fit, hiking, swimming, exercising etc. I feel decades younger.

My DM has had both hers done, one posterior and one anterior. The anterior was amazing post op as the recovery time was so much shorter and pretty much pain free, she was walking without crutches within a few days. She did need more physio around the operation site. She was on crutches for weeks with the posterior method and she was in a lot of pain initially. Both were completely successful long term.

My tip is to carry one crutch or a walking stick with you even when you've stopped actually needing it to walk, it stops people from bumping into you when you're still a bit fragile.

i had pain in my groin for no reason. Went to a physio, had a couple of sessions, and he said I needed a consultant…. Hip replacement it was. I was 41. Very successful.

Hi @ApolloandDaphne , I had my right hip replaced in October 2024. It was almost a year from my first raising hip pain with my GP. In England there's a 'treatment pathway': GP visit, xray, then MRI, then 2 physio appointments several months apart to see if that eases the pain enough, then surgeon appointment (when I was actually added to the waiting list), then pre-op, then actual op.

I only waited about 4 months after my first appointment with the consultant until I had the op.

I did my physio exercises every day, to help strengthen muscles around my hip, to aid recovery.

For the op I chose a spinal block then full sedation, as I didn't want to come round in the middle of it!

I was really worried there would be a lot of post-op pain, but there wasn't much pain at all. I had some pretty strong painkillers but only used them for a couple of days.

Physio came to see me a few hours after the op, got me up and walking using walking sticks, walking down the corridor, and then up and down some stairs.
I opted to stay in overnight, so went home the day after.

All the equipment i needed was supplied free by the NHS.
As well as the higher loo seat (with a metal frame I could hold on to), I also had a commode (only one loo, on the top floor with the bedrooms) which i used on the living room floor. Sock thing, grabbers, long shoe horn also v useful.
We also had a riser chair, which was perfect for my recovery - i could nap in it easily, which i did a lot the first few weeks! I was very tired, couldn't concentrate to read very much, so watched TV and dozed/napped.

It's important not to go past the 90° with your hip for at least 6 weeks, so they would have supplied special cushions if my sofa or chair weren't the right height.

I was dreading sleeping on my back, but actually got used to it pretty quickly, and had no problem sleeping through the night, even after daytime naps.

I also did my physio exercises religiously several times every day (including the laying down ones). It's SO important.
And walked a little bit every hour, just around the room if there was no one to take me outside.

Top tip #1: I became terribly constipated, despite taking laxatives prescribed by the hospital, and drinking water. I left it too long before ringing my GP and getting a prescription for more powerful laxatives, so had a few days of feeling very uncomfortable.

Top tip #2: most consultants recommend not showering/keeping the wound dry for 2 weeks (to avoid water-borne infection) - mine said to wait for 4 weeks. He had an extremely low post-op infection %, so i figured he knew what he was talking about! So I had strip washes for 4 weeks.
No infection ✅️

Good luck!

If anyone is interested I saw the constant orthopaedic surgeon today. Hip replacement is go! The wait is 7 months which will be fine and he said I would be a day case. I'm both terrified and excited. Maybe I will get my life back at last.

Hi @ApolloandDaphne .

I'm so glad for you that you're officially on the waiting list 🥳

I was a day case too, although I did end up staying one night, at my request. I wanted to feel a bit more able to cope with stairs (i live in a 2 storey town house).

Good luck!

I had my right hip replaced with a spinal anaesthetic and a sedative. I woke up pain free. The next day I was dressed and walking on crutches; the next day I learnt to walk upstairs and then on the third day I went home. The worst part was having to sleep on my back for 6 weeks.I had no pain after the operation at all. Occupation health came to the house before the operation and raised the level of my armchair - you have to have a chair with arms. They lent me a perching stool and raised both loos and put bars round them. You can’t bend or twist for 6 weeks so it’s important to buy a grabber for picking up what you drop. I used a small rucksack and brought things downstairs in the morning and stayed down and then took it back up at night. I had to wear compression stockings for 6 weeks and you need to have someone who can change them for you as you can’t bend. All in all, this was a pain free op and I regard it as a miracle op.Oh - do go to physio and make sure you do the exercises. I have never worked so hard. I also had some aqua therapy. Good luck

My 82 year old aunt had it done a couple of months ago. Out of hospital the next morning walking with a zimmer, encouraged to use the stairs and keep moving. She was a bit whacked out on painkillers and slept a fair bit for a few days, and couldn’t drive for a few weeks (you have to be able to do an emergency stop) which was the biggest issue for her.

Great news OP.
I’m 7 weeks post surgery today and currently on holiday. Having zero issues walking around and even managed to sit in a low chair on the beach.
My biggest tip is to do all the physio and rehab religiously. It makes a huge difference.

So, as above DM had her done 12 weeks ago yesterday. The surgeon warned her that the first two weeks would be awful and they were. DSis moved in with her for 3 weeks and did everything - cooking, cleaning, dog walking, obviously, but also helping her into the shower, making sure she took the right medication at the right time, making sure she did her exercises, helping her to walk a bit every days, helping her in and out of bed, changing her surgical stockings every day (it was really warm at the end of April! ). DSis apparently was very strict on the exercises, but it has paid off hugely! By the time DSis went home, DM could mostly look after herself, with a freezer full of meals DSis and I had cooked, done steps into the bath and the help of a dog walker.

3 months down the line DM is like a new person. Completely pain free. Sleeping better. Walking the dog a couple of miles every day. Driving. Going further afield on the bus. Has joined U3A and is making loads of new friends. She’s working up to getting the train to London to visit old friends. We have to remind her that the rest of her is still 83! It’s astonishing how small her life had become.