Hip replacement

[DaisyGivemeyouranswer]

Hello! After a long and painful 10 years, I am finally getting a hip replacement 🙌🏻

I was just wondering if any of you that have had this could give me any advice?

I have my pre-op at the beginning of November, and highly suspect it will be before Christmas - so I'm looking for stuff that was useful if you had the same procedure please.

TIA 😊

DM (83) had a hip replacement 6 months ago. An MNer recommended a book called “Hip Expectations”, written by an orthopaedic surgeon who’d also been a hip patient.

DM lives alone and DSis moved in for 3 weeks post op. DSis ensured that DM took the right drugs at the right time, did her exercises, ate well, changed her surgical stockings etc. DSis became a very efficient, no frills, low sympathy nurse, but DM recovered very well. By the time DSis went home, 3 weeks post op, DM was completely independent apart from getting stuff in and out of the washing machine and walking the dog. Her physio and surgeon were very surprised and very pleased with her. Do the exercises!

The first week post op was pretty awful.

Follow the physio’s advice on standing and sitting and how to sleep in bed, and do the recommended exercises frequently and without fail. Do the injections and wear the compression stockings. Get plenty of sleep for the first few days.

The pain of surgery is more than compensated for by the fact that the pain in the hip joint has gone. They sent me home with Tramadol, but after taking one dose which sent me completely gaga, I never took it again, and found that I was fine without painkillers.

i was walking with a frame within eight hours of coming round from surgery, climbing stairs with crutches after 48 hours, home after two and a half days, went to (and enjoyed) a Christmas party on day 4, could walk a mile with a stick after two weeks, and was back at work without any aids, including being on my feet a lot, within 5 weeks. That was 11 years ago, and I’ve never had any problems since. And because I can walk (and cycle and row) properly now, the niggling inflammation in the other hip disappeared, so I haven't needed to have that one done.

Get a toilet seat riser for every toilet - you don’t want to be on the wrong floor and bursting for a wee when it might take you a few mins to get up the stairs.

Congratulations! I am in daily agony and struggle to sleep because my arthritic hip is so painful. GP has only just agreed to refer me, so I guess I am looking at a year until operation? Would you share how long you had to wait?

It is really interesting hearing how people coped. I’m single and live in a house with no downstairs loo and no handrails on the stairs so I am pretty worried about it all.

I had no downstairs loo. No problem - I was taught how to navigate stairs without pain before I left hospital.

Did you have a handrail though? I am being advised it’s a problem…

No, just the wall. It really wasn’t an issue at all. I lived alone, so no-one to prop me up. One hand on the wall, one hand on a crutch going up, then bumped down on my bum, with the surgery leg extended and the other supporting me down.

My DH is 54 and had one last November. The post op was much less traumatic than I/ he was expecting. He didn’t take any of the codeine they gave him at home and was able to move around pretty quickly. He’s now back playing hockey and pain free. The physio offered by the NHS is pretty basic and his physio gave him lots of exercises and checked on progress regularly so I’d recommend that if you can afford it. Good luck!

My dad (80) had a hip replaced last year and literally overnight went from being completely housebound unable to put any weight at all on his leg, to doing a slow but steady lap of the ward with his walker. Utterly life changing for him.

Advice from us would be to defo get a riser for your toilet seat, do the physio like it’s a religious practice…and in the first few days, if you’re prescribed pain meds, take them.

Pillows and loads of them for getting comfortable in bed. Grabbers dotted around the house.

I was in bed at home upstairs the same evening.

DM had a hip replacement several years ago. She said the relief from the hip pain was indescribable and that the recovery from surgery was absolutely nothing in comparison to the agony she was in before. She recovered very quickly. Physio and mobility aids / toilet raiser etc help recovery. Good luck OP I’m sure you’ll feel amazing afterwards!

Wow, thank you all so much! This is all such great advice, I'm really grateful.

I'm bricking it, not gonna lie, but the idea of being out of this constant pain is powering me through.

I'm 56, and I've had this for more than 10 years, it wakes me up every single night, and now I have to walk with a stick. I hate it.

@cartagenagina
This has been going on for so long, my advice to you would be to get the wheels in motion asap. I've had massages, sports massages, physio, acupuncture, steroid injections and none of it has worked. It's probably the last 18 months that I've really put my foot down. If you'll pardon the pun 😉

I had a hip replacement age 25 due to displasia, best thing ever. Get up and moving asap, and do all of the physio. Also take the pain relief you need. For getting in and out the car, I put a plastic bag down so that it's more slippery to twist around.

Mine is over 10 years old now and still the best thing ever. I am very careful doing the movements they advise against (crossing leg across) but other than that it's not stopped me doing anything and most of the time I forget it's artificial.

Hope it goes well!

I'm on the waiting list for a hip replacement. I cannot wait to be pain free.

How long since you were put on the list @ApolloandDaphne? Do you have any idea how much longer? I hope you get your op soon.

Solidarity to all those suffering.

I was pretty well bullied into doing something by a group of friends who nagged me to see the doctor about it, having kept putting it off for a few years. I was 55 when I had mine done, after about seven years of increasing pain and decreasing mobility. By the time I had the op, my hip joint was completely collapsed, so I had bone rubbing on bone every time I moved. I couldn’t turn over in bed, climb stairs, or sit down without intense pain.

Waking up from surgery was like being reborn. Although the operation site was a bit sore, the hip pain was completely gone. I was way more mobile than before surgery within four weeks, and more or less normally active within two months. You will look back and wonder why you were so worried, I promise you.

Practice the post op exercises before you have the op. that way you're not learning something new as well as coping with your recovery.

If you have to sleep on your back afterwards and you don't normally, a v shaped pillow is very helpful.

I found a big cross body bag great for carrying around phone, litter picker. and other stuff that I would normally carry around but couldn't manage with crutches.

I had a couple of private physio sessions pre and post op, they weren't essential but they gave me a lot of confidence and helped me progress much faster afterwards. Recommended if you can stretch to it.

Went on the list in July and they said 7 months so hopefully around February. This is fairly short what time compared to some hospitals. My hospital has a very new orthopaedic unit and they have worked hard to get the waiting lists shorter.