My right hip was replaced 8/15/2005. Previously I had used a cane to walk more than 10 feet or so. It hurt.

I had seen two MDs and they said to live with it. The third one said - what took you so long? He wanted me to lose weight prior to surgery and I lost about 5 pounds (still obese, but it was a start). The operation was on a Tuesday and I was home the following Tuesday. I had physical and occupational therapy for several weeks post-op.

I have continued to lose weight. The hip gives me no problem. I just returned (about one hour ago) from a walk of about 1.75 miles that took me 25 minutes. If I wanted to (just to show off), I can do jumping jacks with confidence that nothing will hurt.

OK - the big con for hip replacement. Continuing chronic pain that will affect your quality of life for a long time.

Jim

I have bone loss due to needing steroid asthma medication for many years. I'm normal height and weight, but have never been an 'exerciser'.

I had one hip replaced in 2004 and the other in 2008. Very easy both times, although the second result has not been as 100% perfect as the first.

I was up and walking the day after surgery both times. NO pain EVER. (Marvelous drugs these days.) I was discharged to home on Day Three both times.

I could have gone to a nursing home and had rehab there, but my DH is willing, able and retired, and we have a one-floor home. Our Senior Center lent me a 'riser' for the toilet seat, a walker, and a cane. A nurse visited to check my doses of blood thinner. A PT visited to teach me graduated exercises. I did laps around the house and stood at the kitchen counter to do leg exercises. DH drove me to the grocery a week after surgery and I shopped as usual. (We flew to Maui a month after my second hip replacement. I just had to do leg and foot exercises to prevent any blood clots. I had wheelchair service to and from gates.)

I hope I will never need *knee* replacement -- a much more complicated 'hinge' that is a greater distance from one's center of gravity. That's a much more difficult rehab.

When I see people walk, *lurching* in pain as I once did, I want to ask when their hip replacement is scheduled! (I don't, of course. They may have other problems or can't afford the surgery -- Medicare paid for mine.)

Lose the weight. (Not 'an option'.) Get the surgery and don't set yourself up for more pain due to excess weight. There is NO downside to losing, and a big one if you don't. Once you can walk without pain, you can 'walk it off'!

I haven't had a hip replaced but had a total knee replacement of my right knee. I didn't research it very much before hand, and I guess that is a good thing, because after I had it, I was told it is more painful than hip or shoulder replacement. I didn't find it to be painful at all, especially considering the pain I had been in for years. I had it on Feb. 11, and had a walker which I only used a couple of times. In the house I didn't use it...just held on to furniture as I walked around. Within a few weeks I was at an all day mule show and another day spent at a flea market where I walked all day long too. If I needed another "replacement"....I'd get it done ASAP.

I had my hip replacement three years ago in June, Surgery on Weds, home on Saturday. I would have been home on Friday but my surgery was later in the afternoon, so I couldn't start working with PT dept until Thursday AM.

I'm with the others, don't put it off! How much overweight? I am also overweight but it didn't slow me down too much. But some people are much larger. So that's just a individual thing.

My mom had one and we were so worried, she fell and broke hers. She is 92 now so it was very late in life that she had it done.
Her surgery was a breeze and she has blood clot history so they were very aware and careful about that and used the filters.
She did stay at the rehab facility, which I would highly recommend it was so beneficial for her. She was walking the next day with assistance. They had the proper variety of machines for her to do her workouts on and was constantly with someone.
I think that is why she had such a good recovery time for her age. She did very well from it.
Her birthday is the 24th she will be 92. She is not able to walk now unfortunately but has nothing to do with the hip. She fell in the assisted living facility when they were showering her and broke her pelvis.

I think everyone I have talked to that had hip replacement surgery was very happy they did it.

Knee replacement was a much longer and difficult process for the people I know that had it done. My neighbor just had hers done a few months ago and she said it is finally doing good but it still has some swelling. When I first saw her the entire leg from below the knee to her hip was solid purple. I had never seen such a bad bruise.

Raven, I belong to a few FB groups for knee replacements and I feel almost guilty when I post there because I had none of the problems that most people reported. One thing I did though...when I was in the hospital (3 days) and went to PT, if they asked for 20 reps of the exercise, I usually did more...while they were talking to the other people who didn't want to do them or were in so much pain they could hardly participate. Had a little numbness but almost no bruising. My doctor used glue, I guess...some use staples...and my incision didn't go half way up my thigh like some I saw. I don't know if that made a difference or not. I picked my doctor because he was young and specialized in knees. In fact, he only does hips and knees and ankles. I found him on the internet....and I liked his picture. Just looking at him, he looked smart. I bet he was the smartest kid in his class! Anyway, my doctor recommended a surgeon to me but he was an old man and his specialty was back surgery. So I looked around and found the other one.

Yes! You want somebody who does hips, day in and day out. My surgeon practically 'owned' a wing at our hospital. I attended a group meeting with twenty other people a month before my surgery, to hear all about the entire procedure, from surgery through recovery through rehab. I had a folder with a list of items I'd need in hospital and during recovery at home, with names and phone numbers of everyone I could contact for additional help. This guy's staff had crossed every "t" and dotted every potential "i". They'd foreseen *everything*.

Same thing for any surgery. You want the 'master mechanic' for whatever work you need done.

I've had hip problems since I was born with congenital hip condition. Surgery was done when I was a toddler, using bone from the side of my right hip to build up a socket. Over the years, old arthritis sets in to any weakened joint, eating away at the bone. I had my right hip replaced, then the left. Right hip let loose and had to be redone. Some 20 years later, they both needed redone, but I had insufficient bone, as I came to find out that my pelvic bone never completely matured. I had to be completely "rebuilt" using bone from the bone bank in which the surgeon "carved" sockets for me. This bone was attached with screws and pins to my exisiting pelvic bone. The old stainless steel parts were replaced with titanium parts. Each time I was in a body cast all the way down to my feet. I pray these will last me until my death, but.....if I would have to have them redone, I would, as I want to be able to walk. I do use a quad cane for balance. As it was, I was headed for life in a wheelchair. My surgeon said it was the "surgery from he$$" but he did an excellent job. Now here in GA my orthopedic doctor is a younger man who was "taught" by my surgeon in Ohio.

I don't have a weight problem...just the opposite...I'm really too tiny, but I do urge you to lose weight. The less those parts have to carry around, the longer they will last. Wishing you a successful surgery.

Marilyn you need to talk to my husband next time we get together! He needs to have his knees done, one was broken in a car accident and never healed right. He is so worried about the recovery. He wants to wait till after retirement.

Dear Mr. Ravencajun -- Younger patients heal faster than old ones.

I won't harp at you about losing weight, because I know how hard that is and many people won't or can't. The most important factor in hip replacement is an experienced surgeon. I know many people who are overweight, obese, and normal weight who have had their hips and/or knees replaced and wished they hadn't waited so long. I don't understand Jim's comment about continuing chronic pain because the goal is to get rid of that pain. Do your PT afterwards and you will have a better result.

I think Jim was saying the 'con' (against having the surgery) was the choice to keep living with the pain.

A clarification on pain. I have zero pain in my replaced hip - mostly. Sometimes, when the weather changes (a front passing through), I get a bit of discomfort.

I do have meralgia paresthetica as a result of the positioning on the table during surgery. One of the first things that I recall as a conscious thing after surgery, was the pain in the thigh of my opposite side. It is still there after 9 years. Lots of licensed professionals have addressed the situation, but none were able to eradicate the pain in my thigh. Pills, salves, PT, epidurals, and shots directly into the suspected source of the pain. Nada!

I did ask the surgeon about his experience with hip surgery (he did not operate on knees). He indicated that he did about 4 per week for 23 years (a lot changed in those years he related). He retired about 12 weeks after he took my money!

I am scheduled to have my right hip replaced on Sept. 22nd, Dr. said they will have me walking the same day and I can leave the next day. I will need rehab and will probably stay at rehab for a few days, then I will continue as an out-patient. I actually went to see the Dr. about getting my right knee replaced but after checking the x-rays he told me that I should have the hip replaced first, I have more pain in the knee but the Dr. knows best.

I'm probably older than Raven's husband...I am almost 68. Raven, I would just tell him to do the exercises. That is what everyone told me before hand, and that is what I did. They had me walking the halls at the hospital and kept telling me to slow down. I was determined I was going to get better and I was diligent about the exercises. They want a 90* bend the first month (I think). I had 111 the first time I went to PT and 130 my last day. My doctor had one patient that had surgery the same day I did, and she wouldn't even get out of bed to go to PT. I don't know how old she was but I got a glimpse of her and she was a lot younger than I was, but she may have had other issues. I don't think the pain was that bad. This is the best advice I can give anyone having joint replacement surgery....take the pain meds. If they tell you to take them every four hours....do it. Even if you think you don't need it, because if the pain builds up because you didn't take them, it is much harder to get on top of it. So be sure and take them for at least the first month.

Oh, and Raven, my doctor is Kenneth Brooks. He is with UTMB and Herman Memorial Southeast...which is where I had the surgery. They just had that hospital completely remodeled and it is rated among the best in the state. I know driving out this way (towards Galveston) is a drive for y'all, but I'd recommend Dr. Brooks to anyone having that kind of surgery. I had injections in my knee before I had surgery....went through a bunch of stuff...injections, pain meds, brace, etc. before Medicare would pay for it...and I was told over and over how painful the injections in your knee were. I honestly didn't feel them. I asked him...."I have always heard how painful these injections are and I hardly felt that. Is that because you are super good at giving them?" and he said "Yes" but I don't know if he was kidding or not...I just know it wasn't painful at all.

Wishing you well. These stories must help your worry!

I know a few people who have had both hips replaced and they are extremely happy. One could hardly walk a block and now he is out on the golf course all of the time. I wish you luck.

I had my right hip replaced in 2004 and mr left knee in 2011. Both surgeries were successful, although the knee was much more difficult. I was almost compulsive about PT. I always did more than I was asked to do. Even today, I go to the gym 3x a week and ride the exercise bike and do the knee and hip exercises shown to me in therapy. I walk on the treadmill there and walk 4 miles a day on my non- gym days. I feel as though my surgeries were a complete success. I chose my surgeon very carefully. He was recommended by my primary care physician and several people who had good outcomes with him. I found out later that he replaced Johnny Bench's hips!

I had both hips and a knee replaced. First hip on 2008, done by a recommended surgeon....who I would never go to again or recommend to a dog! He put in the joint on the wrong angle, made me about an inch too long and damaged a lot of nerves, so now I walk with a limp so can not walk but a few feet without pain...end of him!

In 2009, the knee was done by a different surgeon...got along great! In 2010, that same surgeon did the other hip...piece of cake. Since my reactions to narcotics make me terribly ill, I did the entire surgery with only a spinal block...I talked to the surgeon through surgery...hearing the sawing and hammering...I told him that if he doesn't make it as a surgeon, he would make a good carpenter! The results of those surgeries were so good, I even forget they are not my own.

Do your homework in picking your surgeon...are hips/knees the only surgeries he does? How many does he do in a year? Go on the net and read reviews about him. Do your exercises BEFORE surgery...this helps build up muscles you will need and you will be ahead of the game.

Good luck...if done right, you will not regret it.

It is with some reluctance/(trepidation?) that I join this discussion, as my information is second-hand, very incomplete and relates to experience in this/another country than that experienced by most responders, several years ago.

I spent a couple of months with old uncle, in the house where I now live, about twelve years ago, following the death of his second wife - no children from either marriage.

He'd had three hip replacements, being mainly of the left hip, and I don't recall, if I ever knew, whether one may have been of the right hip, about 14 and more years ago, but think that they were all of the left hip.

Don't know of what the timeframes may have been between the operations.

He had ongoing pain in back, hip and leg, had used a walker for some time, and when I was with him used a cane.

He, a keeper of beef cattle over many years, had cattle in his barn needing care and when his wife was there, if he didn't return from chores in an hour or so ... something started happening. But following her death, if he fell into a snowbank in February (the month that she died) ... we were pretty sure that he'd be able to extricate himself ... but, to be safe, I spent a couple of months with him, until his cattle went to pasture.

We used to kid him that he should get rid of the cattle, as he was well off, didn't need the money and when he said that he'd got rid of most of them, our reply was that he still had to go to the barn whether he had 2 head or 35! The trouble is ... that many old farmers a generation ago, having retired and moved to town, spent a while talking to their fellows mornings in the coffee shop ...

... and six months or a year or so later ... turned up their toes and died ... not having other than one string on their lifestyle violin.

I don't recall, if I ever knew, whether they were all done by the same surgeon, or how the referral(s) happened.

I know that he felt, almost certainly with a measure of justification, that a poor job had been done. As I know that many who have had hip replacements are able to do pretty well as they wish, and seldom if ever with any pain or discomfort.

ole joyful

P.S. Spell check doesn't like my "snowbank": let me reassure them that there is such a thing (at certain seasons of the year - in our area)!

It doesn't mind "joyful" ... but sort of gags at the "joyfuelled" variation.

oj