had my right hip replaced in june, 2000 and my left done 5 months later. i was only 49 at that time but had been suffering from osteoarthritis/bone on bone pain for many months and thankfully my ortho doc agreed THR, while not normally done on a person my age, was the only way to go. it was a LOT different 23 years ago!! i had 13" incisions and was 100% non-weight bearing for 6 full weeks. these days, they have you up training for the boston marathon the next day! 😂

there was a complication during my first surgery wherein the titanium rod that was being placed into the femur bone went in "crooked" (no idea exactly how something like that happens but it did). my surgeon struggled for an hour to straighten it. since that didn't work, he ended up having to cut the bone lengthwise, reposition the rod, then wire the bone back together. what should have been a 90 minute surgery ended up being 4 hours but it all worked out in the end.

my left hip, done 5 months later was a textbook surgery.

i go for yearly xrays to make sure everything is as it should be. so far, so good! i'm now looking at right knee replacement sooner rather than later and i'm dreading the recovery. i've been bone on bone for about 7 years now. every time i see my doc for my hip checkup, he asks when i'll be ready to do my knee. i tell him i'll be ready for that when they do it via a drive-up window.

it took about 6 months to fully heal from THR but i was back in the saddle (literally) and never looked back.