A couple of weeks ago it was one year since I had my right total hip replacement. I planned to do a post about it at the time, on the day even, but some bad news at my follow up appointment meant I wasn't quite ready. I wanted to do this post though as it's not very common for people of my age to have a hip replacement and especially to need a double hip replacement, so I wanted to write this for anyone who may be in a similar position to myself.
I had my replacement on the 27th September 2015 and the procedure I had was a complex primary total prosthetic replacement of hip joint with acetabular grafting. Due to the nature of the problem that had caused me to need a hip replacement, plus my other conditions, the surgery was a little trickier than your usual bog standard replacement that your elderly neighbour might have. My main condition, Marfan Syndrome, has caused me to develop a problem in both my hips called Protusio Abetabuli. It's an uncommon defect of the acetabulum, which is the socket that receives the femoral head to make the hip joint. The sockets become too deep and may protrude into the pelvis often leaving people with limited movement. Over time your socket can erode away leaving you at risk of hip fractures and in a lot of pain, my right hip was a lot worse than my left so it was operated on first.
After the surgery I think I was in hospital for about 5/6 days, I'd had 2 surgeries previous to this but they were both spinal so hip surgery was a whole new ball game. There are a lot of restrictions after surgery, using crutches for about 8 weeks didn't bother me but having my movement limited did. Dressing your lower body is very hard when you can't bend your body past 90 degrees! The recovery went quickly once my pain had started to settle though and after 12 weeks my restrictions were lifted and if I didn't have other problems then I would have been able to ditch the crutches too.
I'm a year on now and completely recovered, I don't get any pain in my hip anymore and apart from some numbness around my scar everything is fine there too. I am more at risk of dislocation because of Marfan so I still have to be very careful about bending and since I can't bend through my spine either because of my spinal fusion sometimes it does make life difficult, especially when it comes to washing and dressing. They are the only reminders that I had a hip replacement though and the tough hospital stay and recovery is all worth it now I'm a year down the line.
I recently had a follow up appointment to talk about my replaced hip as well as my left hip which hasn't been replaced yet. Luckily it doesn't need operating on yet, I've been using a wheelchair near enough full time outside my house since my hip replacement due to severe back problems and chronic pain which means that I haven't walked much and thus haven't worn away the remaining bone and cartilage. When I do eventually need my left hip replacement though it is going to be tricky because a cyst at the bottom of my spine has worn away my sacrum leaving it open to fractures so the force of a hip replacement is very likely to end up fracturing my sacrum. As my surgeon said though, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!
As for now though, I'm really happy with how my recovery has been and if you are a young person needing a hip replacement then remember that all the pain and the recovery will be well worth it as soon as you are off crutches, you'll the benefits soon enough.