New to site.Many questions

[bigtoe]

I had the typical groin pain a year ago and was diagnosed with bilateral hip arthritis. The typical osteophytes, subchondral sclerosis and joint narrowing. I had blown my left knee and my right ankle and have mild arthritis in those but never had any trauma to my hips. If I'm 43 now, how long ago would this degeneration have started , and how long before I need to consider hip resurfacing ? I'm at the point where it hurts every day. The feeling is like the hip bones are bruised. Celebrex numbs it to the point where it feels like groin pulls again. I'm 6' 5" , 230 lbs and played volleyball since I was 14. I feel a little cheated that I was never told this was the possible outcome of my years of pounding the hard court. This while my couch potato friends may have good hips until their eighties!
My doctor called my status "mild" however even though I have a huge pain threshold  it hurts like heck. I'd hate to feel it when its "severe"  Should I consider doing this sooner rather than later?. I hate taking Celebrex because of its bad track record with heart disease.

[dw]

Hey Toe - I'm 44, and had my right hip done new year's eve. It wasn't near as bad as some folks (check out some of the x-rays posted on the site!) but it's up to the individual. I couldn't do some normal daily activities - range of motion was very bad, and pain afterward. I'm still recovering, and getting stronger, and the actual joint pain is gone, so that's a relief!

When we're young, we feel indestructable, so even if someone had said, hey quit doing x and such or you'll pay for it down the road, we probably wouldn't have listened. I attribute my hip problems to many years of b-ball on concrete and other courts. Things just wear out.

[skyc6]

From what you are saying, I would say it is close to time. If your Dr. disagrees, get a 2nd opinion. Life is short!  Go for it!

[Pat Walter]

Hi

You do need to consider that some people have a lot of hip deterioration and not much pain while others have lots of pain and not so much deterioration.  So only an experienced hip resurfacing surgeon can tell you when the time is right.  You need an x-ray for the surgoen to view to tell what is really going on.  You can actually wait too long and miss the window of opportunity to have a resurfacing. Since you are younger and active, you would not want to do that.

So my advice is get some input from a really experinced hip resurfacing surgeon - not a local orthopedic who does not do resurfacing.  Look at my list and see who might be near you.  Many people have to travel to use the best surgeons.  Some like Dr. Gross, Dr. De Smet, Dr. Mont, etc will give you a free consultation via email if you send them an email with your x-rays in a digital format as a .jpg  http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php

So don't let your pain be your only determining factor as whether you need a hip or not.  Many of us waited a long time since we did not want THRs and did not know about resurfacing or it was not approved in the US. I went to Belgium before it was FDA approved in the US.

Stay in touch and ask questions.  THere is a great group of support folks here to help you out.

Pat