Left Hip Resurfaced 3/16

[Danlalane]

HUGE thank you to Pat and all the posters who share their stories, videos, blogs, posts and whatnot. I wouldn't have had hip resurfacing without this site or the advice.

After a three year battle with OA of the left hip and PHD level research on THR and all the resurfacing options, Drs, and devices I finally moved forward. On 3/16 I went to the HSS in NYC(I live in Boston) and had Dr. Su perform my procedure. I had X-rays taken several times over the three years and I went from a little cartilage to none, it is eerie to watch your joint decompose before your eyes over time. Some of my background is in other earlier posts so I won't cover that here (I am 48 yrs old, etc). I also won't go through excruciating detail on everything because having read almost all the stories they follow very very similar trajectories. I will try to highlight lessons learned and things for folks following me to consider that may not have been said.

On 3/15 I picked up my very gracious sister at Boston Logan and brought her to my house to watch my two teens so my wife and I could travel to NYC. After a nice easy 3:45 drive and a wonderful pre-surgery high protein Poke bowl in Wilton CT (off the Merit) we arrived at our hotel on the upper east side near HSS. The nurses called that afternoon to let me know my surgery would be at 2:00pm on 3/16. BTW: the chaplain of HSS called too to discuss pre surgery jitters, give me a blessing, and help calm my mind (nice touch).

Morning of my wife and I woke pretty early and had an intense workout in the hotel gym, interval sprints on the treadmill (I ran like it might be my last), 150 pushups, 3 minute plank. As soon as we got back HSS called and said my surgery was moved up to 1:00pm, and how soon could we get there? I quickly showered with the pre-surgery scrub brush/iodine and we walked the 28 mins (18 blocks) to HSS (Cause I could).

HSS is awesome. They get the #1 orthopedic hospital in the world for a reason, and it isn't just the lowest infection rate. All the staff and nurses and processes were fine tuned and I could tell improved on constantly. Everyone I met said over and over, "Oh you are having Dr Su, you will be great. He is the best". I know there are also other great resurfacing Drs, I met them ALL in my due diligence. It does help to put you in the right frame of mind for EVERYONE to endorse 'your guy'. The staff also said that not only is Dr Su outstanding at the procedure, cup placement, etc he is VERY fast. And his speed makes recovery easier. Since the shorter you are open the better.

I went into OR had my spinal block and was out. I woke in recovery mostly numb from the waste down and not feeling any pain. I wasn't particularly drowsy or and didn't have that post surgery haze you sometimes get. I think the anesthesiologists at HSS are great and in general all have come a long way. Because my surgery was so late in the afternoon and because we were in a hotel a mile away HSS let me have the option to spend the night. Which I did. Spending a night in the hospital is good and bad. HSS is great about rounds, vitals, keeping IV going with goodies for hydration, pain, etc. I did have a roommate that couldn't sleep and was up watching TV and turning lights on at all hours. Yipee :) Pain kicked in early AM after being in bed for a long time. I opted not to have a morphine shot because I wouldn't have been released the following day. I did some breathing and the scale of 1-10 pain of an 8.5 came back down to a 4-5. Oh and I have read about people not being able to go Pee, no issues there. Filled a bottle a couple of time no issues.

The next morning my wife picked me up and I was discharged. Because my sister needed to return to her life I had the unfortunate reality of needing to dive from NYC to Boston the day after surgery. No way to put it, it sucked. Painful. Stiff. You feel every bump, every sway and turn. Longest 5 hours of my life. We stopped a few times so I could stretch but that stinks too. Oh well, we made it and I was home that night.

From there my recovery is similar to others, off pain meds third night, etc. Here are some high points:

1\I rented a Golden lift chair at a medical supply place for $200 for the month. Worth it! I plopped it on the first floor near a bathroom and I slept and sat in it to rest the first week.

2\ Raised toilet seat is a must, I also HIGHLY recommend a Tushy (Cheap bidet)

3\I used the hip kit with sock put on thingys, grabber bar etc, as well as a raised cushion for chair. BTW The grabber thing clips onto your crutches, took me a day or two to figure that out - SO CONVENIENT.

4\Dr Su prescribed MOBIC to calm soft tissue for 42 days, it bugged my stomach something fierce so they switched me to Celebrex and it has been awesome.

5\I had an ice machine but found the hip gel packs much easier and colder to deal with, I had two I cycled through.

6\Make sure to install grab bars in your shower. Makes taking one so easy.

I am two weeks post op today. I can walk with a cane now and sometimes nothing around the house, though still frankensteinish. I have been diligent about taking walks 4x a day (1 of which is long, mile+), doing my PT in home exercises 3x a day. I am up to 20 mins on the Peloton, which I started uncomfortably at day 5 for 2 mins. I drove at day 5 uncomfortably but did so, a cushion helps a lot. I tried to get on the floor this morning to do pushups and a plank, but it is too soon, will try again next week. I have been doing resistance bands for my upper body and my kids hand me weights to do chest presses. I start outpatient PT next Monday. I return to see Dr Su 4/26 for an X-ray and incision inspection. I trust all will be good and I will be released to do even more, pool work etc. I was given the advice to listen to my body, try to reach your upper limits in terms of doing too much and then take it easy the next day to let yourself recover. Then try again and adjust each day. I found this helpful. BTW: Doing too much makes you swell more and tired.

Every day is small incremental progress and some days it isn't linear. I am anxious to return to my active life of tennis, skiing, running but I am embracing this daily journey to rebuild too. All in all I am doing great!

Good luck hipsters and feel free to DM me if you have specific questions, I certainly bugged others.

[Danlalane]

Today is my 3 week anniversary. Things are going okay. The realization that this is a process and slow-ish and incremental has set in. For example I tried to drop the cane yesterday and do a lot of unassisted walking, around the house and even up and down my street. Today I am tired and sore. That was too much. The recovery process is this long slow constant adjustment to what you can do where the line is for too much and backing down.

I finally can sleep on my non-operated side in bed and not just on my back which is huge.

I started outpatient PT this week and they are working on the stabilizer muscles which are weak and make walking unassisted difficult. i.e. clams, side leg raises, marching on one leg.

Today was a personal victory for me because I was able to do 100 pushups (5x20), 1-minue plank, and TRX rows off the floor.  All with little to no hip discomfort. Was great to get a maintenance workout in and my heart rate up. I was very concerned leading up to surgery about losing my fitness/shape.

[Danlalane]

I passed my 1-month on Thursday this week. I am in the trough of despair. Will I ever get better? Is something wrong with the device, placement, etc?

I tried to do some very light yard work this weekend. Light raking, some picking up sticks off the lawn, etc. Bad idea. Sore and in pain rest of the day and today.

I also looked over the stretches that Dr Su says you can do at month one mark. I can't really do any of them comfortably. Granted I am a tight person and my arthritis really limited my ability to stretch pre surgery. Still......... I go to see Dr Su 4/26 for X-rays and 6 -week follow up. We'll see.

I don't want to talk people out of this because I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel (for most). Just know that it is a lot of work, and the body is very slow to heal from a major surgery.

[ScubaDuck]

Hang in there!  It will get better but not in a straight line.  There were exercises and activities that felt fine while I was doing them.  Then the next day I would be very sore.

I am at four months and I am still dealing with soreness in the hip flexor area.  I go to physical therapy every other week and each time the exercises get ratcheted up.  Then I am more sore and it progressively gets better until the exercises get changed again.  I am able to walk 7-8 km easily and I am swimming but can only handle 500 meters kicking.  Today I was able to cycle for 45 minutes with minimal soreness, at least for today.

Stretching is really important!  I can tell that I didn't do as much with my left side after getting it resurfaced 12 years ago.  I am doing the stretches I am doing for my right side on the left as well.

[catfriend]

You're doing just fine for one month out. Better than fine, even. I can't imagine having attempted planks at 4 weeks, not to mention the push ups, etc. Does Dr. Su impose the 90 degree rule? Most surgeons do. I don't see how you could do the yardwork you describe without violating it. This may account for some of your pain afterwards.

When you start feeling better it can be deceiving. While you may be feeling like you should be doing more, don't forget that your muscles are still healing internally, the device and your bone are still growing together, and additional healing is taking place inside. It's easy to forget this and overdo it. This is also a time when people injure themselves because they do overdo it because they're starting to feel good again.

I think every person on this forum has overdone it at least once and paid for it afterwards. I know I did.

Everybody's path to recovery is different. Like ScubaDuck says, it's not always a straight line. Building up the strength in those lateral muscles is key. Talk to your pt about additional exercises you may need for what you want to do.

[Danlalane]

Thank you @scubaduck and @catfriend. No restrictions on the 90 degree from Dr Su with Birmingham. You are probably right that the bending over(repeatedly) was the culprit. Even though I tried to use only my good leg and dangled my limp limb behind me. The motion of pulling my knees to my chest (on my back) or bending over is really tight and annoys my hip. I needed Tylenol today in addition to my daily (42 days) celebrex/asprin cocktail.

[Danlalane]

Okay like many of you I was anxious for my 6-week follow up. Had I done something to screw up the placement? Is there any femoral neck fracture starting cause I bumped into the wall a little hard that one time......etc? The answer in my case was 100% no. For this I am grateful. Not to give future Hipsters too much license but I was told you have to do a lot to screw it up. Bad fall, hike 5 miles with a 50 lb pack on kind of a thing. Phew.

Despite my impatience and misgivings I was also put near/at the top of the heap in terms of recovery timeline and how I am doing versus all others they see at this point. My incision, strength, walking, etc were all among the very best they see. For those that want to recover as quick as possible here are some of my tactics, your mileage may very and I am NO DR.

1 - Prehab. I was in the best possible shape heading into surgery and did all the prehab exercises on the website. Glute bridges, side lifts, all of them.
2 - I am following all the advice on post-op to the t, doing all the exercises, walking, icing, drugs......
3 - Sleep - I prioritized getting as good a night sleep as possible and tracked my scoring using one of the many available sleep tracking apps. I used CBD tinctures to aid here and they really helped. I used a recliner for 10 days then bed.
4 - These next few are a bit out there so bare with me: supplements, I did a bunch of research on which supplements could help surgery recovery so I took them all daily. Vitamin D, Zinc, Vitamin C, Branch chain amino acids, B12, arginine, vitamin E, vitamin E, plant based calcium.
5 - I ate plant based high nutritious food (and one meal a weak of wild salmon 4oz) - this is my daily meal (super veggie) https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/Step-1-Step-2-Step-3
6 - I took two peptides known to aid healing BPC-157 and TB-500
7 - I started dry radiant sauna 2-weeks post op and did so almost daily for 20-30 mins followed by a cold shower.

Time will tell if my trajectory continues to outpace, but happy for now.

[Pat Walter]

I am so happy for you and that you have done so well.  Some people heal quickly while others take a bit more time, but in the end we all are pain free and active again.
Thank You for continuing to share your story. 

I put your post together for your story on the main website.  https://surfacehippy.info/dans-hip-resurfacing-with-dr-su-2023/       I will watch for your updates.

I wish you the very best.
Pat

[Danlalane]

I passed my 12 week mark this past Thursday. Things are going well. Walking is almost thoughtless and sometimes is. I have returned to stepmill, elliptical, cascade climber and weights less than 40lbs at the gym with no issues. I played tennis this past weekend for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect but I started slow (mini tennis, then baseline, then volleys, then points with serving). I felt so giddy I wanted someone to record me so everyone would believe it. I wasn't able to sprint or get to balls out wide, mostly because I couldn't get myself to try. The best part - No pain! I felt an occasional catch, but nothing that persisted.

Here are my lessons learned from weeks 6-12. Ice! Don't stop. It helps. I ice every night. I also have a cold plunge tub where I do ice baths.

I am still doing PT twice a week which is working on range of motion and getting the stability muscles all firing.

I know the summer will fly by and I will hit 6-mo in Sept. I look forward to trying to jog/run/jump rope. I am now very hopeful all those things will be possible PAIN FREE!

[Danlalane]

Passed the 4th month mark. Hip feels great. I had a scare while on vacation in Greece and fell in the pool. Who puts marble around the pool? Twisted my good leg and hurt my knee, ankle and big toe. Scary.

I have been exercising at the gym and doing the cascade climber, same one Andy Murray uses in the movie resurfacing. It is awesome and low impact. Also the elliptical and stair stepper have been good. Today my PT said I should jog on my lawn for 5 minutes. So I did. The hip was a little sore after but I went to work with my new favorite toy the hip hook which digs into the psoas and iliacus muscles. I felt right as rain after that. When my knee recovers from the bad sprain from the fall plan to up the tennis and complex movements. Oh and I have been doing a 10 mile bike ride near my home that used to kill my hip. Pain free! And getting in and out of the little
Summer convertible.