Pete M’s Original Story Here

November 19, 2016 UPDATE – my left hip’s second birthday!

All is still well. I suspect the scar will always feel a bit strange but the joint itself is great and gives no concern despite all the use it gets, which includes 46 5km races, one 10km race and bike rides up to 55 miles in the last 12 months. It has also been subjected to a fair amount of walking, rock climbing/bouldering and gym workouts without complaining. So far, so good!

The only things restricting activity nowadays are my remaining natural hip and old age – the right one was given a two-year lifespan by my surgeon but it seems to be no worse at the moment than two years ago so there is no immediate rush to get it done (but I do worry that some agency like NICE could decide that over-55s should not get BHR in future). Old age is OK except for long recovery times after big days out, as noted by Woodstock and others. I would have liked to have raced a half marathon by now but having trained over the distance last year it took a couple of months to get back to faster running again, and I am sticking to 5km at the moment with a view to getting my 250 shirt from parkrun by Christmas (number 246 tomorrow!).

One highlight of the year was meeting Tri Hard Alan at Imperial College hospital in the summer for a tour of their musculoskeletal department, meeting Professor Cobb and members of his team, being shown some of their facilities and answering their many questions about our BHR experiences. They are apparently working on a pink ceramic device that will be suitable for women and smaller men, which will be good news for many in this country, but they need people to spread the word that THR is not the only kind of hip operation. As Alan suggested, this message needs to be disseminated by the GPs that are the first link in the chain leading to surgery.

Thanks again to Pat for this site and the rest of you for your company over the last couple of years, here’s to many more!