January 3, 2023

I wanted to wait until six months or so post–op before posting on this excellent website: I will post in this section, as well as the rehab section: please forgive any redundancies.

Background: 53-year-old male, in decent shape with no other health issues, avid marathon and trail ultra-runner. Osteoarthritis necessitated the operation: I first started feeling it around January 2021, with increasing pain and restricted movement during long runs. As Hemingway said of bankruptcy, it came slowly and then quickly. By September the pain was sharper and the limitation more profound; my final pre-op run was the Chicago Marathon in October 2021. I wish that I had been more aggressive in obtaining medical imaging, and then a diagnosis of osteoarthritis: for several months I flopped around with ineffective treatments, thinking that it was just a muscular issue that could be addressed through chiropractics or massage, as had been the case with most earlier running-related injuries.

The wonderful Dr. James Pritchett performed my operation in Seattle in late April 2022. As has been noted in other posts, his assistant Susan also makes the process wonderful and efficient. Dr. Pritchett performs the surgery at a new and lovely surgery/health center/fitness facility right beside the Microsoft campus in Redmond: ProOrtho. Erica, the ProOrtho contact person, was an able and friendly coordinator at that end.

The operation check–in and process went very smoothly. I was quickly put under. After what seemed like a very satisfying sleep, I woke up, to the attentive care of the clinic staff. As anticipated, I was able to walk out with a walker after an hour or so post-op.

The good doctor warned me that the first few weeks would not be fun, and he was correct. My low spirits and anxiety about ever returning to normal were no doubt exacerbated by two factors: (1) I have been blessed by good health and I have never experienced a major operation, and (2) as a manic long distance runner and hiker, I was distressed and anxious about this new and strange sense of incapacity.

If I could go back in a time machine and speak to my pre-op self, I would emphasize the dramatic difference in pain and capability before and after the magic six week post–op point. Before the six week point, movement is very limited, and the pain is such that you think you will never get better. The 6-7 week point was a night-and-day near-miracle: the healing tissue pain disappeared, along with the need for arm brace crutches.

I probably exacerbated the pain and even knocked back my recovery with a fairly aggressive self-imposed rehab routine: walking as much as I could stand around the neighbourhood with a walker, and then with arm braces during the first two months. After five weeks, I went from two arm braces to one arm brace to zero braces over the rapid space of two weeks.

As I will set out in more detail in my “rehab section” post, I continued an aggressive rehab program of stretches, stationary bike, walking and hiking (particularly focussing on walking uphill and downhill and sideways). Resistance running, jumping jacks, and sideways and backwards walking in an old-school constant 4-foot deep swimming pool was also very helpful.

At 2 months, I did my first biggish hike (12K, with some biggish hills and irregular surfaces), with hiking poles. At 3.5 months, I was able to hike up mountains without poles: nothing too technical, but nothing particularly easy, either. I kept listening to my body, and, feeling no particular pushback, continued aggressively with this plan. At 4.5 months, a group of friends and I hiked 110 kilometres around Mont Blanc over several days: some aggressive up and down slopes, on uneven surfaces. Hiking poles provided necessary reassurance and support. At five months, I hiked across the Grand Canyon with my family with no pain, distress or instability.

At around six months I started running again: slowly and conservatively. There is a slight dull pain at the top front of the thigh for the first few minutes: it soon goes away. To run without pain (and that awful hip joint grinding sensation) for the first time in 18 months is truly joyous. I now run a half marathon distance (with walking intervals) every weekend, and have recently run a (very slow and cautious) marathon distance in two races. I have also tried sprinting and more aggressive running recently: it felt pretty good!

Today, as at eight months post-op, I would say that the hip is about 85% in terms of strength and flexibility. Still limited in pulling my knee back to my chest and doing similar stretches. But it is clear that if I continue strength training and stretching, I will soon be wholly or almost back to my pre-osteoarthritic state.

I have been blessed in my life with many things to be grateful for, but among the most profound is my gratitude to Dr. Pritchett and his team for carrying me from a state of pain and despair, in which I thought I would never be able to run or hike again, to a restoration of more or less my joyfully athletic pre-arthritic state. I would 100% recommend this experience to anyone suffering from hip osteoarthritis, particularly to those who hope to return to an active outdoors lifestyle.