Scheduled for 10/3, appropriately anxious

[carbont]

Hi everyone.  63 year old man here and after years of careful watching, I’ve finally scheduled surgery for my left hip. (First one; have to do the right too at some point soon). I initially looked into this 10 years ago, was told it was a little early (dr Su said he’d do it of course, but there hadn’t been much deterioration) and held off.  I was more or less pain free until about two years ago as long as I avoided an increasingly broad set of activities.  But it’s crept in and now it’s part of every day. I know I could still get by for a while - the progression has been unexpectedly slow - probably a year or two but there’s no uncertainty about where this goes, just how quickly.

So it seems that it’s time, before it starts to hurt seriously all the time and I’m more and more limited. I’ll be having the procedure done by Dr Marwin next week.  He’s apparently done two gazillion of these and I have a couple of MD friends who speak very well of him. That said, it’s impossible to ignore that this is a big honking deal and I’ll feel a lot worse before I feel better.

I came back here after discovering this site years ago. Back then, I remember seeing all these stories of people whose lives had been revived after seamless recoveries,  many of them saying their only regret was that should have done this sooner. When I read posts today though there seemed to be a crop of more pessimistic stories and relatively my calm determination has rattled a little. (I mean, just thinking about this actually entails is pretty wild)  I can’t help but think about how much those first couple of weeks are going to challenge (I’ve had ortho surgery in the past - a collarbone and reconstructed ankle) and how uncertain the progress is afterwards. Add to that worries about grabbers and chairs and pillows and ice and Tylenol and PT and walking (too much, not enough) and incisions and going back to work (I sit and sit and sit and have a lot of people relying on me) and not freaking out my teenage kids and when I can get on my peleton or, more importantly, my real bike … you get the idea.

So a little experienced rationality would go a long way here as it’s getting a little twitchy inside by head just now.  All reassurances gratefully accepted.

[bluedevilsadvocate]

I had my left hip resurfaced by Dr. Brooks when I was 62. Much to my surprise, I was pretty calm about it, perhaps due the fact that Dr. Brooks had done about 800 at that point. So your level of anxiety should be even lower than mine, in view of the thousands that Dr. Marwin has performed. But I'm sure that lowering your level of anxiety is easier said than done. Recovery really wasn't too bad, and involved surprisingly minimal pain. I got a little frustrated about 2 weeks into the recovery, but I think that resulted from unrealistic expectations as to what I would be able to do only 2 weeks after the surgery. All in all, I really think that it will go more smoothly than you anticipate, and in a few weeks you'll be looking at it in the rearview mirror!

[PalmettoGolfer]

carbont,

I had my hip resurfaced by Dr. Gross in May of 21, as I think back on it, the worst part of the whole experience for me was 1 the anticipation and worry and 2 the swelling.  Everything in between was so much smoother than I thought it would be.  I think its only natural to be nervous for this kind of surgery. 

As for your concerns about the posts that highlight the problems people are having it's mainly the folks who have recovery issues that will ask questions to try and get information to ease their concerns about their issue.  Think about all of the people who have had this procedure done and DON'T post.

While I certainly can't guarantee that you won't have issues.  I'll have to have my other hip done at some point in the future and I won't have near the concerns I did the first time around.

Good luck and come back and post and let us know how it goes!!

[carbont]

Many thanks to both of you. Exactly what the doctor ordered, so to speak.  Good to hear reminders that it’s usually pretty straightforward. It is 2022 after all and they seem to have this pretty well worked out. I’ll report in as I move through this.

[bluedevilsadvocate]

Carbont -

If your surgery went as scheduled, I guess you are about two weeks post-surgery, so I thought that I would check on you to see how you are doing. At this point you might not feel up to reporting back, but be sure to let us know how it's going when you are ready.