How did you feel before you opted for the surgery?

[Chief]

Hello,

When the time comes for the surgery, I prefer resurfacing to replacement.  In all honesty, I'd prefer biological resurfacing, if it existed.  In other words, please just heal my cartilage.  Now, back to reality.

I'm trying to put off the surgery as long as I can.  I still feel pretty good most days.  I'm a little stiff and have pain when I spend too much time on my feet.  However, I can still ski, bike, get in my gym workouts, dance, and socialize.  I have new x-rays every 6 months keeping an eye on a couple of small cysts that I have, but the cysts seem stable and have not grown in the past year. 

How far along were you when you opted for the surgery?  How were you feeling?  What condition was your hip in by then?

I've read that some patients believed that they were having sciatica attacks and/or lower back issues, but in reality it was their hip that was giving them the pain.  The stories that I've read don't reveal what the connection is between worn out hip joint cartilage and the symptoms of sciatica.  Anyone have any info or opinions on this?

I've got a million questions, but I'll stop now.

I sure do hope to get some responses.  I am a newcomer, but I haven't gotten any responses to an earlier posting.  Hope I have better luck this time.

Chief

[Gavin]

Chief

I'm also in the newbie category however a little further down the path than yourself.I'm a 52 year old keen outdoors person.I have suffered for the past 4 years from both of the symptoms,lower back pain and a sciatic pain.Finally x-rays revealed the root of the problem being a pair of worn out hips, due to a lot of road running and years of playing squash.In some places there is little visible cartilage between the 2 faces of the hip.
I can remember people saying to me at different times that I'm "walking funny" although I've been more or less unaware.
It seems that a characteristic of having hip problems is that you walk in a leaning forward type of gait.People will also say that you are limping.Over the past 12 to 18 months I've noticed markedly how my previously active lifestyle has dwindled away to next to nothing.
Like yourself I'd love to avoid surgery,however,it has come to a stage where I feel so miserable and are avoiding all my previously enjoyed pastimes (fishing,hunting,diving,biking etc) that the time has come to do something about it.
In my case I have a bilateral BHR scheduled for early December.Much as I am a little apprehensive about the prospect,I am so looking forward to putting this pain and inactivity in the past and getting on with life!

[Pat Walter]

Hi Chief

I am sorry if you did not get any answers earlier.  I try to make sure no one is ignored, but occasionally miss a post or two. My computer hard drive died and I had to switch to another computer for awhile and missed some things.

I started with hip problems in my early 50s. Use to be very active playing tennis, bike riding, walking, golf, etc    They wanted to give me a THR back then.  That was 10 years ago. I did not want that and continued fighting the pain.  Had the steriod shots, did the chirpractor adjustments, took celebrex- then Vicoden. Finally the only way I could live was to sit in a chair. I could not walk from the Wal Mart parking lot to the store without a lot of pain. I could not sleep at night even with all the high powered meds.  Life came to a halt.  I decided that I need to get a new hip.  Had 4 orths try to give me THRs, but learned about hip resurfacing. 

I did not have health insurance since my husbands company went out of business and dropped ours.  We had pre existing conditions and could not get any.  He went ahead and had a heart attack with a triple bypass costing $104,000.   The hospital wrote it off to chairty for us. I could have gotten a free THR - but no Thanks.

I had some credit cards in the drawer and used them to go to Dr. De Smet in Belgium.  I would have gone to him even if I had insurance. In March 2006, the FDA had not approved the BHR yet.  I choose De Smet because he is very experienced and I was 61, female and had a loss of bone density.  Many of the US surgeons would not do me as it still is today.  The inexperinced surgeons won't take any chances.  The overseas doctors are not taking chances - they just have so much more experience that they know when hip resurfacing will work and when it won't.  Dr. De Smet has done over 3000 hip resurfacings now and over 3000 THRs.  That's why I choose him plus all the other De Smet hippies did so great and had such easy and quick recoveries most of the time.

So it is really up to you as to when you want to get your hip reusrfaced and get back into life.  It depends on how long you want to sit in a chair and do nothing.

You can also wait too long and miss the window of opportunity to have your hips resurfaced if they deteriorate too much.

Who have you choosen to do your surgery?  Are you getting your hip done at the same time?  Many people like to do that so you have one recovery.

Many of us have siatica problems. We are at the chiropractors a lot.  Having a bad hip thows the balance of your whole body off. When my back was out - I had such pain that I had to sit up all night.  Add that to the OA pain and I was miserable.  I have found out if I keep my back adjusted, I did not have that additional pain.  I am now 20 months post and and still have some back problems - but absolutely no hip pain problems.

I hope that helps some.

Stay in touch and let me know if you have more questions. I have started a new section on my website  called Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.surfacehippy.info/faq.php  You might find a lot of answers there.  I have been working on it for days now.  Have tons of post from personal replies from doctors that will help people.

Pat - webmaster/owner Surface Hippy

[rayareno]

Chief,

I can certainly understand your position. I'm in the same boat. It would be nice if they could replace
the worn cartilage. Unfortunately it's not possible at this time. Perhaps sometime in the future.

I've put up with some pain over the last two years. I don't have any severe pain in my right hip joint.
I'm not taking any pain medication. The only time my hip really hurts is when I overdue it. I'm sore for
a couple of days afterwards. Eventually the pain does subside. I have a cyst on the top of my femur
head. The doctor that I'm presently seeing doesn't feel that the cyst is going to be an issue. I was
seeing an OS every six months for a year and a half. This OS stated that eventually I'll need to have
a THR. I wasn't ready to accept his medical opinion. So, I decided to seek out other options. This is
when I happened to discover HR. I hadn't heard of it previously. So, I started doing some researching
on the internet. I happened to come across this Surface Hippy support group. 

I still dance three to four times a week. I also ride my bike when the weather permits. I haven't tried
skiing in a couple of years. I wasn't sure that my hip could take the physical pounding. I played in a
couple of softball games this past season. I could really feel the aches and pains in my right hip after
playing. The year before I was playing two to three games every week. I went from being the fastest
man on the team. To being one of the slowest in just over a year. My teammates had a hard time
accepting the quick transformation.   

I made an appointment with a OS that does HR last month. I'll be seeing him again at the end of the
week. I have some additional questions that I need answered. Should, I decide to go through with
the operation. It will be late February or early March before he'll be able to perform the procedure.   

You don't happen to mention your age. How young or how old are you presently?

I'm also a newcomer at this site.

takce care,
Ray

[coskater]

My first doctor did try to replace my cartlidge, or at least repair it...7 hours of surgery....well that bought me some time but, not a lot. I am pretty young--43, I had congential issues and a case of OA that accelerated very quickly when I tore my stabilizing ligament and I became bone-on-bone.

At my year check up they said I would need the BHR, I went to the doctor my first surgeon recommended, and I think that was an excellent idea. I have no regrets about either of my surgeries I am 3 months out back doing the sport I love.

I am very grateful I didn't wait and I am very glad I went to my doctor.

Leslie
RBHR Treacy (UK)
10/2/07

[dgm]

Greetings,

I am a newbie too, RBHR 2-14-08 with Dr. Rogerson in Madison Wisconsin.  I'm 46 with servere OA in the rt. hip and excruiating pain walking. I'd gone from running marathons to walking like a 90 year old woman and began to avoid doing almost anything since the only time I was comfortable was sitting down. I did have some back and knee pain, I'm guessing from trying to protect my hip for so long. Being extremely hard headed and in denial that anything was wrong (suck it up and be tough) I almost waited too long as xrays revealed a fairly significant bone cyst that probably in less experienced hands would have ended up with a THR.  I wish I would have had this done sooner.

Amazingly post surgery, I am bearing weight well and have absolutely no pain.  My brain somehow expects it since I've lived with it for so long but it is gone. The only discomfort post surgery I have experienced is muscular aches in the quad, I can't even call it pain, it just feels like I had a pretty intense quad workout.

If you are contemplating this procedure, my advice is don't wait. Get an evaluation right away just in case more is going on than you know.  Even 12 days post op, I am delighted.  I can't wait to get back to all the things I love doing with my kids, without pain.

Good luck to you and keep us posted,
Best,
Denise

[marathonhippo]

Hi Chief,

I finally had my first surgery earlier this month, but it took me years before I finally broke down and scheduled it.  One of the problems that I had was whenever I did anything physical like run, walk briskly, shovel snow, etc, a few hours later my hips were so sore and inflamed that I had trouble walking.  The biggest problem, though, was standing up.  Every time I stood up, it was an event I had to plan for since it took several minutes.  I had arthritis in both hips, and it seemed they both had to get past some really bad spots of missing cartlidge.  It felt like I had to "pop" them into place, and to do it I would have to have something sturdy to push up against with my arms, slowly work one of them in, then it could take some weight, then I would be able to work the other in.  It took literally 2 to 3 minutes each time - longer if I had been sitting for a very long time.

Hope this helps,

Alan