Hi, first - welcome to the site, talking about this will help you to make a good decision.
My thread has my story
http://surfacehippy.info/hiptalk/index.php?topic=2010.0 but basically, my pre-surgery hip story is:
I am 54 years old, male and have spent quite a bit of time doing athletics of different types. I've done 35 years of martial arts (mostly Tae Kwon Do), played soccer competitively until last year, and a good amount of weight training.
I noticed about seven years ago that my flexibility was declining rapidly. Where before I could easily touch my head to my knees, now I was having trouble touching the floor. The groin pain started around then, so I went into the Doctor's and physical therapy with what I thought were muscular issues. We checked for everything - Lyme disease, all sorts of issues. None of the therapy, massage, etc. seemed to do anything, so we checked for osteo issues. seven years ago, they found my right hip slightly arthritic (they thought) and my left had normal amounts of cartilage.
The pain worsened, to the point that three years ago, I could not walk up stairs (or down) without severe pain. I still continued playing soccer until two years ago, when my left hip started dislocating when I ran, and I would have to pop it back into place.
I figured it was time to do something about it, so I had the first surgeon look at it. My left hip had no cartilage, and had developed bone spurs. My right hip had very little cartilage, so it was just a matter of time. I scheduled a hip resurfacing with Dr. Snyder on August 24, 2010.
The surgery went well, took about 2.5 hours and was done under full anesthesia. I woke up and was well enough to stand up with a walker about four hours after the surgery. I felt so good due to the absence of pain from my left hip that I didn’t need the Oxycontin they prescribed after the anesthesia wore off. I was on a Tylenol Plus regimen (every six hours), a blood thinner, aspirin and vitamins. I was up the next day and walking using a walker, walking with the physical therapist. The following day, I was on crutches and being trained on how to use them, stairs, the right way to walk with them, etc. On the third day, I was released from the hospital to my parents, who had decided to help me the first week.
I had the second done on Nov 29th, with a very good outcome.
The years before the surgeries were filled with increasing pain. My activities dropped by the wayside: first went kicking in martial arts, then bag work (hips were too painful), then basketball (active in leagues and pickup), started losing some weight training and any intense treadmill / stairmaster work, then I stopped yoga and finally, out of stuborness and love for the game - soccer. Stairs became a real problem, traveling for work, I had problems getting into a tub shower (tub wall was too high), getting in and out of cars (tiny taxis in foreign countries were especially excruciating), I could go on, but all of us have stories. I felt old and tired and angry.
All that is gone for me. I'm not saying you don't have a lot to consider and timing to think of, but the surgeries are the best things I've ever done for myself. I took five years to come to a decision and take the plunge, should have done it sooner, but we all do it when it seems right. Good luck, I consider myself lucky to have had such a good option to a serious problem.