Am I crazy to get back on a dirt bike in a years time? When asked, Dr. Gross said that after a year there would be no difference in breaking a resurfaced femoral neck compared to a normal hip. I'll go see him in a year and try to re-phrase the question.
Gino,
I came on here tonight to tell some details on my ride this weekend, so I will post it right here.
I am less than 1 year out (10 months) and have been itching to get back on my bike. Before my right hip resurfacing, I could not get on my bike without a stand to step on, and could not crank it while sitting on the bike. I occasionally would ride prior to surgery, and it was still fun, but right hand corners were not easy, and I couldn't crank it if I stopped somewhere.
Yesterday, I ventured on a combination trail ride (hare scrambles course) and rode some MX for the first time since my surgery in May, and my last ride in late march 2012. Just some background, I grew up on bikes, and raced MX since 10 years old up through my college ages. I was more part time during college, and rode locally in NC as a Pro. In my late 20's I got a bike and raced about 10 times in 1992, then sold it after kids and didn't get another until my late 30's in 1999. Well after not having a bike from 93-99, I vowed to never sell it unless I was selling to get another. So from 2000 until now, I still have the 99, and would ride occasionally whenever I felt the urge. Since about 2005, my hip started bothering me, and it was harder to ride and was an excuse not to ride. One of the main reasons I wanted the BHR, was because there was hope that I could ride at a decent pace, and be somewhat safe.
So this weekend I embarked on something I hadn't done since I was kid, and that was go woods riding. A friend of mine had been trying to get me to go riding with him back at my hometown. He lives across the street from a very cool off road park called Outback Motorsports Park in Laurinburg, NC, which I had never been to. He convinced me that it would be a good way to ride at a slower pace than on a MX track. We also got my brother who hadn't ridden in 20 years to come out too, which was great. As rehab and means of getting in shape, I had been doing some light running at the YMCA on the rubber track, and hadn't had any issues. I got up to about 3 miles, and honestly have been a little lazy the last few weeks working on a project bike, that I have not done much exercise the last month. But since my hip was doing well at 10 months, I went for the ride.
When riding, I never felt anything in my hip that made me think I had something done to it, EXCEPT that it WORKED properly!! I could get on the bike, crank it, get off on both sides if needed. Even hang it out in corners. I was still cautious, occasionally I would try to test it, and all day never felt even a twinge of pain or weirdness in that new hip. I would certainly say that Hare scrambles would be really "safe" for the hip, since you are not jumping, and often are not going very fast in the woods. As long as you don't hit a tree, it should be fine. It will still be fine after hitting the tree, but the rest of you, well, that's up in the air!
TO finish my story, this park has a GREAT MX track. I've never seen a MX track this well prepared at a location that does not host MX races. This could be a great track in our local district, but with the support from riding daily, why bother? I rode the first time after riding about an hour in the woods, before heading back the truck, so was kinda tired already. THis track is very sandy, so whoops everywhere. The jumps had tables and doubles, and were not too challenging. That first time out, I putted around for a lap or so, jumped a couple of doubles, then came back to the truck. After 2 more trail rides, and 2 more times hitting the track pretty hard for about 2 laps each time (Sand and whoops make it hard to ride for long without fear of crashing), I never had any issue with the hip. It felt GREAT! Afterwards, I expected some soreness in the hip, and there was. The LEFT hip! The un-repaired one! Still today my new hip is not sore, and the OLD one is a little sore. I know its a matter of time before that one undergoes the knife, but I figure I have a few more years on it since its still got pretty good flexibility and normally has no pain. I just hate that there will be another 10 mos to a year down the road that I'm restricted. So with Bilateral, you don't have that issue.
I didn't drop test the hip, but like I said I hung it out a few times, using it to catch myself in rutted sandy corners. My fear is that I stretch it out, stuck in the sand and it dislocates, but while I'm not going to try that on purpose, there was no signs of anything like that yet. So possibly by the end of the year, you will be back on the saddle better than ever!
So get get better, rehab well and go for it. My philosophy is that my options after surgery were 1) to be very restricted, or 2) go ahead and use the new hip. Not that anyone wants another hip surgery or worse, but most likely the worse case is that the hip would have to be repaired with a THR if you were to injure it. Then, you are right back to where you would have been, had you sat on your duff after surgery, option 1, restricted.