Since my surgery won't be until March, and since I don't plan to disappear between now and then, I thought I would start my own thread to document what I hope will be another successful journey to a more able and pain-free life.
I came looking for this site because of fairly continuous and often severe right hip pain, and the considerable disability that goes along with it.
I've had hip pain in one form or another since at least 1998, although I waited until 2001 to see a doctor. I was not quite 40 at the time. My symptoms were a loose feeling in the hip joint--kind of like it could be pulled apart. It felt like there was a gap between the ball and the socket. I had the sensation that parts inside my hip were shifting.
The hip usually didn't hurt, but occasionally it did, and occasionally it was severe. At times it was so severe that I could not put my full body weight on it. Most of my pain was toward the outside of my hip.
Interestingly, it was not a grinding, deep pain, like the "tooth pain" some people describe. When I got the pain it was intense, but I usually didn't get it.
Believe me that arthritis was the last thing on my mind. Correction, it was not even on my radar screen. I had no idea that arthritis might be my problem. That was for old people. I was young and very fit and strong.
In fact, the reason I waited so long to see a doc in the first place was I thought this was an athletics-related problem. I had been a big-time weight lifter in my 20's and 30's, routinely squatting and benching some very heavy weights. But late in my 30's I decided to go back to school. The weight lifting slowly fell away, and my muscles slowly receded. My hypothesis to explain my hip pain was that, since I had lost muscle, there must have been more space left in my joints. My ligaments hadn't caught up with my reduced muscle mass. Given enough time, I thought, everything would come together and I would be fine.
You can imagine my shock when the doctor matter-of-factly informed me that I had arthritis. It was like everything went silent. He said something about my perhaps having sustained an injury in my youth, which damaged my femoral growth plate, but I couldn't remember any injury. My right foot had always turned out slightly, as does my father's. That gave me trouble from time to time, like when I ran on the track team. My coaches always told me to pull in my feet--that I would run faster if they were straighter. Maybe that caused my problem. Who knows?
The point is, like many of you, I was shocked at my diagnosis. I looked around the doctor's office and saw that most of the patients appeared to be in their 80's. There I was, not quite 40, in their same company and with a hip in nearly their same condition. That was a mind-warping moment.
In the years that followed, the pain became more consistent and there were several more doctors visits. Each time I was offered THR as a solution, but I was also told that I was really too young for that and my best bet was to learn to live with it. I gave up my stairmaster; it hurt my hip too much. I bought an elliptical trainer. It was awesome, and I loved it. I got fabulous workouts and started getting in great shape. I picked up a second hand Bowflex and went to town on that, too.
Hey, I could live with this, I thought. I often walked with a limp but felt generally okay most of the time. I was able to stay in shape. No need for surgery. I even lost 50 pounds of fat I had put on while going to school and working full-time days.
Then, around 2004, came a truly spectacular workout on the elliptical. Sixty minutes at level 6 got me sweating and puffing like a locomotive. Man that felt great! The athlete was back! But in the hours that followed that workout, a different story was told. By that evening I could not walk. The pain from my right hip was intense. I dragged myself around, essentially by hopping on my left leg and pivoting off of furniture and walls. I took lots and lots of ibuprofen. That was eventually enough to get me to work on Monday and back on my feet, but I was never the same again. I don't know what I did. Perhaps I opened up a huge lesion somewhere. Whatever the injury was, I did not go near my elliptical machine after that, and have not been able to get back on it since. It still sits in my basement calling to me!
Determined to stay in shape, I started swimming. Swimming was fun, but I'm not a natural swimmer. I'm not especially boyant or fast through the water. It got a little boring. MOre than that, it really didn't help my hip. I was often in more pain coming out of the pool than I was going in.
Fast forward to stationary bike, and then recumbent bike, where I am now. I even ride an outdoor recumbent (Yes, I'm one of THOSE!). So far, the recumbent feels great on the hips, and it's my primary line to fitness.
But you can see the progression. One thing after another has fallen away. There's just so much that I can't do right now. Not just for exercise, but for everything. I went camping for the first time in my adult life this year, and it was hellishly painful. I can't walk long distances. I can't go hiking. I can't even play ping-pong! At any time, I might get an attack of acute pain when I can't walk at all.
Meanwhile, as I've continued to decline, my surgical options have continued to improve. It is not unreasonable now to expect a resurfacing to last 15, 20, or more years. At my current age of 47, I could get a resurfacing now, a THR in 20 years, and that would be all I would need. Hell, the resurfacing might be all I ever need. The traditional argument against surgery just does not hold up any more. I'm ready to get my active life back, and I'm eager to join this distinguished group we call surface hippies.
For your reference, I have attached a recent x-ray. This is a composite of right and left films that were originally separate, but which I stitched together in Photoshop.
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