Keith’s Hip Resurfacing Mr. O’Hara 2011
I was 44 when I got mine done and went through three years of pain, unable to play football or go hillwalking, occasionally not sleeping and a couple of nights in sheer agony. I tried glucosamine for a year then accupuncture and hard buttock massage, which relieved the pain for a few days but I would have had the op at 41 in hindsight.
August 9, 2011 Well I can just say to all of you…. take it easy! and don’t expect miracles. I was quite surprised at my relatively slow recovery. No real issues but just surprised at how long I took to gain full strength. I’m not 100% yet but the only physio I was doing was cycling to / from work (with a 200metre climb on the way home) I had been protecting my operated hip by pushing off with the other leg, especially up stairs and when the physio asked me to do step up on stairs with the operated hip there was no strength there at all (at 12 weeks!). Things all started to change around 5 months and I have now started playing tennis again without pain which is amazing. Still can’t do proper balanced sprint and doubt I’ll get back to a 12.5 100m but jogging is OK, though maybe it’s just a matter of time. Good luck and be patient and well done……. the decision was half the battle!
Keith (L BHR Dec 15th 2010 John O’Hara)
September 9, 2011 I walked across the room with one stick after 5 days. However I still had a definite limp at seven weeks, and still some pain making me unsure at times whether the procedure had stopped the pain…. Then I saw my physio at 8 weeks and she ‘made’ me walk across the room without the stick. I was more scared of the pain that might happen than pushing it and seeing if it hurt.
She than said I should concentrate on walking without a limp and not protect the hip by walking unbalanced. I was surprised how difficult it was! My brain had obviously been programmed into a new way of walking. I only did this consciously for say 100m a day, than walked with a limp or the stick depending on how far I was going or how the hip felt. Sometimes there was an ache at the end of the day and I thought I’d over done it……. there was always a few concerns when there was post op pain but none of them were any consequence,….just off days in the long healing process. It wasn’t until about 5 months I started to really feel the benefits and had a few games of tennis but was still putting a skip in with the strong leg to protect the hip a bit… there’s just not the ligament/ muscle strength to sprint properly. More physio will speed this up but the surgeon said I was ‘doing very well’ when he saw me at 6 months.
November 16, 2011 I am 11 months post op and did used to enjoy sprinting. I was never competitive but probably did around 12seconds for 100 in my late 30’s. (now 45) I would love to be able to sprint to the shops, hurdling the road barriers like I used to leaving my housemates amazed that I could be back so quick. At around 5-6 months post op I still hadn’t felt comfortable jogging and would play tennis with a skip when moving off, to protect the weak hip. However at 11 months I’m still surprised at how much better things are getting each week.
I cycle absolutely everywhere and although I’m sure this helped recovery after the op I have decided that it’s now holding me back so I’ve started walking more. The first few times…. walking 1/2 mile to the shops at a fast pace the next day the hip would ache. However that means it’s ‘learning’ and deciding where to build up strength. I only started this ‘walking more’ two weeks ago and can already feel the benefits.
So now I’m beginning to believe I will sprint and hurdle barriers again…. (actually I don’t mean hurdle, I mean one hand, legs together….. you’ll know if you do it!) And I very nearly did it the other day but pulled up, I think it was psychological, but I’m just so happy with my new hip I want to protect it. It’s wierd ‘cods most of the time I already don’t know it’s there, only when going to extreme edges of motion range. It just reminds you just how amazing the body is. there are noticeable improvements every week but getting to 100% like 4 years ago before the arthr. took hold will probably take 4 years…. just hope the right hip doesn’t go and I get a few years at peak.
January 17, 2012 I had a left hip BHR a year ago now and I was CONVINCED it was longer. Not just after the operation but for a number of months afterwards when all the swelling had gone down. I think yoor whole body is out if kilter due to walking with pain for so many years that the rebalancing of the frame and the brain just takes a good while.