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What procedure are you having done?
I would at least consider hip resurfacing if it's available and covered. It leaves you more bone if you need a revision.
I'm 2 1/2 years post op, anterior approach THR. I can ski with anyone,
If it's soft. Hard days can hurt.
I'll probably need a revision someday,
Because I'm not smart enough to tone it down.
Swimming helps me more than anything.
I've known of the of the resurfacing (birmingham) for 12 or more years I think and known a few people who've had it done. Going into this I sort of assumed that's what they all did now. I cycled in France last fall with a belgian orthopedic who does a lot of hips, have an old friend I had a long chat with that's doing hips here and my own surgeon all say they aren't big on the resurfacing and they've gone out of favour. They cite the metal on metal and metal ions in the blood as issues. My surgeon also mentioned the fact they are a bit more sensitive to exact placement. I have a personal suspicion they just don't want to go to England to train for them. As to metal on metal I'm not sure why they wouldn't just do ceramic like I'm getting.
Anyway once I went 3 for 3 surgeons I figured fine I'll go with that. A couple of guys do still do them in town here (Calgary) but mostly not. The Belgian guy said no one is doing them in Belgium anymore and the old friend is at the big new south end hospital and no one does them where she is. My guy said he won't do a big insert and no fixative I guess to leave it open for a revision down the road. I do know a guy with the full replacement who has had a revision. My guy is going in Anterior lateral which I figure is way better then going in posterior which apparently is done quite a bit.
We're getting a big new swim facility in town so maybe I'll get back at swimming. I'm confident I'll be back skiing again but I'm sure it won't be the same. Hasn't been the same for a few years anyway so anything better is gravy. It feels good on a bike even still. Although I sure wouldn't be doing the trip I did last fall in France this year. It was a bit of an extreme trip though.
Anterior seems to be very popular right now. Just hope he doesn't chip off your Greater Trochanter like mine. It's one of the more common complications with this procedure.
Biking shouldn't be a problem. I ride everyday and only feel it after hardest days MTBing.
Suns rising and it's time to ride.
Good luck!
Hey L7, sorry to hear you're joining the club.
I also thought I'd be getting a resurface but BC won't approve hardly any and if they do it'll be for Men. Alberta refused me, as a small female, as well. I could have gone to Seattle but nobody here would advise me to do it and neither would my Ortho friend from the States. I think it's a case of too many procedures being done and maybe to the wrong demographics. I do know several very active guys who had them done and are having no problems. The theory is good on the resurface but, having said that, my Ortho said it's easier to fix/replace a total hip these days if it's cup wear. At least, I think that's what he said. Mostly, what I took away from the multitude of info I got before my surgery is to pick the best surgeon and let them pick the right technique.
I did have the best surgeon and I did the full hip. I'd like to say I don't notice it (1 yr, 3 months out now) but that'll be a lie. I'm still having lots of realignment issues and probably bursitis/tendonities. As you said earlier, that's likely the cause of my hip wear anyhow so, for me, will likely be a long road to overcome. If I could do one thing differently before surgery I'd have recognized what a problem I had with it and had worked like crazy to fix that as much as possible.
I must be better than before surgery though as I do need to take a tramacet here and there but I was doing them daily before.
Activity wise I did ski last year, not really technical stuff though, as I was only 7-10 months post surgery. I enjoyed every day though and was lucky to only do one that I'd call really firm. Being a skier from Banff it's hard to think of many days in the Okanagan as firm/icy. That day I did ache alot.
I switched my lifestyle from being a 2-3/week dirtbiker to Mtn Biking and hiking and surprised myself by not missing dirtbiking hardly at all. It was a hot dry summer though. Even though it was hot in the valley I could go up to Silver Star in Vernon, where it's 10-15 cooler and did a bunch of XCR and Downhill Mtn Biking there. I also did a trip to Yosemite to do a bunch of Dayhikes I'd been wanting to do for years. I plan to go back next summer for some backcountry.
So, I'm managing to stay active, although it still hurts. Whether I could have done that without the surgery I'm not sure. I've bought my ski pass for this year and I'll have 6 weeks of holidays in Baja before the ski season so intend to get in a bunch of Mtn Biking/cardio so I'm as good to go as possible.
A Physio at the hospital told me that it's the young active ones that always have problems because we expect so much more and put so much more demand on our poor bodies.
Shredhead- great to see you're still working out an it sounds like you're doing a bit better painwise?
'Being a skier from Banff' hmmmm. I was 25 years in Banff, which essentially is what got me here but that's an old song. Ya I'm a bit concerned with the leg length discrepancy and I hope to not get too much of that ongoing past surgery. In fact it was a series of physios and chiros in Banff that had me first encouraging leg length as a treatment (actually a symptom) until opening the hip up and aligning the pelvis got rid of leg length issues and back issues.
I'm not worried about being active, that will happen. Just a matter of what sort of mods to both bike position and skiing. I've known quite a few mostly resurface folk that have stayed active and speak highly of it. I do trust and like my surgeon and he comes highly recommended. We talked about different options and he said, 'you need to go with the guy you're comfortable with and part of that is you need to know (s)he's comfortable with the procedure they're doing.' I like that sort of open dialogue.
I go to surgery school next week so I can ask a bunch more questions I suspect.
Well goodluck and let us know how it goes.
Yes, I do think my hip was partially compliments of Mt Norquay, where I worked
17 months post op from full hip replacement and six months post total knee.
I was able to hike to a ridge a couple of weeks ago that I have not been to in over five years. It was awesome. Everything just keeps feeling better and stronger. Hip easier than knee. But the knee is feeling really good that last month or so. Strengthwise I think the knee is at about 80%. I have nearly forgotten I had hip surgery sometimes. Rolling over on hard surfaces reminds and sometimes the way I lay not on the sleeping pad camping ( its a think one too) but I am so happy to be able to start being more and more active. Good luck with yours. Do the rehab, even when it sucks. And try to find someone for PT who is active. The first one I saw in the hospital was quite 'you aren't ready for that'. The next one was more of the go for it unless it hurts too bad.
Surgery school yesterday. Three weeks to slice and dice.
Test for contact. Not receiving notifications to my email.
So 1 week plus a day post hippie. Did the larger circuit around the block today. New PR, 14mins! Woo hoo, tomorrow or the next day I'll go for a double loop and PR both. I even had time to chat with a yummy mommy. She was clearly aching for my 'old guy on crutches steeze'. It likely helped that when I met her around a corner I was going nanananana with every new hip step. Even though she was likely born 1 or 2 decades after the '6 million dollar man' aired she still clearly figured this made me pretty hot. I really should have got a go pro for this stuff. A 'crutch cam' that stays dead steady while everything pendulums around it wouldn't be distressing to watch at all and everyone would love the gnarly footage that I would even throw in some big air on. (my crutches have 50mm of travel BTW). Then it was off to walmart to test drive one of those bad boy electric scooters. They sure do corner well! I was hoping to see yummy mommy again. She would have known me since I had my free hand back and up all the time and kept yelling '8 seconds' every 6 or 10 seconds. It was just like sex except for the repetition. Good times. Can't load a pic. oh well.