Hip replacement gone bad

It was uncemented.   My doctor believes the implant dropped after surgery.   I did experience a slight crack to the bone during surgery..  I have two ring clamps around my leg.    I hope they get it right this time.   thank you for your support....

PT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.. I cannot stress that enough. Once the muscles have been strengthen then walking and living a normal life becomes easier .. Til it's no longer a issue...A life to value with no pain.. To mild pain.. U must follow UR PT advice in order to allow urself a chance at a good recovery. Always follow thru on check ups if u have any problems. Don't be afraid to ask for X-rays or records on the proceedure.. Keep handy for issues u may have down the line for other surgeons opinions.. Even if UR surgeon is touted to be the best in the land there is always room for mistakes. Know the manufacturer and serial # of the implant. Be informed stay informed.. It's UR health and UR worth every bit of concern. 

Be good & do o all UR exercises as u can and u will build up strength.. If u ever have any issues call UR dr. I am not a dr. I can only speak from 3 THR Everone is different. Remember it takes time for the bones to heal ... By exercising u are providing much needed oxygen and blood supply to the areas for better proper & healing... 

My last hip is recalled... STRYKER MANUFACTURER AGBll..PLZ see online for all explainations, will help u understand how important it is ti be sure u r healing correctly.

A 3 time THR...my story is to share my experiences.

hugs, peace & healing prayers sent UR way!

Although there are many THR which go wrong,these represent a small percentage of the total replacements done..No consolation of course for those that go wrong..

I am 17wks post THR and only started seeing any benefits in the last few weeks,almost convincing myself something was amiss,it's still not 100%,but better than before the op..

I do have a few friends who were pain free straight after their op and were walking without aids after 16wks.

After following all the posts on here over the months it oes appear however that THR can be hit and miss..

It is a much more technical op than the general public think,and as with an y procedures things can and do go wrong.

I now need my other hip replacing,but after the pain of the past 17wks I will wait until I literally cannot walk.

Wishing everybody still suffering a speedy recovery.

I'm not sure that waiting until the very last minute is the best approach, and perhaps it is. I had to have my hip replaced because of Osteoartthritis. The head if the femer and the socket the bones become inflamed (at least that is the way I think of it) with the cartilage worn away. I think the longer you wait that you risk weakening the bones, especially that stub of femer they have to jab the rod down into.

I don't have any research to back me up on this so I could be wrong. But the pain we have, which forces us into the surgery it's an inflamation type of bone pain I think.

I waited 10 months between the 2 hips, it was just about right for me as i did not see myself going thru the surgery after 3 months, which was my doctor's recommendation.  At around month 10 i felt strong enough physically and emotionally for the second surgery.  I am now 13 weeks post anterior.  My only regret is that i did not go for posterior approach like my first hip, but i am  doing okay.

Waiting too long may lead to poor muscle strength as you reduce activity to reduce the pain. This leads to slow and difficult rehab.

In some cases you can get loss of bone - I nearly ended up with a bone graft on the socket but fortunately the loss of bone hadn't gone too far but I may well need one if I have to have a revision.

There is a window of opportunity where the arthritis is bad enough to justify the riisks but the muscle and bone problems haven't gone too far. If you need the other hip done then you need it doing before the poor gait caused by the 'pending' hip has damaged the replaced one so again there is a window and 3-6 months seems typical for most surgeons. 

Good luck.  I'm having my knee done in a few weeks so it will be back to the crutches & painkillers for me as well so I have some idea of what you are facing.

I think you are correct Ross..

Before my recent THR I suffered with an arthritic hip for at least 15yrs if not longer,but being reasonably fit t I could manage ok..However in the last 18 months the pain became so bad I could only walk a few hundred yards without having to stop and rest,so I was forced into my replacement..

As you point out I think my recovery has taken far longer than it should because of bones grating together,than if I'd had the op years ago..

However now being 65 my new hip should in theory last my lifetime.

Strange how now my replacement hip is improving my other hip is starting to give real trouble.

Going against all logic I keep hoping I will wake up one morning and the pain is gone ha...,but see a replacement happening early next year if not sooner.

PT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.. I cannot stress that enough. Once the muscles have been strengthen then walking and living a normal life becomes easier .. Til it's no longer a issue...A life to value with no pain.. To mild pain.. U must follow UR PT advice in order to allow urself a chance at a good recovery. Always follow thru on check ups if u have any problems. Don't be afraid to ask for X-rays or records on the proceedure.. Keep handy for issues u may have down the line for other surgeons opinions.. Even if UR surgeon is touted to be the best in the land there is always room for mistakes. Know the manufacturer and serial # of the implant. Be informed stay informed.. It's UR health and UR worth every bit of concern. 

Be good & do o all UR exercises as u can and u will build up strength.. If u ever have any issues call UR dr. I am not a dr. I can only speak from 3 THR Everone is different. Remember it takes time for the bones to heal ... By exercising u are providing much needed oxygen and blood supply to the areas for better proper & healing... 

A 3 time THR...my story is to share my experiences.

hugs, peace & healing prayers sent UR way!

I hate to say it but it could just be that the 'good' hip was coping with the reduced activity but not the rehab.  Could also be that the 'bad' hip was so painful that the twinges in the 'good' hip were disregarded  - now they are more noticeable.  Perhaps your good hip should have been called your not so bad hip.

However, providing you realise that every op is different, you will have a lot of experience to bring to your second hip replacement when it comes.

Good luck

'Not so bad hip' haha...correct.

Well you could argue that after the long recovery this time,there's only one way to go next time and that's up!

A friend of mines first op went so well that he was worried the second one could only be worse,but in fact that went as well as the first.

He did the right thing in choosing his surgeon very carefully,in fact it was the same guy one who did Alex Fergusons..one of the top surgeons in the UK.

But he did , have private health care though..

does anybody if you can actually choose your surgeon with the NHS??

I  live in Scotland and I got the one I wanted within the local health area. I had to wait a bit longer and sign a disclaimer so they didn't get fined for over-running the waiting time guarantee. I've done the same with my knee which I'll be getting next month.

In principle you should be able to do the same in England but if you want to go out of area you might have to do a bit of persuasion. Talk to the most sypathetic GP in your practice. Good luck.

Your situation mirrors mine exactly,the dreaded osteoarthritis made my op much more complex..but I did wait too long before a replacement,always managing to find to find some lame,ha,excuse not to have it done..

Im a slow learner so will probably repeat the mistake of waiting too long for my next op...ah well.

Please don't leave it until you are limping and putting unusual loads on your new hip.  Engineers and surgeons work on the assumption that you will be moving correctly after surgery and avoiding limps is more likely to give you a long implant life (plus avoiding repetitive impact loading, obesity etc etc).

I suspect I will need the other hip and possibly the other knee done as well, eventually, but with any luck they'll hang on for another year or two.

That's good advice Ross and completely logical...but human nature being what it is we tend to put things off which we know will be painful,even though we know we shouldn't..

Hopefully by early next year the pain,lack of sleep and mild depression of the first 12wks of my first hip op will be a distant memory and I will go under the knife again.

As I keep telling myself the next one could be relatively pain free as it has been for quite a few friends of mine.

Can I ask as i am 13 weeks post op and still off work as I am a cook and a lot of bending/stretching because I work alone and this last few days am getting excruciating pains off and on in top of leg and getting really worried. Don't need crutches to walk but still limp and sleep is still crap should I be worried.

F found your post interesting as I'm 11 weeks post op and have been disappointed as I have heard all these report from people who have said how well their ops went and they were exercising and back to pain free lives immediately. 

I don't know if I'm over doing the exercise but I'm working hard to get my muscles toned to hold the new joint in place, but it's rare I don't have any pain or discomfort and still need to take co-codamols regularly! I can't help but wonder if there is a problem, I still feel similar pain in my groin that I felt prior to the op!