15 weeks and still in pain

Oh dear, poor you.  Have you been doing too much exercise and perhaps your muscles are protesting?  Leave off the physio for a few days and see if it gets any better.  Are you still using crutches or sticks?  If you go for a gentle walk take one with you and that might help.  Don't give up as it takes much longer for some people than others so go at your own pace.  You may find that at 20 weeks it gets a lot better as they do say it takes up to 6-9 months or even a year to get back to complete normality.  Best wishes to you.  You will probably get a lot more suggestions or advice on here.

((((hugs))) have yu got chocolate and a glass of wine? sorry I can't offer you anything else love as I don't get mine done until Thursday xx

Hi DeeDee

I had this and it did not go away. 16 months later the consultant and I gave up waiting for the tightness to resolve and sought second opinions from 2 different consultants. They both said that the head - the bit that turns the corner with the ball on it - was too long and I was never going to loosen up with physio - indeed I could not do my physio either. All along my consultant has said the xrays look fine, i had MRI, CT scans and ultrasound - and the second opinions also say that the placement of the hip joint is not outside normal - it just has not suited me. Apparantly if you have hypermobility or dysplasia it can be really hard for the surgeon to get balance right between too lax and you dislocate or too tight and it never sorts itself out. This is quite rare. The second opinion I saw was Mr Gundle in Oxford and he said he had done plenty of revisions where you just swap out the head - so theres no messing with bones - and had good results from patients previously in high pain, even when on strong meds.

I sought early on the view of an osteopath who helped me with secondary problems which had built up and he also gave me confidence that I had a real problem - so that is worth considering.

 

Dont give up but be prepared for a long haul -- get some gentle massage and acupuncture if you can and gentle physio too - nothing gym related. Give it time and if there is no progress ask for a second opinion - most consultants do want to do a good job and sometimes just need a fresh pair of eyes. I am getting a revision after the other hip is replaced.

Good luck to you xxx

Good morning deedee ...I am (just) 9 weeks post op and restrictions have just been lifted last week - being on this forum has helped me a lot in understanding what I am going through .. recovery has not been as speedy as I expected - I agree - the pain I felt before surgery is gone  but replaced by others - seem that a new, different muscle group makes it appearance !!! I feel the "hardware" - the ball in socket and rod in thight and have spasms in my lower back - Physical Therapy is challenging and is painful ... You defintely didn't do it for nothing !!! 

If it really is so bad I would think about what Christine posted - it can't hurt to get a second or even a third opinion ...take care and be gentle with your self ... big hug 

Hi DeeDee:

The Doctors look at the X-ray, and it looks fine.  The pain continues.  My research has  discovered that the problem is possibly with the components of the prosthesis.

Firstly metal and plastic in the ball head and cup cause wear particles that are not compatible with your body.  A similar problem occurs with the joint between the metal stem and the ball.  If the two metals are dissimilar there is galvanic corrosion.  There is taper fretting where the metal taper fits inside the ball.  Everytime  you walk and lift your foot the weight and unweight causes corrosion inside the ball.  And there is thing called crevice corrosion in the tiny joint around the stem and ball.  This can happen with ceramic balls as well.

All these metal particles find their way into the muscles of your hip.  This is responsible for Pain. Bone loss. Loosening of the stem in your femur. Pseudo tumors in the muscle ( apparently the muscle gets very hard and firm).  Metal ions in your blood. And probably more. 

These are just some things that I have found so far.  You need to educate yourself from the Internet on all these things so that you can make good choices for yourself that you can live with.

Some people don't care about what I have written.  But I think a well-informed person is far better off.  Then at the very least you will be able to live with the consequences of your decisions.  And you may even be able to help the manufacturers change their products for the future.  They all know about these things but the patient is not informed beforehand.

I feel sorry for all the people who go ahead with THR without knowing, and find out later that their options are few.  Some will say that the relief of pain from the THR is worth any thing else that may go wrong.  Perhaps there is a different way to relieve the pain without replacement (such as removing the edge of the cup so that the femur doesn't contact it any more and cause bone spurs.)  We need to find al;ternatives to THR.

Hope this helps.

Mikey     

    

Hi DeeDee I'm 12 wks post op today and my muscles still ache daily ! I find no pain from the hip and my walking seems to be much better but have such a burning sensation in my thigh muscles and my knees are stiff hope it improves for us both soon.

Hi DeeDee I'm 12 wks post op today and my muscles still ache daily ! I find no pain from the hip and my walking seems to be much better but have such a burning sensation in my thigh muscles and my knees are stiff hope it improves for us both soon.

I'm about 15 weeks and also wondering when the pain will stop. between that and my spine I don't know what to do.