Extreme pain after total hip replacement

Hi Mark.  I had an anterior total hip replacement 18 months ago.  I am still experiencing excruciating pain, upon any movement, and when i sit for a perod of time and get up.  The surgeon who did my replacement is a very well known and an excellent surgeon.  The scar is especially tender and looks terrible with a big indention in my upper leg.  I am currently just doing therapy, because he was afraid that therapy would dislocate my hip, why I do not know.l  I have muscle atrophy, but the pain feels like the hip prosthesis itself.  And at times the pain is severe.   My xrays show that the hip is in place and looks perfect, with pins in it.  He has told me that I would never be able to work again, but has really no explanations as to why I am in so much pain.  One leg is longer than the other, so i had something put in my shoe to help, and it has done nothing.  I continue with therapy, and they are doing needle puncture into my muscle when I go.  I feel like at time they think I am faking this pain, but why would I do that, and continue to have therapy to hopefully resolve this.  I have not had a second opinion yet.  But my life has literally been put on hold for years because I am unable to do alot of things.  So my surgeon has been having me come back to him every 3 months and giving me injections in my hip. 

I have had several revisions to my left hip. i currently manage to do a iot of manual work but a big no no is to have any massaging to that area. If so the pain is extreemly high. Once after a intense massage on that area I was admitted to hospital for several days. A recent gentle  massage by a physio left me in terrible pain for several days.

How is your mother doing now?  Did she find any relief or improvment. I see it has been a year since this discussion took place.  I had a total hip replacement in July - I'm 5 1/2 months out.  I still cannot walk without limping and have trouble standing up from a sitting position.  If I fell to the ground, I would be unable to get myself up.  I am 54 years old and very active.  I am an avid snow skier and snowmobiler.  We hillclimb.  At this point in time, I cannot even begin to imagine skiing.  I have been out on my snowmobile, but must be very careful.  I have had both knees replaced and will tell you they were a piece of cake compared to the hip.  My orthopedic surgeon told me this would be a breeze compared to the knees - it wasn't.  I do a knee all over again if the lingering pain from my hip would go away.  Every one has an opinion, but no answers.  Just wondering if you mother ever found a solution.  Thank you

I am two years post op for a total hip replaced at the age of 46. to this day I still have moderate pain, the same as before I had the surgery like a pain of 4-5 with 8-9 prior to surgery. I have been back to the orthopedic 3 times and had a nuclear bone density MRI, blood work to confirm no infection, and X-rays. They have no idea why Im still having the same issues and assure me everything is normal, very frustrated to say the least. I'm seeing a different ortho guy next week to get a second set of eyes . I do have the "popping" noise like your readers have stated like it wants to pop out. I know how you all feel with the ongoing pain. I will keep reading the post as to maybe find an option that someone has tried. Good luck to all..

Hello, I might be way to late for a reply but I just saw your discussion so I thought I would give it a shot. I am 43 and had bilateral THR 18 months ago and I am in excruciating pain everyday with both hips left being worse than right. Five months ago after begging my surgeon to help me and being told to tough it out I was accepted to be seen by Stanford Hospital in CA. Within 30 seconds of my visit several orthopedic surgeons told me unfortunately both my hips are the wrong size and both placed at extremely wrong angles which is causing the excruciating pain. It hurts to move period. Sitting hurts, standing hurts and I can't walk without crutches and I have to swing my legs because walking or the movement of walking causes too much pain. The point is I could have been fixed with corrective surgery but it needed to be caught within approximately a 4-5 month window. Now everything is too stretched out and won't hold new prosthetics in place and good chance I won't walk again if I have revision surgery. Again I am way late but I am one of those extreme cases of wrong size hips and wrong angles. If the angles and size are. It extremely off there is still a chance of revision but for me it's too extreme. I was the 5th case and only case not caught in time for corrective surgery. So I would suggest if you have not already or I missed it and you wrote about it, I would go to new surgeon and have them look at pre and post surgery X-rays and just see if what happened to me is what might be the root of the problem. I say I live Groundhogs Day because the pain reminds me of 3-4 weeks post op and that's no joke the more I do the worse it gets and I am in bed several days a week because of the pain. I hope I'm too late and everything is better but if not just have the size and angle checked out, like they told me if it's extremely off it will cause sever pain.

William

I am so glad to have come across this discussion. It's been about a month and 7 days for me since my surgery. I thought I pulled something in my groin with the pain I have there. My hip also pops but only when I am sitting. When I walk the pain for me is hard to explain other than like a metal rod pinging against my whole leg bones. The night trying to sleep is the worst because you barely get sleep. Your whole leg has a mind of it's own because of the hip.  It's a mix between a charlie horse feeling and your leg wanting to stiffen at the same time. Then you think am I getting a blood clot? So your constantly looking at your calf to make sure. I hope to never have to go threw this again. I think the pain is worse than before the surgery! Hope everyone is better..

hi mark,

you posted this 2 years ago i hope your mother is ok now.

i had a failure thr 11yrs ago. (massive infection) still suffering all the symptoms your mom had. my surgeon has given up and told me to live with it.

this is me everyday. i'm pain free if i'm in bed.get up in the morning feeling good for 3to5mins then after that pain gets worst. i worked it out prolong standing and walking is a no no.if i overdo, it takes the whole day to settle down.so the main cause is pressure.no exercise can help anymore coz more exercise more pain.i dont take pain medication because as i said i'm pain free if i am in bed or lying or no weight-bearing. i use a mobility scooter now for long distance activities.

to those who are suffering from failure thr hope you find a way to

cope with the pain.

Mark:

I can totally relate!

I had an Anterior THR (8/25/16) I knew at about 6 months I wasn’t healing as I should be.  I still had a lot of stiffness, swelling and pain.  The swelling finally subsided with constant inflamatory pills and Injections. However the stiffness, pain and aching has not subsided.  Fast forward to (12/6/17) I was hospitalized because I woke up one morning and couldn’t stand or sit without burning zapping pains running down my left THR leg, upper groin,  thigh and back.  (I couldn’t even sit to pee or stand to get to the bathroom) 8 cortisone shots later and 2 weeks in hospital being poked and prodded, they finally diagnosed me with Maralgia Parasethica!  I am now 1.5 years Post THR & my body aches all over, and my leg pinches and throbs if I sit, stand or walk more than 10 minutes!  I’m in chronic pain and all the Dr’s suggest is burning (or as they call it “Ablating” my nerves!)

I was a healthy 50 yr old fit woman and now I can barely sit or stand and my pain is worse and now chronic compared to before my surgery!

I only hope and pray for Blessings and a miracle!  As I dread the thought of a Revision.  I hope you find a cure- keep me posted if you do

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Did you ever get your answer? My mom is going through the sa.e thing now. They discovered bone has grown in the hip replacement. It's not a good situation. There is another surgery and radiation,but I'm not sure this has a good pronosis

Hello I am so sorry to hear about how your mother is still suffering a yr after THR. I too am suffering very badly and it has been 13 years since my THR. I hurt day and night, all day, every day. I have had many X-Rays and they say that everything looks good. When I walk I can actually hear and feel popping in my groin area (joint). I am so depressed and i feel like the doctors don't care. I tried to get my records recently and the office won't send them even after my doctor requested them. I have had pain even after my surgery, the pain is so bad that it feels like a burning sensation in my groin area. This whole ordeal has ruined my life due to the pain. I am always sad and crying all the time. The pain medicine doesn't always help. Someone please give me some advice as I don't know what else to do. Thank You