Hip Replacement - any experiences?

[Maggie12]

Anyone had hip replacement surgery?
My mother had one replaced last Tuesday. She is in Perth and my sister is looking after her.
Its amazing was medicine can do these days.

Mum seems to be doing fine. They gave her pain killers - 4 a day and she only takes three. She hobbles around on crutches. She says she is very tired and weak, and not very hungry. She says getting into bed is the worst thing. Her leg is kinda like a dead weight as the muscles are not working yet so she has a leg puller-upper. She also needs the other hip done.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this. I am interested in how long to get off pain killers, how long for full recovery, any tips etc.

[Issi]

I haven't any personal experience, but I've known many people who have had this and are fine. I think it's only the cold and things like staircases that bother them.

[Binx]

Dad had a hip replacement about 6- 9 months before his cancer.
He was fine with it, no crutches, no real pain. He was very bruised though & only 76 years old.

[Stormy]

I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this. I am interested in how long to get off pain killers, how long for full recovery, any tips etc.

Not personal experience but I've looked after plenty.

It's different for everyone unfortunately. Individual pain threshold will determine how long she needs pain relief for....some wean off over a fortnight, others take longer. The pain post-op is different to arthritic pain but if she needs the other hip done as well, she will probably get more pain in her non-operative leg because of compensatory muscle pain - the non-operated leg often is forced to work twice as hard until the other leg takes more weight. I can't stress enough the importance of continuing physio in the home - the majority of people that we had "bounce back" with complications were those who went home and sat on their butts and convalesced. And how long it will take her to get fully back to normal function depends on how well she does those exercises and continues physio etc. Some take six weeks, others six months....how long is a piece of string would be my answer to that question.

[Maggie12]

Thanks Stormy, very helpful. Well she is fit, mid 60's and already using less painkillers than they gave her, so hopefully ok. I will tell her how important it is to keep up the physio. She has a kelpie that she adores and she wants to be able to walk her again very soon, so she is very motivated to get better and stay better.

[miss kiki]

i hope she has a fast recovery! and lots and lots of physical therapy is needed.

[Nume]

My Mum had a hip replacement not long ago. She also has has 3 knee replacements. (early 60's, fairly overweight)
However, she is off gallivanting around England at the moment, so I'll ask her when she get's back for more info and a proper time line.

I know she found it very hard to get back on her feet after her 3rd knee operation because there was damage done during surgery to the ligaments and the artificial joint was not attached correctly - this resulted in her needing the Hip replacement.

Now that everything is sorted (knee good, hip good) she gets about without crutches or a stick just fine. She is still going to water aerobics/hydrotherapy at least twice a week and will probably keep that up because it makes her feel great!
She did get very frustrated at first because she didn't heal as quickly as all those footballers who have reconstructions but once we reminded her that she wasn't an elite athlete in her 20's she was quite happy with the progress she made.