Hi MJF,
Thank you very much for your post mate you are by far the most accurate and nearest to my symptoms so far, and also your on the exact same medication as me so the health professionals obviously know more about my symptoms than they are letting down.
I hope you find relief soon and thanks again for all your advice
Chris
hello everyone my names lee and im due to have a full ceramic hip replacement in three weeks im due to go for my pre opp apointment in ten days but im 44 and could really do with some advice cos i havent got a clue what to expect thanks
Please listen to what your body is telling you and don't give up! I had my hip replaced for the 3rd time and the pain was so much worse than ever before. I complained to the doctor repeatedly for the next 5 months and he kept telling me to exercise and that I was older (42) this time. Finally his PA took an x-ray (which they're supposed to do on your first post op office visit) and it was dislocated. He tried to tell me that it wasn't like that the last time I was in but I knew it was. I had to see a specialist and he tried to tell me it had just dislocated recently because people don't just walk around with a dislocated hip. Then he took an MRI and apologized because he could see clearly that it had been dislocated for a long time....long enough for my body to build up new bone where the ball was hitting in an attempt to make a new socket. I had to have major surgery yet again....and two surgeons with no real plan of how to repair me. This has changed my life forever. Hang in there!
Chris, though I don't live in the UK I can understand your pain. I recently had a total hip replacement. My pain level before my surgery was almost non-existentant. woke from surgery with my surgeon standing at the foot of my bed checking my foot. He ran his finger up the bottom of my foot and it felt like someone was taking sharp spikes to the bottom of my foot. It is now asleep and has been since my surgery on the 10 of Jan. He exclaimed that I must have done something to pull a muscle or something. Sorry dude I was asleep, you had the knife not me. I now have foot drop, can feel nothing but needles from my knee down. My foot feels like it has been sitting in ice and about to fall off due to frost bite. I was given a boot to wear constantly to keep my foot in position, some stronger pain meds, which barely mask the pain, and not at all at night. Sleep? that seems to be a thing of the past. I get maybe 2 hours at a time before more meds are needed. The tendons behind my knee feel like they are constricting and very painful when I stand up. I was told the percentage of not regaining the feelings are 40%, 40% that I will get partial, and 20% I will regain total feeling in my foot. I have gone from a 6 to 8 week recover time and ability to go back to work, to 18 months and not much chance I can go back to work doing what I do. I'm 60. hard to start a new career at this point in my life. Reading all of the post, I can see we are all pretty much in the same club.
Hi everyone update on my situation. I had nerve test and told nerve grows back 1mm a day and from this estimstes that depending on how damaged my femoral nerve is to my knee should be some improvement by November 2014. Knee to calf takes a bit longer. As they dont know degree of damage cant guarantee it will part or all recover. Different levels of damage are small pinch, longer pressure on nerve , or severed nerve. Severed unlikely to recover. Small pinch a few weeks after injury , pressure on nerve 1mm a month or no recovery depending on how severe and length of pressure or stretching. So far I have had no improvement since day onestiil have pain cant walk more than about 50 yards with crutches. One good thing I now have a leg brace which stops my leg giving way so I can function more normally about the home like cook without having to use my crutch to lean on. I went swimming for first time yesterday and done 3 lengths used to do 40. My leg feels strange as it does not work when doing breaststroke so virtually one leg swim. Done exercise which much easier in pool. More activity means more pain so pace myself. Surgeon will see me in 3 months. I think my numbness has spread so bit concerned about that. Thoughy I was imagining but definitely going further down below my knee. Has anyone else had this?.
Hi Chris
I had my first thr on the left January 2010 also ceramic on ceramic the pain was awful. My hip squeaked and popped and I had
D a lot on groin pain. They said it was my back. Ha ha I went to 5 diff surgeons to fix it no one would touch me. I had injections X-ray's physical therapy. No relief Well long story short my surgeons partner finally said that I need the cup replaced so I had a second surgery to find out the cup had slipped and created a divit in the titanium had to have the whole thing replaced they broke my femur in this process. Btw way I was 42 and have osteo necrosis it's been 2 and a half years the other hip is not doing so well Ugh I so feel your pain. Good luck to you
Hi everyone,
I am still trying to find the cause of my pain since both hips were replaced in 2011. Surgeon says MRI's are all fine and nothing wrong with the hips. He sent me to the spinal surgeons and after a year of appointments with them they have now said it is not coming from my back and have discharged me saying there is nothing they can do for me. I am now going back to my GP tomorrow to see what happens next. I have an appointment for rheumatology next month as one of the surgeons noticed a rash on my face and they say it may be related to lupus which may account for something! I just want an answer I cannot walk far or stand for long, I am stuck indoors whilst my family are working and enough is enough. This seems to happen more than I ever thought after reading some of these posts. Good luck to you all, if anyone gets any answers please let me know.
I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis of the hips in 2005 from then on I've had 4 surgery's between both hips I've always had pain after the revisions and no one knows why so I know its very frustrating to have pain with no explanation. I thought once the replacements took place I would be pain free and I could have a normal life yeah right. After my first hip replacement started popping and squeaking causing pain I had a revision hoping it would ease the pain but not compleytely. I have finally realized that after 9 years it gets no better there's always pain not as bad as before but there's pain still present. I can't stand for too long or walk to far its so frustrating and sleeping is dreadful. I have to sleep with pillows between my legs for the rest of my life because its painful having my legs close together since my hip replacements. I have now chronic pain because of my hips.
I hope all feels better cause its a hard task to complete.
Hi,
Thanks for your comments. I just want to know what's going on, some kind of diagnosis. All they seem to say is its possible a nerve has been impinged but they don't want to do anything as they say its not bad enough!! It seems like you have been in pain for a very long time, are they going to do anything for you and are you still seeing the consultants? Like you I also sleep with pillows between my legs and am constantly changing position throughout the night hence not a great sleep.
The doctor always says there is nothing wrong xrays mri's all show that it looks good but it doesn't feel good. I truly miss having a normal life and I feel that I will never have that again. I had nerve damage in my left leg after the first replacement but it doesn't bother me as much as the pain does. All the doctors want to do is put you on all types of medications. Every since my hip problems came about all other medical issues have come up. I can't even enjoy my grandsons the pain gets so bad at times.
Oh I can relate to you so much. Everything you have said I have been told. Like you I am unable to lead a normal life and play with my granddaughter how I would like. At least on this site you know you are not on your own. Keep posting and if you get any solutions to the pain let me know and I will do likewise.
I definitely will do the same cause as you know day to day living is not easy and if I can find some comfort from knowing that I'm not alone thats a good thing (mentally) not physically. I will keep updating. :-)
I am 44 years old and very active. I was a marathon runner and had a hip replacement done. My hop replacement was not caused by running it was because I had an arthritic hip. It has been almost 1 year since my replacement and I feel worse than before I had it done. I kept going back to my doctor and he said I had really bad tendinitus. I kept going back because I would get worse and worse. He has tried everything from injections to physical therapy to medication. I was disturbed why he would do injections because there is nothing to inject. He was not very helpful and he continued to tell me he would have not did the replacement if he knew I was going to have this much of a problem. Wow! that is nice to hear. Now this has affected my lower right back and also my top part of my buttocks. I am in so much pain I try not to think about it. I take an aleve everyday and it seems to help some but not much. Because I workout all the time I have tried my own healing process. The best thing I do that feels good and eases the pain is swimming. Instead of running I have taken up swimming and I do love it and it is very good excercise. I did go see another doctor for a second opionion and he told me that the only thing he could see was that because I am so small framed it looks like he stretched my hip out far to put the plate in so he then recommended me to a pain management clinic. Well I do not do very well on medicine so I knew that was out of the question but I went anyway because I saw the neurosurgeon there. He advised the only way to relieve the pain was to put a "Neuro Stimulator" in my spine so that would mean another minor surgery. He did verify that I had nerve damange and that is why I am hurting all the time. So after all of this I am still hurting to this day and fight every minute of the pain. I definitley am not active like I used to be and my lifestyle has changed alot. I am not going to give up and still looking at other possibilities because I do not want to live with this the rest of my life.
Its terrible how we go into surgery and come out worse. I am so shocked reading all these problems aftr surgery for hip replacement. It seems that a lot of the surgeons dont like to admit that they have caused damage during surgery. Just left to deal with our new situation that had left us more disabled. I am nowabout 16 weeks post op. Although I no longer suffer with excruciating muscle spasms which I had the first few weeks I have lots of different sensations in my leg which are not assevere due to high dose of Tramadol. I had accepted my limitations because of my previous accident damage. I was
not prepared for the instability of my leg. I also have gone back to swimming but it is strange not knowing what my operated leg is doing due to the numbness. I am hardly doing any walking ad it is difficult and painful. I personally would be reluctant to go through any more operations. I almost definitely would put up with psin than have a spinal implant it could cause further problems. So much for all the testimonials I heard or read prior to the op of how marvellous new hips are. Thats all I used to hear never heard anyone have a problem.
Hi Debbie, Chrs b and all newcomers,
My hip surgery was done in 2011 (both hips). Ongoing pain particularly on left side ever since, my first op was on my right leg under normal anaesthetic, second op on left was done under epidural. Someone mentioned this may be the problem - how?
I have just spent the past year seeing the spinal surgeons as my hip surgeon did not know what to do with me. After admitting I have degenerative L4, L5 problems and all the symptoms of a trapped nerve they have discharged me. I asked him what am I supposed to do now and he shrugged his shoulders and said he did not know. Apparently my symptoms on the MRI do not look severe enough to correct - they did not take into account that I cannot walk anywhere or stand for any length of time and my pain is awful, I have now been back to my GP to discuss this with her, she has changed my medication to Gabapentin, to date no change. She is referring me to the Pain Clinic, I have done all the physio routes so no need for them again as I do exercises at home. She is also referring me to Rheumatology as the spinal surgeon noticed a butterfly rash on my face at one particular visit - this could be a sign of Lupus - what joy if it is something else to add to my symptoms. I have an appointment for this on 28 April so will keep you all informed.
I am fed up of being stuck indoors, my family go out to work and I cannot get out on my own. I wish everyone good luck in getting a diagnosis and lets face it if you get one they probably won't do anything about it!
Forgot to say I wasted just over a year going back and forth to the spinal surgeon!
This is very upsetting to know so many people are suffering after total hip replacement. I had this operation January of 2013 on my left side. I have arthritis, fibromyalgia and degenerative disc problems. After over a year and loads of pain medication (which I should not have needed after surgery), I still have pain and burning in my hip. Believe it or not I have been embarrassed to tell my surgeon that I have not really gotten any better. I was thinking I was just a wimpy woman. Now I know different. Thanks to all of you for giving me the courage to speak out (not that it will do any good). After all surgeons are always right......right?
Hi Phyllis, I found that joining this site did me a lot of good as I could speak to people who really related to my problems. You need to speak out and should not feel bad in doing so. I hope you manage to get your pain resolved, keep going and don't give in.
Thanks Sue so much for the reply. I was so active before even with the hip pain, more so than now. It took
two years for the surgeon to persuade me to have this op. I should have listened to my own body and what it was saying. Somehow you are convinced the pain will go in a year. Not so much....... Live and learn. I promise I will not give in. I am just sick of doctors, surgeons and medications. I now have a meniscus tear in my knee and have been approved to see the same surgeon. I suppose now is my opportunity to just speak up.
I am also fed up of doctors, surgeons and of course all the medications! I wish you luck with your knee problems and hope the surgeon manages to repair it without any issues. You are quite right in what you say, you do need to speak up (can't promise they will listen though), sometimes just saying what you need to makes you feel a little better 