My Hip Op Diaries

Friday November 28th 2014

To start, a bit of a catch up.

My hip started bothering me well over 10 years ago and an x-ray showed mild to moderate arthritic degeneration. Skip forward to 2013 and the bother had become a bit of a pain, beginning to limit what I could comfortably do – coastal walks becoming difficult and much shorter, paying later for picking up the Grandbabies and stairs becoming a bit of a challenge. The subsequent x-ray then showed moderate degeneration. Skip forward again to March 2014 and the pain was spoiling our lives. No more walks except into town, standing at choir was paid for the next day, painkillers were needed too often, there was pain on sitting down and standing up….. so to the Dr to discuss hip replacement. The idea totally freaked me out and I decided to put up with things a bit longer, to continue seeing Joe my osteopath who was helping to manage the pain and hope that all would be well. Mr S, however, could really see better than me how our lives had changed.

By July, I too had had enough but it took another month to get an appointment to see the same Doctor! August 19th then was the day that the decision was made and I was referred to the surgeon, Mr Regan. NHS guidelines say that all should be done and dusted by 18 weeks after referral so that meant that by week 52 of this year I would have been operated on and 2015 would see me on the road to recovery, all singing and dancing by March!

My appointment with Mr Regan was on September 6th. Just before I saw him, I had had an extremely painful episode with my lower back and I was, almost hopefully, beginning to wonder if the pain was coming from there and not my hip so I wouldn’t have to have the THR. Mr Regan decided to wait for me to have an MRI on my back, which had been arranged by my Dr and so he said he would see me again in 6 weeks. This fitted perfectly with our plans as we were due to go on a very special holiday to see family in Atlanta, Georgia and Hawaii. I had very little pain while away and managed some walking but by now I was using my stick all the time. We wonder if the warmth contributed to my feeing so much better.

On our return, I had the MRI and saw Mr R on 6th November. The MRI did show that my lower back is very arthritic and iffy but the x-ray that I had at the clinic that day showed that my hip was now seriously compromised and that it was working bone on bone. That was it then. Total Hip Replacement for me.

We had decided on a week in Norfolk and London visiting family as we thought I might be on crutches over Christmas so went away to see the Grandchildren knowing that I would ring up to find out my pre-op assessment date on Friday while we were in London. Infuriatingly,Mr R’s secretary told me the 18 weeks is deemed now to start from November 6th so now it has to be done by March 12th and I really couldn’t believe it. My pre-operative assessment is booked for 23rd December and I’ll have to wait for those results to be fed through before I’ll hear about the operation date.

To follow the Diaries click on the links below. I am telling it like it is/was!

Good News and Mixed Feelings

We Have a Date

In Hospital, Day Zero

In Hospital, Day One

In Hospital, Day Two

In Hospital, Day Three and Home

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 18