# Total hip replacement and riding 10 days later!



## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

10-25-10 Total hip replacement (SuperPATH method, Dr. Jimmy Chow in Phx AZ)
10-25-10 Walked 300' in hospital
10-26-10 Left the hospital after one night's stay and a few laps around the floor
10-27-10 Walked 1 mile with a cane...kept doing it every day
11-2-10 Walked 1.7 miles with a cane to vote
11-3-10 Walked 2 miles with a cane
11-4-10 Walked 1 mile without a cane, did a pilates mat workout, pumped the legs on the Bowflex, RODE MY 29er

My neighbor took the biking photo - as I launched off I promised her I'd stay on the streets (notice Keens on feet). But the lure of the dirt was too much. My Keens, new hip, and I put in about 5 miles on Desert Classic, the easy trail at South Mountain in my back yard. What a glorious feeling after being off the bike for a few months due to hip pain!!! Phx weather couldn't be better right now - I'm going biking this weekend!!

I had my surgical follow-up today and I hugged my doctor :thumbsup:


If anyone is considering hip resurfacing or replacement, it is worth your while to travel to Phoenix to see Dr. Chow. I'll report back after more time to let all know how the healing has continued


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## jewels (Mar 17, 2004)

:thumbsup: very impressive! I'm 8 weeks out from a shoulder injury and you are already riding 5 miles!? Take it easy and slow! I've had a string of injuries lately, mostly due to not waiting long enough for the body to mend completely. lesson learned! My friend is also on the verge of a labrum resurfacing or total hip replacement. She is going to Vail to have it done, but I'll let her know about this Dr. as well. Quick healing to you!


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## Moementum (Oct 21, 2006)

That's great news Kathleen! Welcome to the club. Now you can start living your life again, but go easy. What are the components made of?


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## V.P. (Aug 26, 2007)

awesome, may I ask you how 'young' you are?


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## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

Moementum said:


> That's great news Kathleen! Welcome to the club. Now you can start living your life again, but go easy. What are the components made of?


Hard to believe this took place only two weeks ago. I'm far from 100% but am in way better shape than I ever dreamed. Today's walk was 2 miles 

My new parts are Wright Medical - titanium cup and femur inserts, neck is chrome-cobalt, ball is alumina ceramic, cup liner is plastic (highly-polymerized blah blah blah). Cement-less, so my bone has to grow into the porous titanium. All parts are modular so that any replacements in the future should be easier than the original surgery. Plus Dr. Jimmy Chow is about 10 years younger than me so he should still be working his magic if I need an upgrade down the road.



V.P. said:


> awesome, may I ask you how 'young' you are?


I am 48.


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## BBoy (Nov 2, 2009)

Wow U da man!!!!


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## Maadjurguer (Mar 22, 2008)

she's lying....she's 38...sandbagging at it's finest!


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## Hugor (Aug 27, 2008)

Sounds pretty foolish if you ask me.
Risk of dislocation in the first 3 months is very high and this is greatest with the hip flexed and internally rotated which is the position you demonstrate in that riding shot.
If you dislocate and scratch that ceramic head you set yourself up for early failure of the implant.
Furthermore you risk stretching the repairing muscle and capsular attachments that are crucial to your long term function.
Your obviously young to have a hip replacement and your surgeon will be wanting to get the longest amount of time out of this one before the inevitable revisions.
Why risk all this for the sake of another couple of months off the bike allowing your muscles and tissues to heal properly?


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## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

Hugor said:


> Sounds pretty foolish if you ask me.
> Risk of dislocation in the first 3 months is very high and this is greatest with the hip flexed and internally rotated which is the position you demonstrate in that riding shot.
> If you dislocate and scratch that ceramic head you set yourself up for early failure of the implant.
> Furthermore you risk stretching the repairing muscle and capsular attachments that are crucial to your long term function.
> ...


Honestly, my doc said I had no restrictions at all. His minimally invasive technique preserves all the muscles and tendons so all I'm really waiting for is my bone to grow into the porous titanium implants. But here's the kicker... the other part of his instructions were "listen to your body". I guess that meant STOP if it hurts... Well, stop is not really something I'm good at. He told me to walk 1 mile, so I was walking 3. It hurt, so I figured I just needed to walk more. "Push thru the pain" was not what he meant by "listen to your body". Duh. I've had some setbacks, but I'm hopefully on the right track now. Patience is a new skill that I am now learning


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## Sparkle Bear (Apr 19, 2010)

It is amazing what they can do with hips and modern medicine.

link


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## helo300 (Jun 2, 2005)

DurtGurl said:


> Honestly, my doc said I had no restrictions at all. His minimally invasive technique preserves all the muscles and tendons so all I'm really waiting for is my bone to grow into the porous titanium implants. But here's the kicker... the other part of his instructions were "listen to your body". I guess that meant STOP if it hurts... Well, stop is not really something I'm good at. He told me to walk 1 mile, so I was walking 3. It hurt, so I figured I just needed to walk more. "Push thru the pain" was not what he meant by "listen to your body". Duh. I've had some setbacks, but I'm hopefully on the right track now. Patience is a new skill that I am now learning


That's great to hear. Did your physician know you would be mtn. biking? My surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY said I should go with metal, as the risk of fx. with ceramic is a concern. He did say that ceramic would wear much better though, so make sure you use double suspension! 
Does it feel any different, as in, does it feel like something foreign in your body or do you not notice it at all really? Did you have avascular necrosis or just bad osteoarthritis? I am slated to go next month in Oct. Best of luck with that and enjoy your newfound freedom!


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## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

helo300 said:


> That's great to hear. Did your physician know you would be mtn. biking? My surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY said I should go with metal, as the risk of fx. with ceramic is a concern. He did say that ceramic would wear much better though, so make sure you use double suspension!
> Does it feel any different, as in, does it feel like something foreign in your body or do you not notice it at all really? Did you have avascular necrosis or just bad osteoarthritis? I am slated to go next month in Oct. Best of luck with that and enjoy your newfound freedom!


Almost two years later and I'm so glad I had the surgery. Recovery was a little longer than I had planned, but within 3 months I was back on a bike, and in 8 I was doing A-line at Whistler! No problems at all since the surgery and now I don't even think about the fact that I have a replacement hip. It just works. I have a tiny scar, ~3" on my butt cheek, and no pain. I needed the surgery due to osteoarthritis. My bones looked like swiss cheese in the MRIs, full of cysts and nasty bone-on-bone. I've since shattered by wrist biking last Feb and am now healed from that. Funny thing... I used to have horrible arthritis in my hands and thumb joints. Since breaking and healing from my wrist, that has disappeared. I've also just turned 50. Fight it!!! Age is a state of mind.  Good luck to you in Oct! my 2 year anniversary is Oct 25th. I'm going to go hug my doc at my yearly checkup.


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## helo300 (Jun 2, 2005)

DurtGurl said:


> Almost two years later and I'm so glad I had the surgery. Recovery was a little longer than I had planned, but within 3 months I was back on a bike, and in 8 I was doing A-line at Whistler! No problems at all since the surgery and now I don't even think about the fact that I have a replacement hip. It just works. I have a tiny scar, ~3" on my butt cheek, and no pain. I needed the surgery due to osteoarthritis. My bones looked like swiss cheese in the MRIs, full of cysts and nasty bone-on-bone. I've since shattered by wrist biking last Feb and am now healed from that. Funny thing... I used to have horrible arthritis in my hands and thumb joints. Since breaking and healing from my wrist, that has disappeared. I've also just turned 50. Fight it!!! Age is a state of mind.  Good luck to you in Oct! my 2 year anniversary is Oct 25th. I'm going to go hug my doc at my yearly checkup.


That's so funny, I'm 48 now too. The exact same age you had your surgery at. I have avascular necrosis with the accompanying osteoarthritis. Steroids given to me for a medical condition I had back in the late 80's, killed my bone. I used calcitonin injections which saved my rt. hip for a while, but after a certain point, was diminishing returns. Anyhow, last year I did the UCI race at Windham and did a race here in NY called the Wildcat 25 and got 2nd in that. I paid for it though, barely being able to walk to my car after the race.(At least I got a T/shirt for it though  I have to take 2 Advil and lots of anti-ache cream on my hip in order to do a ride now, especially on the road. It is frustrating as hell as you know.
With all the recent recalls of various hip replacement prosthethes, I am a little leery of the implants now, and want to make sure that I get the right one, with hopefully the right surgeon to do the job. At the Hospital for Special Surgery they use Stryker and DePuy(Johnson and Johnson). Time will tell I guess. 
Did you try arthritis medications to buy some time before you finally decided to do surgery? Thanks for the reply and hope you enjoy a great season out in AZ. My mtn. bike coach lives out in Tucson. One day, I'll climb Mt. Lemmon with him....one day. Thanks again!

Greg


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## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

helo300 said:


> That's so funny, I'm 48 now too. The exact same age you had your surgery at. I have avascular necrosis with the accompanying osteoarthritis. Steroids given to me for a medical condition I had back in the late 80's, killed my bone. I used calcitonin injections which saved my rt. hip for a while, but after a certain point, was diminishing returns. Anyhow, last year I did the UCI race at Windham and did a race here in NY called the Wildcat 25 and got 2nd in that. I paid for it though, barely being able to walk to my car after the race.(At least I got a T/shirt for it though  I have to take 2 Advil and lots of anti-ache cream on my hip in order to do a ride now, especially on the road. It is frustrating as hell as you know.
> With all the recent recalls of various hip replacement prosthethes, I am a little leery of the implants now, and want to make sure that I get the right one, with hopefully the right surgeon to do the job. At the Hospital for Special Surgery they use Stryker and DePuy(Johnson and Johnson). Time will tell I guess.
> Did you try arthritis medications to buy some time before you finally decided to do surgery? Thanks for the reply and hope you enjoy a great season out in AZ. My mtn. bike coach lives out in Tucson. One day, I'll climb Mt. Lemmon with him....one day. Thanks again!
> 
> Greg


I tried some injections over the two years prior to surgery. They'd help for about 3 months but then the pain would always return. You can hide it, but the condition was doing nothing but getting worse. Advil does nothing for me in the pain dept, so that wasn't an option. Surgery was the answer! When that deep pain is finally gone, even right after surgery, you'll wish you hadn't waited so long.

My implants are made by Wright - ceramic head to plastic-lined Ti cup. Being a failure analyst and a metallurgist by trade, I was also very concerned by the recalls. The big deal is still metal-on-metal. Seems it's not nearly the problem for men as compared to women. In fact, my doc does not put any MOM into women. He also will rarely do the resurfacing technique because it uses a large MOM ball and socket... therefore more metal ions introduced to the body. Go for at least 2 or 3 opinions. But in the end, you just need to trust your chosen doc with his decision of what is best for you.


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## peanuthead (May 31, 2004)

Congrats! That's awesome. Did you have osteoarthritis or was there some type of trauma/injury involved?


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## DurtGurl (Dec 10, 2001)

peanuthead said:


> Congrats! That's awesome. Did you have osteoarthritis or was there some type of trauma/injury involved?


Just arthritis, no injury. My hip was also a little wacky from the start - my right foot always pointed out way more than the left. Doc thinks that might have contributed to the problems - he put me back together with my foot pointing forward. I think the hardest part of the healing was teaching my leg muscles to move differently.


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## SundayRiverRider (Oct 29, 2008)

I need a knee replacement soon. Longer grind back from that and I'm not looking forward to it.

Amazed you could ride that quickly after surgery. Glad to see it worked out.


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## crashdad (Sep 14, 2008)

I read this post about a year ago. I was preparing for a total hip replacement. I e-mailed Kathleen about her experiance. I was extremely scared that I would not be able to ride my bike the same after hip replacement.
I had the surgery Oct 28 2013. 6 weeks later I rode my bike on the road for the first time.. 10 weeks I was riding the trails. April 27-2014 I did my first race of the season.
2014 Trailblazer Race Series | FVMBA I now go to spin class twice a week. my only regrets is that I waited too long for the surgery. My advice is get it done and follow the advice of the surgeon. do the physio . I have no pain . I have taken some falls . ( I do wear the six six one padded underwear now as a precaution) I think now I ride better than before the surgery . I will be 56 this year.

looking forward to the next race .


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