Hello everyone, brand new to gransnet, what a brilliant site. Thought I would share my recent experience of hip replacement. I was diagnosed in October of last year with very severe osteoarthritis in my right hip. I had experienced pain for well over 18 months but had put it down to an historic back injury a few years ago. The longest wait was for the consultant appointment 11 weeks, but the operation was 9 weeks later and i am now almost 4 weeks post op. I was lucky in that my operation was done in a private orthopaedic hospital on the NHS. I have to say I really had a rough 3 months prior to the op, very nervous about the procedure and ever increasing pain and reduced mobility. I needn’t have worried, it all went well, out of bed a few hours post op, physio the next day with exercises and up and down 8 stairs. The main thing was that the awful pain had gone, there was soreness of course at the incision site but in relation to what it was before very minimal. I went home 48 hrs after the op. We had moved a single bed down to the family room, so I was there for much of the next two weeks, getting up regularly to do the exercises. There is an aching sensation in the hip but it feels like a healing pain. Stitches out after 2 weeks, all good. Quite a bit of swelling which did concern me but it is very common and has now decreased significantly. I am now up to 1 km a day walking in the house on one crutch in 3 lots of about 300metres. I get up to do my exercises every hour. For the first 2 weeks I used a frame but my daughter who is a nurse encouraged me to use the crutches for more fluid movement. I still have my compression stockings on. Yesterday we went to our local shopping centre I walked around for about half an hour and then lunch, so lovely to get out of the house. Aids we had were , portable commode next to me for use through the night, a frame and crutches. Hope this helps someone xx
