Hip replacement questions?

[Burn Pile]

Check out some of the range of motion exercises PT will have you doing and give them a try before the cutting. I didn't know about any of them up front so I don't know what my base line range of motion was on the leg before surgery. So I don't have a before/ after comparison for that leg/ hip but its a little bit less than the other one.

Get some crutches before hand. The surgery center/ pharmacy ones are over priced when you can find them in thrift stores. And if you haven't been on them before don't shove em up in your armpits. Use your arms to hold the top part against your rib cage so it and the crutch are actually taking your body weight for you.

Try to have the first month or six weeks of recovery before things get snow and ice or slippery where you live.

And try to find your PT place ahead of time. Go around and do some meet and greets in person, see if they take your insurance, have openings and things like that. See how they handle it and if you like them

 

[Irishman]

A friend that I hunt with had a hip replaced last week of September last year. He's aged 63. He shot an elk first week of November. He shot it down in the worst hole I've ever helped anyone get an elk out of, way below the road, thick brush, and steep enough that you had to put your hands on the ground climbing out. He had a lot of help getting it out, but he was still in and out of that drainage and he did the quartering of the elk. He also had a knee replaced a few years ago, and that took a lot longer to recover from.

 

[SaskHunter]

My BIL had a double direct anterior hip (I think) replacement surgery. He was walking the next day with help and on his feet unaided within a week. He walked with a cane for a little bit but he had significant improvements right off the bat.

He decided to go to see his doctors after visiting with my sister and their kids a few winters ago. We went coyote hunting and I made fun of how stiff he was and how he was struggling to sit down on a hunting chair. He had always had issues but I guess that really hit him how it wasn't "normal" that he was as flexible as a 2x4 in his mid-40s and that his BIL was giving him crap about it. I forget what he had exactly, but his hips were essentially fusing with the sockets. A few months after the surgery, they visited again and we took them on a hike in the Rockies. I was hesitant given the surgery but he kept insisting saying he was good to climb mountains again. Well, he did as well going up as going down! He was pretty religious about physio, icing and doing his stretches, which I'm sure all helped.