Pleased with the Procedure He Postponed for YearsBy Sheila Dwyer, Body1 Staff
As people grow older, many notice their once-strong bones beginning to deteriorate. Thousands of Americans suffer from chronic hip pain due to injury or arthritis because they are reluctant to consult their doctor. Total Hip Replacement (THR) surgery offers these people alleviation from their pain.
Richard O’Rourke, 62, suffered from chronic hip pain for seven years. In 1993, he began to notice stiffness and soreness in his left hip. An active man, O’Rourke was involved in an aerobics class several times a week. “As time went on, when I did aerobics I could actually hear the bone-on-bone because I had worn all the cartilage away.” It was at this point that he decided to consult a doctor.
O’Rourke’s physician diagnosed him with an arthritic hip and suggested an oral medication for his pain, while recommending that his patient undergo THR surgery. The medication did not relieve O’Rourke’s chronic pain, but he never went to see that doctor again. He knew that the doctor would recommend THR as the next step—and he knew that he would rather live with the pain than undergo the procedure.
He continued to live with the pain. According to some estimates, the body’s major weight-bearing joints—the hips and the knees—may make as many as 3,000 movements in one day. These movements led to rapid deterioration as the bones in O’Rourke’s hip grinded against each other, which affected his general health. “It went on for five years. I was limping so badly that I had fouled up the knee on my bad leg, my back, and the knee on my good leg. I could no longer walk up a 20 degree incline. So I went in and made an appointment [for THR surgery].”
In doing so, O’Rourke joined 120,000 people who also had THR surgery in 1999. Most people opt for the surgery to correct their osteoarthritis, a type of arthritis that results from wear and tear on the bones as the body ages. As the cartilage around the hip socket degenerates, movement of the joint becomes slowed by friction, which explains the pain that O’Rourke felt.
His surgery was performed on November 17, 1999, at Massachusetts General Hospital. An orthopedic surgeon replaced the head of his femur (thighbone) with a metal prosthetic device connected to a metal shaft. The shaft was inserted into a hole drilled in his thighbone. Finally, a polyethylene socket replaced his socket in the pelvic bone. The use of new technology in THR surgery these days means that O’Rourke’s new hip should last for 12 to 15 years before it needs to be replaced.
After surgery, O’Rourke spent three days in the hospital and then was released to his home. He did not go to rehab because he did not have to—his relatively young age and good health meant that he could rehab on his own. He used two crutches for six weeks, one crutch for two weeks, and a cane for two weeks after that.
His only trepidation came from rehabilitating in the middle of a New England winter. “The first time you go out that front door and there’s no one home…” His voice trails off at the fear of dislocation in the first three months after surgery. He had to abide by “hip precautions,” or rules to prevent dislocation. He was not allowed to sit in any soft chairs, or to sleep on his side. A nurse showed him how to get up from and sit down on chairs, how to pick things off the floor, and how to reach his foot to tie his shoelaces.
O’Rourke was surprised at his minimal rehabilitation; he expected THR surgery would require more. “I suffered untold agony and only because I was scared to death to go to the hospital.” Fear of doctors and a painful rehabilitation are not uncommon among people facing major surgery. O’Rourke says he was comforted by his orthopedic surgeon, who gave him pamphlets and articles on the technological advances made in THR surgery since it was introduced in 1962.
Is O’Rourke pleased with his THR? He is so pleased, in fact, that he says he will not hesitate to undergo surgery again if the other hip becomes arthritic. He advises people living with chronic hip joint pain: “Do not go through what I went through… [THR surgery] has changed my life. I would not be able to do what I do with my grandchildren right now for sure.”
References:
www.onhealth.com
www.interstat.net
“Harris on primary and revision total hip replacement today.” Orthopedics Today. May 1998: Volume 18, Number 5.
