Watch Your Shadow: Surviving Not One But Both Hip Replacement Operations!

By J. M. Cunningham

J. M. Cunningham first began experiencing hip pain when she was in her forties. After moving to Phoenix for work, she began exploring options with her doctors as her hip pain increased and caused her to walk with what she called a “hippy limp.” With the goal of helping others who are contemplating hip surgery and the subsequent recovery, Cunningham shares an insightful, practical, and often humorous guide that chronicles her experiences as she dealt with chronic hip pain and researched total hip replacement surgical procedures. While leading others through a step-by-step process that encourages planning, exploration, and informed decisions, Cunningham discusses the differences between hip resurfacing and hip replacement surgeries, reveals what to expect the day of surgery and in the days after, and shares insight into follow-up appointments and in life as patients move forward and embrace a new and pain-free chapter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684703791

Book preview

CUNNINGHAM

Copyright © 2019 J. M. Cunningham.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0381-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0380-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0379-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019907087

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 06/05/2019

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I have to give credit to those who helped me thru this, my major hip surgery recovery process. Several people and organizations were part of my hip-replacement experiences. The CORE Institute, John C Lincoln Hospital, The CORE – Dr. Shrader, IM—Dr. Karen Wetherell, PT—Laura T, PT—Crystal Holt, Banner Boswell Hospital—Joint Club, Sun Valley OS—Dr. Tsao. Along with my communities Kare Bears, my neighbor Linda Galowitch and my family had a lot to do with this too, Special thanks to my first reviewer – my sister Kari (Bernatz) Rude and double-hipster cousin, Mike Bernatz. Lastly Caitlin Leigh for inspiring me to finish this project. Thank you all for your help to make this book creation possible.

Chapter 1

Deciding to Have

Major Hip Surgery

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Have you ever thought back to your first major surgery? It took me fifty years for my first one, and if you haven’t guessed yet, this book isn’t a murder mystery. It’s a book about surgery, specifically about the funny, strange, and helpful research I did for my two total hip replacement (THR) surgical procedures. As you read more, you might find this book entertaining and beneficial if you or anyone you know needs to have a hip-replacement procedure. Which seems as popular now as an appendectomy or childbirth C-section surgery. As you read this chapter and this book, it might be interesting to think back to that first major surgical event and how you felt facing it. Were you prepared? Were you with family? Had you done your research? Was it planned or a sudden decision? For how long had you been putting it off? Those were just some of the things running through my head when trying to decide for my first major hip surgery.

My internal medicine doctor, since I’d moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to get out of the humidity of the Midwest for joint pain and my work, had been monitoring my hip pain for more than five years. As she said, You’ll know when it’s time!

We started talking and doing less-invasive options at first, which is pretty common since I was still fairly young to be considering this in my mid-forties. Dr. KW was really supportive to make sure we didn’t jump into anything too quickly. We had, now that I look back, about a three-year plan. First, it was a little hip discomfort, and a couple of acetaminophen (Tylenol) worked just fine after a weekend of golf or a softball tournament. (Ibuprofen and aspirin didn’t work to relieve my hip pain. So, with your doctor, try different things because not all hip pain or painkillers react the same for different people—unlike what my dad believes!) This was just an over-the-counter remedy that worked for a few hours. I could live with the minor toothache pain, so we also worked on a couple of other ways to help with my discomfort, such as exercises, stretching, and physical therapy (PT). One good—but a little painful—way to alleviate pain was a deep-tissue massage to get the hip muscles to stretch. The muscles and ligaments around my left hip (because of my reduced range of motion) were slowly getting less flexible and protecting the damage around or in my left hip. Have you ever noticed a person walking with a slight limp or short stride or waddle? I called it, when I did it, my hippy limp. Now, after two total hip replacement (THR) of both original hips and a lot of hard work, including PT, most people don’t know I had not one but both hips replaced.

The rest of this book I wrote is to help you learn from my questions, discoveries, learnings and successes so you can do the same or better. My hip problems were a result of sports and (assuming here) heredity. Several others in my family have had THR or experience hip issues (I found out after I did mine). You will hear more about that as you get into the following chapters and learn how this book title actually came about.

Chapter 2

Hip Resurfacing versus Hip Replacement

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I’ll share a little history about the differences between these two items. Hip resurfacing and hip replacement. Being in my late forties and early fifties, one of the areas or techniques I looked into to discuss with my orthopedic surgeon was to do or at least consider a hip-resurfacing procedure. If I did this resurfacing process, then later in my life, I might still need that total hip replacement. Other questions I had were How would my THR surgery hold up? and How long between THR is normal or standard?

Hip resurfacing is a less-invasive surgery—if you can call opening up your hip in surgery less invasive.

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Hip-Resurfacing General Information

Hip resurfacing has been developed as a surgical alternative to total hip replacement (THR). The procedure consists of placing a cobalt-chrome metal cap, which is hollow and shaped like a mushroom, over the head of the femur, while a matching metal cup (similar to what is used with a THR) is placed in the acetabulum (pelvis socket), replacing the articulating surfaces of the patient’s hip joint and removing very little bone compared to a THR. When the patient moves the hip, the movement of the joint induces synovial fluid to flow between the hard, metal-bearing surfaces, lubricating them when the components are placed in the correct position. The surgeon’s level of experience with hip resurfacing is important, so select well. Health-related quality-of-life measures are markedly improved, and patient satisfaction is favorable after hip-resurfacing arthroplasty.

You will have to wait a little bit to see which I did and how, but please note there have been lawsuits with many manufacturers for both resurfacing and THR. This is something you need to talk to your doctor and your orthopedic surgeon about. You can do some research yourself too. Don’t go into this blindly. But make sure you discuss with your doctors anything you find on the internet. There is a lot of fake, poorly researched, tainted, and skewed information out there. Being on the internet doesn’t make it true. Always talk to your orthopedic doctor too.

After four or five years of discussing my hip issues with my primary care doctor, we decided I’d be referred to an orthopedic surgeon. In Arizona, I had settled in the West Valley, so I decided to use a local surgical team (TCI). My initial appointment was more of a question-and-answer session because at only fifty-one, I had just heard of this new-to-me hip-resurfacing technique. Since the first orthopedic doctor was familiar with it but not trained to do it, he referred me to their resurfacing doctor at this Orthopedic West Valley surgical team (TCI). The team had a doctor who was trained