Question
I justhave a few more questions. I do have some pain and stiffness with weather changes, and is it normal to have a little pain actually in that new prosthesis, on different activities?It comes and goes. How long for total recovery time thanks

Answer
Hi again Susan

Having pain and stiffness according to the weather, is not necessarily due to your hip replacement.  Many people find that when the weather changes, especially when rain is expected, muscles and bones hurt more.  As we age, it's a natural phenomenon.

As a THR patient, you'll never go back to where you were before, you'll always have limits on what you can do, that is the nature of hip replacements.  You will have pain come and go, but even if you did not have surgery, as we get older we have more pain as our bodies change.  My husband who has never been sick a day in his life, is starting to experience pain in his knees.  It's an aging thing and even if you did not have a THR you'd still eventually feel the effects of aging.  It's natural.

Total recover time depends on you.  For everyone it's different, and it's longer as we get older, depending on what shape you were in prior to the surgery.  My shortest recovery was four weeks.  That was on a fourth revision.  The longest time I had was eight to nine months and that was after a full revision where they pulled out a cemented prosthesis and put in a full ceramic one.  So it's a very individual thing.  Most patients can start to resume walking without pain within three months. I'd say if after one full year, you are not back to a relatively normal lifestyle, there may be a problem.

If you feel you are not healing as fast as you'd like, you need to bring that up to your doctor to see how he feels.  As I've said in the past, just don't push yourself too hard.

Sharon