Question
Sharon, why did you have hip replacments at such a young age. I do now understand the depression,Im nine weeks not ten out and Im walking two blocks at one time but can walk more in shorter increments of time.I had two replacements within three months, Youve answered questions..Im coming to terms with aging and this surgery which does take forever to heal even with minimally invasive..The minimally invasive is a barely there scar..I had a knee replacement and osteotomy to fix knock knees..so These surgeries hurt mind and body. Will three months out make
me better. I do need stronger pain meds for sleep though,I wasnt aware of the depression and mourning until you addressed it. I applaud you for going through this all your life.

Answer
Hi again Susan

At the age of 14, I went into renal failure which we don't know the cause of.  I was lucky enough to have a father who saved my life by donating a kidney to me 34 years ago.  Kidney transplantation at that time was not as refined as it is now, and I was on huge doses of prednisone to control rejection.  Prednisone causes Avascular Necrosis (AVN) in many cases.  So at the age of 16, I had to have my first set of cemented hip replacements put in.  Those lasted over 14 years and during that time, I finished up my schooling, got married, worked full time and had my children.

I was lucky to have the first set last that long.  With each wearing down of the replacements, I had to have them completely pulled out and revised, and with my fourth revisions, they put in the ceramic replacements that do not have to be totally removed when the parts wear out.  The new parts snap in and out and surgery is much easier.  I now am on my fourth set and those have been in for about 10 years, so I anticipate that I'll have to have them revised one or two more times.  

The problem is that with each revision that is done, more bone is lost and due to the fact that I am still on low doses of prednisone to keep my kidney working, I still have bone mass loss.  I am on Fosamax to try and slow that down, but I figure that the replacements are a small price to pay for a relatively normal life.

I can promise you that the depression will lift slowly as your life gets back on track, but you will have to reconcile in your own mind that there are things you can and cannot do and figure out how to live with that.  In my case, each time I go for surgery, I get on short term anti depressant medication and that helps me cope emotionally with the loss of independance.  After I get back to myself, I wean off the medication.  It might be that if you asked to get to see a psychologist (LSCW's cannot prescribe medications), and you got on anti depressants for a short time, your sleep would be better.  When we are depressed, our bodies hurt more and sleep cycles are disturbed.  

I also tend to get panic attacks when I have surgery, so the anti depressants help that as well.

I too, don't like aging, but it's a fact of life that we all have to deal with.  You also have to stop thinking in terms of being nine or eight or ten weeks out.  Just let yourself heal.  I found that with each successive surgery, the healing took longer.  That's the fact of aging.  

I hope you will ask your doctor for stronger meds at night and look into the anti depressants, as I do believe that will help.

Sharon Davis