Walking without a hip joint

Hello @dzoneill, and welcome to Connect.

Would you mind telling us a bit more about your question? We have a lot of members who have discussed having hip issues or replacements, but I have not come across the question regarding lack of a hip joint. Is this from an injury, surgery, or other medical issue?

I was born with a congenital hip dislocation and had 3 surgeries between the ages of 2 and 15. At the age of 26 (1985) I had a THR. There were 3 revisions, the last in 2006 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In 2013 I was admitted with sepsis, a massive mrsa infection which later mutated into visa. March 2014 the prosthesis was removed and I spent 2 1/2 years in a wheelchair and on IV antibiotics most of that time. Last summer my case was taken over by another surgeon who deemed it unwise to try another revision and we agreed. A new infectious disease doctor changed antibiotis and I am now mrsa/visa free. I have no hip and no spacers, the femur is significantly shorter, leg length difference is 3 1/2 inches. The new surgeon has me walking with walker and crutches and a 3 inch lift on my shoe. 3 months physical therapy to strengthen muscles atrophied from so much time in the wheelchair. I am about to move to one crutch, and the goal is a cane. Xrays show excellent build up of scar tissue supporting the leg. My original question was wondering if there are others having the same experience.

@dzoneill I'm so sorry to hear of all of your hip problems. From your post, it appears as if you have been dealing with this issue since you were a child. Congratulations on being infection-free. Overcoming those two infections had to be quite a task, I'm glad to see that you and your doctors were successful. Keep us posted on how your strengthening exercises are working for you. Moving to one crutch or a cane will be quite an amazing achievement. Best wishes! Teresa

@dzoneill, thank you for telling us more about your hip issue. You have overcome so much already and I have no doubt your perseverance will be empowering to some of our other members.

While my initial search has not found anyone who has experienced something exactly as you, but I will keep looking. I would like to invite some members who have had hip replacements and hip issues who will have some shared experiences with you in the meantime. @amber67, @beatricefay, @mnpat @grandmacheryl @popolopo @bobg10, @tallteri, and @sma1952 have all discussed hip replacements

Thanks Justin, I would be happy to hear from other hip replacement patients.
Diane

@dzoneill I am sorry to hear of your situation and I can totally relate to your situation however mine came in a different form. In 2005 I was in a head on collision with a semi which caused my left hip to dislocate (along with numerous other traumatic injuries) they were able to put my hip back into place without surgery however a couple weeks later when doing physical therapy it became dislocated again. So the decision was made to put hardware in to try and stabilize it from dislocation, which worked until my femoral head became necrotic a year later . At that point they decided to do the first THR ...it was great ...but it only lasted two weeks and then I got Staph infection and it had to be removed. So then they put in a concrete hip spacer.. Needless to say we went back and forth like this 4 times over the course of 7 years ...everytime they put in a new hip I would eventually get MRSA/staph and they would remove it. Finally when hip replacement 4 became infected I was referred to Mayo Clinic .
Their recommendation was to take everything out and leave it out for at least a year. If I could go at least one year without infection they would try one last hip relplacement .
It was a long recovery process plus learning how to walk with a hanging hip but i actually stunned doctors a year later when i was walking without any assistive devices (i probably shouldve been using my cane at least lol) of course I had a major limp since my left leg was so much shorter but i made it work not only for one year but for 4 years!
Finally last year I went back and told them it was time, my lower back had been killing me so bad from my uneven gait.
June 6th I recieved my "Hail Mary" 5th total hip lol and I am so happy to say that so far (fingers crossed) i havent had any problems with infection. Im only 34 years old so I know its a life long battle but at this point in time thing are looking up!!

I was born with bilateral congenital hip dysplasia and from 7 months old till 18 months old I walked about 10 to 15 steps and fell forward. I had 10 hip surgeries the first one when I was 18 months old they cut my thigh bones and took a piece of bone from each leg and injected hormone into it formed both ball and socket forming both my hips for me. I had 9 more surgeries to realign my hips as i grew my last surgery was when I was 9 years old. My surgeries were at Gillette children's hospital in st paul, mn. I remember being in bodycasts and learning how to walk again after every surgery. As of right now I walk with a limp and I don't have a space anymore between the ball and socket and they are grinding and disintegrating and they sometimes lock up on me. I am having gastric sleeve on april 5th in hope to loose weight so I can relieve some pressure off of my hips.

Yes. Because my hip joint is imbused outside.

You have been through so much with your hips. I wish you good luck in the future. Hope the weight loss helps. Let us know how it goes.

Hello @lynzze, @nixie, and @sallielim. I would like to welcome all of you to Connect and thank you for joining @dzoneill's discussion about hip related issues.

@sallielim, would you mind clearing up with you mean by "my hip joint is imbused outside?"