Walking without a hip joint

I forgot to ask ... do you have any back or sciatic nerve pain that has developed from load bearing on the shorter leg following your Girdlestone procedure? Prior to my THR, I had severe sciatic nerve pain because one leg was slightly shorter. Since my THR, the sciatic nerve pain is gone, but now I’m at risk of a worse outcome as I wait to find out if the hip joint is infected.

I'm starting to get slight pain in the knee of my shorter leg plus the small of my back that I hope will ease when I get a shoe raiser/balancer. That should even out my leg lengths and make walking easier. I will keep you posted on my progress once this happens. I am currently getting over the side effects of the radiotherapy so not really walking much and certainly not going out yet. No sciatic nerve pain though

peaky1966, It sounds like you’ve had a “two steps forward, one step back” kind of process with your recovery and radiotherapy. For what it’s worth, in the one month leading up to my THR, I was starting to get some sciatic nerve and lower back pain relief by experimenting with movement exercises in a swimming pool. I should also comment that my sciatic nerve and lower back pain had developed over many years of neglect on my part in trying to mitigate the problem. Stay the course. Blessings, jbro

cheryl99, Some people have posted that living without a hip is a life of severe pain, but you have apparently found ways to alleviate or avoid that pain. Can I ask you to comment further? Right now it looks like I will need to have my prosthetic hip joint removed due to an MRSA infection that was initially thought to be only superficial. Since I don’t like what I’m reading about reinfections following hip revision surgeries, I want to learn as much as I can about living without one hip, or living with a hip resection (Girdlestone procedure).

cheryl99, Was the hip they removed a prosthetic hip, or was it your own femur ball and pelvic socket? By the way, I am very interested in getting your UNC surgeon’s name so that my surgeon can contact him. Thank you.

cheryl99, Can you also provide the name of the physical therapy service you used? Thanks

I will not say I never have pain, but it is normally after I have been very active and that seems to cause my good leg muscle to tighten on occasion. I go to the gym some and walk on the treadmill and I have found if I use one of the massage chairs to massage the leg muscles afterwards that helps a lot.

I also had more pain the first few months when I was going to therapy. I think one thing that is key to minimizing pain is the therapy to get the scar tissue stretched. I think this probably is where people make a mistake when they don’t do the therapy because if things tighten up it can cause more pain. I recommend doing everything you can to push yourself and accept some of that earlier pain to prevent long term problems.

Another thing I did was get a built up shoe as soon as the doctor said I could. One thing here is you have to work to get the right lift height. They measured me but I had to have additions added a couple of times to get it right. This is important because if it isn’t right you can end up with some back pain because of one leg being shorter than the other.

I was in a wheelchair for a while and I admit that was depressing and I pushed hard to get out of that thing. Couldn’t stand being dependent on someone else. Went from that to a regular walker for a while and then the rolling walker. I can walk with a cane but I have to be careful of course so it depends where I going and how far I have to walk when I use it. (One note here is I was bitten by a cat and I got bacteria throughout my body and I was very sick for a while. My recovery may have taken a little longer than some people because of this).

Sorry if I’m running on and on.......but if I can give you one piece of advice, stay positive and tell your therapist your goals. If your therapist isn’t one that will work with you aggressively to get you to your goals, find another one. Pushing yourself will be key to getting you where you want to be.

If I can answer anymore questions, let me know. I wish you good luck.
By the way, my doctor told my husband he wasn’t sure if I would ever walk again .......to say the least he has been very pleased with how far I have come.......a positive attitude and faith in yourself goes a long way.

cheryl99, Sorry for all the questions, but I keep thinking of more things. Can you explain more about the brace you wore for 9 weeks? How was it attached? Was it’s purpose only to immobilize? How difficult was it to stand, use a walker, or sit during this time? Thank you very much for your help.

I used Comprehensive Rehab in Wilson NC. At first Home Health came to my home but as soon as I could I went to them because that had all types of equipment to use and well as a pool. Home Health wasn’t aggressive enough to get me where I wanted to be.

They removed my own femur and part of my pelvic bone because of the damage from radiation and the bacteria from the cat bite. My doctor did not feel my bones were strong enough to support a prosthetic hip. He was willing to try and said we could always remove it if it didn’t work....I wasn’t willing to take that chance. My Doctor is Daniel J. Del Gaizo, MD. Link to his information https://findadoc.unchealthcare.org/details/368