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How long are your able to keep a hip spacer in (so far 3 years)
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Jan 14, 2021 | Replies (9)Comment receiving replies
Hi! I’ve had my spacer in for 9 months now. I had surgery last May and my surgeon and I discussed keeping it in as long as possible. My goal was one full year as I didn’t show signs of infection the first time for about 7 to 8 months. I really wanted to make sure the infection was gone. Luckily labs are good and the leg is looking really good so I’m very pleased about that. They never gave me a definite time frame but they said that some people did really well with their spacers and chose not to have the revision surgery. Kept there spacer in for many years. Unfortunately, I’m having quite a bit of pain with it and I’m still on one crutch. I’m about 40 pounds over weight though so I know that has something to do with it. I’m slowly loosing the pounds and it feels better but I’m still very weak in the leg. Without being able to do physical therapy or strength training I don’t see me getting off of it and this one crutch is getting pretty tiresome. I go back in May for my annual exam and I’ve said surgery for July 30 at the Mayo Clinic but that’s only if the surgeon agrees. I’m not the best surgical candidate as I’ve had way too many already and I’m only 44. Lots of surgeries as a baby/young child and my first hip replacement was at 16.
How are you doing with your spacer? Most people I hear from hate them and want them out as fast as possible. I was thankful I apeare to be doing reasonably well but keeping it in for many years just doesn’t seem fun for me. Haha 🙂
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I do NOT like my spacer. A LOT of pain and too much couch time. I've only been out of the house 4 times in 9 weeks excuse the complaining.
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Hi. I’ll try to make this as short as possible and thank you very much for your reply. Back in 2003 I was in a severe accident which fractured my hip, femur, knee and many other things. I eventually recovered with the exception of my right hip which was infected with MRSA. After many replacements with spacers and pic lines in between I’m still in the same spot. In October of 2016 I had surgery to clean out my infection and put in another antibiotic spacers once again. I still have the spacer in and I’m dealing the replacement because at 49 years I’ve had enough. Over 20 surgeries so I don’t have much faith in hospitals/surgeons. Have no idea what I’m going to do.