Connect
← Return to Very, very scared to have knee surgery and hip surgery
Discussion
Very, very scared to have knee surgery and hip surgery
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Apr 24, 2023 | Replies (119)Comment receiving replies
I ended up with one leg shorter after a hip replacement. It really affected the way I walked and ultimately wore out the cartilage in my other hip and knee requiring replacement of those joints. My surgeon ignored my complaint for a long time then acted surprised when he actually measured and found the discrepancy in leg length. He recently offered to “tweak” my hip in another surgery to see if he could add length to the leg but I’m not in the mood for experimenting with another hip surgery ! I found that ordering silicone heel lifts from Amazon has been helpful. They wear out fast but with trial and error they have helped mitigate the difference in length. I also wear Hoka One One tennis shoes which provide support and padding. I am a work in progress nearly 5 years after the initial surgery :/
Replies to "I ended up with one leg shorter after a hip replacement. It really affected the way..."
Hi, I've been away for a while, appreciate all the fine answers here. I'm not that young (79) but still learning. I did have the surgery with a doctor who is cut and dried -- fabulous reviews and he was positive about the surgery, so I decided to use him. I remembered your post and I do believe the leg he operated on is shorter than the other because when I put on my left shoe and my right leg dangles (the one that was operated on) I feel more comfortable. Plus I am limbering with both shoes on. So I am working on putting a sole in the left shoe now. He's not a coddler, but because of the multitudinous amount of fabulous reviews I decided to see him. It's about 4 months after the surgery, can't say I'm doing great but not experiencing the awful pain I had before the surgery. I will keep trying to work on it. By that I mean doing exercise. I went for physical therapy, unfortunately right now it's hard for me to keep appointments because I'm frequently very tired. However, there is a pool downstairs (we live in Florida) and I probably should go to that. The reason I have not is because I could't get out of the pool recently without help because of the stairs. That's after the surgery. So I got a lightweight object I can possibly put on a step and try to use that.
Connect
I buy shoes that I can have a lift glued on the bottom of my shorter leg. My shoemaker knows me by now. If he can't match the color, I paint the lift. I think that it helps with my balance and pain levels due to the discrepancy of length.