I can’t say enough find a great physical therapist pre surgery. I have no experience with hip replacement but have had reverse total shoulder replacement and total knee. Went to the same great surgeon and therapist for all! A great physical therapist can get you prepared for surgery. I did this for my total knee and had a great outcome. Yes pain was there pre surgery but both surgeon and therapist said I needed to do certain exercising to prepare for surgery. Did that involve still being in pain yes, but to date outcome has been awesome! It does require work and dedication doing prescribed exercise regimen for life. I have great looking surgical sites and no scar tissue. To date am maintaining all my shoulder exercises and knee exercises. 3 yrs post shoulder , 1 post knee. A great surgeon and therapist are so important, but so is working at getting better. It’s hard work put in by patient as well.
My therapist is also qualified in dry needling therapy which he has used for both my replacements. It relaxes tight painful muscles.
Good luck! Work hard! My surgeon has always told me shoulder replacement is the hardest, knee the next hardest with hip being the easiest to recover from!

Welcome @marytodd6. I moved your post to this existing discussion where @lotsofpain asked the exact same question:

- Reducing Hip Pain while waiting for replacement: Suggestions? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/hip-pain-2/

I did this so you can see the helpful suggestions posted by fellow members in addition to the great tips you received from @dmk. I encourage you to read through all the posts in the thread.

Mary, might pre-surgery physiotherapy be an option for you?