What is normal recovery after hip replacement?

Hi,

I had a hip replacement, anterior, in January 2022. I had zero pain after other than normal incision/surgery pain. I did experience weakness where my hip dipped and had to attend PT 15 times. I returned to work at 10 weeks. I was surprised it took so long to recover as I was an avid hiker , did yoga, and strength exercises. Finally, things changed and I could ditch the cane. The end of May, I started to experience a different kind of pain and began limping. I also had a pop feeling while doing yoga. After the pop my hip gave out or felt like it would give out. I did send messages and told the surgeon’s PA at an appointment and she said not to worry as it was improving. My hip is weaker than my 13 day old TKR. Any ideas?

Hi,

I had a hip replacement, anterior, in January 2022. I had zero pain after other than normal incision/surgery pain. I did experience weakness where my hip dipped and had to attend PT 15 times. I returned to work at 10 weeks. I was surprised it took so long to recover as I was an avid hiker , did yoga, and strength exercises. Finally, things changed and I could ditch the cane. The end of May, I started to experience a different kind of pain and began limping. I also had a pop feeling while doing yoga. After the pop my hip gave out or felt like it would give out. I did send messages and told the surgeon’s PA at an appointment and she said not to worry as it was improving. My hip is weaker than my 13 day old TKR. Any ideas?

Hi @maryfrommi and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll see that I moved your post to this discussion: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/normal-recovery-after-hip-replacement/?pg=1#comment-723642 in the Joint Replacement Group so that you could connect with others who are experiencing similar issues.

Did you mention the amount of weakness you were experiencing during your appointment?

Ask for appt with surgeon. Sounds to me like your hipped slipped out and back into socket. I know that pop sound all too well, have had 5 dislocations in the 3 months since hip replacement. You'd know if it fully dislocated - extremely painful, requires ER visit.

You should be evaluated, prob X-rays again. If you had a dislocation, it can really mess with the muscles around hip joint and set your healing back.

Hi,
I had an anterior total hip replacement five weeks ago and the pain in my hip is gone completely and no really bad side effects from the surgery except now my right leg is shorter than my left leg.
I do get a clicking sometimes when I walk and I do get something like a popping sensation or something moving in my hip area when I lean on my thigh muscle I can feel it in the hip. Both the doctor and the PA told me it’s a muscular thing and it should go away. As long as it’s not painful I was told not to worry about it.
I went for an x-ray yesterday, full standing on both feet flagger and they did a measurement from somewhere in my hip to somewhere in my ankle and there was .1 cm different between the two. What they failed to realize was that while I was standing there flat footed and both feet my right leg was straight and my left knee was bent quite a bit . The x-ray that they took did not show any leg length difference which I’m not surprised so I asked them to redo the x-ray. The reason I’m doing this is my left hip my left thigh muscle my lower back left side is very painful because of the mismatch in my legs. My point is never ever believe the doctors 100% because they will blow you off any chance they get.
Best of luck,
SM

Ask for appt with surgeon. Sounds to me like your hipped slipped out and back into socket. I know that pop sound all too well, have had 5 dislocations in the 3 months since hip replacement. You'd know if it fully dislocated - extremely painful, requires ER visit.

You should be evaluated, prob X-rays again. If you had a dislocation, it can really mess with the muscles around hip joint and set your healing back.