Hi everyone,
I, too, am without a hip on my right side. My saga goes back to 1995 when I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis and underwent a core decompression on my right hip. I made it to 1999 before I had my first THR. I did well after that & was able to continue working as an RN nursing instructor.
A revision was needed in the spring of 2017 resulting in a hematoma and a great deal of drainage & pain from the pressure of fluid buildup. One month later I went back for an incision & drainage due to the hematoma. The pain continued and I was using forearm crutches to work. The pain became too much to bare/bear & another total revision was done in Dec. 2017. My surgeon was pretty certain I had an infection, but nothing showed up in the cultures. He had me take an oral antibiotic daily just to cover the possibility of infection. This went well until I developed an oral thrush overgrowth that was difficult to manage successfully & I stopped the antibiotic in June 2018. Within 6 weeks I had a sudden onset of hip pain & significant difficulty tolerating weight on my right leg. Also my blood inflammatory markers, sed rate & CRP, were extremely high. Back to the ortho surgeon I went. The fluid obtained by a hip aspiration grew a bacterial organism that is normally present on the skin. This was believed to have developed when I had the hematoma & serous drainage in spring of 2017. Once I stopped the oral antibiotic the infection flourished causing loosening of my prosthesis. Again I had surgery, in Aug. of 2018, removing my prosthesis and placing an antibiotic spacer followed by 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. Apparently my femur fractured when the femoral component of the prosthesis was removed. I had horrific nerve pain in my thigh from the fracture.
This was a very dark & painful period for me. I was cleared to have a new prosthesis placed in Nov. 2018. That went well, but was complicated by severe anemia from blood loss & a flare up of my autoimmune disorder. I retired from my position as a Nursing Professor at the end of 2018. I did well for 5 years. In Aug of 2023 I has some swelling of my right thigh, low grade fevers & night sweats. Over the course of 4-5 days putting weight on my right leg became progressively more painful. On a Sat evening, I went to the ER. Labs, xrays & a CT scan indicated an abcess in my thigh. I was started on IV antibiotics and was transferred to the hospital when a bed became available about 24 hours later. My surgeon told me he would probably remove my prosthesis, both femoral & acetabular portions. Depending on the extent of the infection he would decide if an antibiotic spacer was an appropriate intervention. At this time he informed me of the possibility that I might not be able to have another replacement in the future. I could not imagine that this could occur.
After the surgery he told me he wasn't able to use a spacer. That my femur was brittle & there wasn't sufficient bone stock to support either component of the prosthesis. That was Aug 7th 2023. I've now been 5 months without a hip spending most of my time in the wheelchair. The leg length discrepancy makes it very difficult to use a walker or crutches. I have a specialist coming to my home tomorrow to assess my leg length issue & make recommendations for a lift on my right shoe. Maybe once I have the lift, I'll be able to make some progress using the walker.
Sorry to be so long winded, but it has been a long & winding road to get to this point. I'm grateful I was able to work for 23 years since this all began. I'm also grateful that I am retired and am supported/assisted by my husband of 43 years. As a side note, my husband had a heart attack 4 weeks ago, but is doing very well & back to his full activity level.