Hip Replacement

@fignolia
I had my left hip replaced with anterior method on January 6, 2026, and I have not had a single regret. I knew from the time I first stood up in the hospital that the joint pain was gone. The pain was only from the surgery and in the muscles. I started on forearm crutches (my doc does not prefer a walker because it doesn't require the more natural gait), was on a cane in ten days, and gradually weaned off that over the next month or two as the surface demanded and when I had no limp. I must say that I was meticulous about icing, using prescribed pain meds at first and tapering as advised to tylenol, surgeon ordered PT from day 3 post op, and I prepared my body with some PT and therapy in a warm pool prior. If the other hip needs it, I would do ot immediately and not wait as I did the first time. It is the greatest pleasure not to have pain with every step. I still have some muscle pain but that is common up to the first year, but PT helps and it is nothing compared to the joint pain and gets less all the time. Good luck with your procedure.

I’m 65 & had left hip pain that came out of nowhere. Tried injection last summer but only helped for maybe a week. I had spinal fusion scheduled already in July and did well with that surgery except the left hip pain (bone on bone they said) remained. More recently I could barely walk any distance, needed to use a cane & woke up throughout the night from hip pain. Ortho had recommended surgery but it still took me months & a second opinion to schedule. I’m 10 days post op (anterior) and feeling good. I’ve had no pain and icing & elevating relieved any swelling- which I am told is normal. I have PT at home 2x week right now and will start outside PT in 2 weeks. I see my ortho surgeon later this week for my first follow up. I know it’s still early but so far so good. It took me some time to commit to another surgery but I feel I made a good decision. Surgery is scary but staying positive helped me. Good luck!

My surgeon is the primary inventor of the Superpath method of hip replacement. He replaced my left hip for me almost four years ago. I had zero post surgery pain and often forget that my left hip is made of titanium whereas my right hip is made of bone.

But I believe that surgeon selection is critical. I call my surgeon a magician. Six months ago the same surgeon replaced my right knee and, amazingly, I again had no post surgery pain.

I believe that surgeons are professionals and like all professionals follow a bell curve. There are extraordinary surgical outliers on the positive end and some surgeons who should have their license examined at the negative end and most are somewhere in the middle. I attribute the success of both of my replacements as follows: 5% for my research into methods and surgeons; 90% for the skill and experience of my surgeon; and 5% for luck (good in my case). It is that last 5% that makes recovery somewhat unpredictable.

Having a vastly experienced surgeon who uses a minimally invasive method will maximize one's chance of ending up at the positive end of the curve.