Hi everyone. Just wondered if any of you wise souls have experienced what I am going through atm. In 2011 I had a hip replacement for arthritis aged 47. I had some thigh pain for about 6 months which the surgeon rescanned and said it was just part of the healing process. The pain went away. The pain came back!!! With a vengeance about 8 months ago. It is mainly on weight bearing and is intermittent , but stems from upper thigh shoots all the way down the bone and makes lower leg and foot ache. Have also had a range of disc problems, fibro and ME. Having a bone scan on Thursday as the implant I have is called and Accolade cementless prosthesis and apparently in 5% of cases mainly women the bone does not fix properly around the stem in the femur. Has anyone experienced anything similar? Pain is so bad some days I can't walk, going upstairs is awful although coming down easier. Can't walk any distance without it aching, giving way. difficult to know if its implant, lower back problems, fibro or ME? Its not sciatica I know this much as have had that in past and much different pain.
Thanks
Jo x
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joannie1964
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Hello Jo. Very young to have hip replacement - surgeon must have taken some convincing David had his new hip last October at 65 having suffered over 5 years and that was hard enough. Due to his spinal injury he had put endless pressure on that hip over 25 years and wore it out.
I must say the moment the anesthetic wore of the pain did too. The wound would not heal and kept leaking plus blood clots at 6 weeks post op but no pain.
Exercises for 6 months every day religously. That was a bit sore to start. Surgeon said 18 nonths before complete heal. Due to his rolling gait it may never be really norma;.
I presume you say physio immediately after?
From what I have heard you shouldn't still be having pain from that hip. I would think it more likely to be from somewhere else. Maybe your back . You can have pain from one area, say shoulder, when in fact the pain radiates from your spine.
Hi Paton, I was so gobsmacked when he told me the cartilage was gone completely in hip joint I nearly fell of the chair. I was a midwife so had been doing 12 hours shifts hobbling about in a lot of pain for two years, however perhaps because I had private medical that's what made the difference time spanwise! It's difficult to know about where the pain is coming from, I know about referred pain and it could well be that. My back is a mess, I try to do stretches but end up worse off. The surgeon I saw two weeks ago said my description of the pain sounds like micromotion of the implant inside the femur so we'll have to see. Had to give up my beloved job as with all the ailments just couldn't hack it anymore.
thanks for your reply and gentle hugs to you and David.
A huge loss to the wonderful nursing profession when you have to leave.
Sorry I may have misled you. David waited 5 years mainly cos they tried various other treatments first. Trying to rule out everything. Unfortunately the Xrays didn't show up the full damage and only when surgeon opened him up was all revealed. And he had the grace to apologise!
David was lucky - anethetist was wonderful pain clinic consultant and surgeon his partner in crime!
Is there anything to be done if it is the replacement? David had the Worcester fine bone china one! Ceramic but doesn't sound as good!
One piece of advice which i am sure you will have heard. Nver look back at what you had. That is gone. Look forward.
I still have alot of pain in hip after ceramic hip replacement surgery. Feels like tight, pulling ache around the hip joint when walking and sharp pain in groin on leg elavation. I have to lift my leg into the car using my hands. I also have tight burning thighs constantly. However my consultant told me that the pains im having are coming from my back and that i didnt need my hip done after all. While having hip replacement they fractured a vertabra both sides which has dropped and pressing on nerves and lower vertabra. My hip/leg pain is worse than before because my back is worse than it was. Low back pain effects legs, hips, buttocks and low back. Hope this helps.
hi lowlife, thanks for your reply. my whole hip and leg area are tight and there is actually a dent in my buttock behind the scar , muscle waste? but it could be as you say from my back problems as well. guess I will know more after the bone scan Thursday.
I have the same problem and I have back pain slipped disc's on both sides and crushed back nerve pain. I have just been diagnosed with hip dysplasia and it's irreparable and want to do hip replacement, but I also have really bad knee pain and ankle pain, I'd say my knee feels the worst, it never eases, I can't walk, I've also got both hands that shake constantly I'm 42 years old had operations to strengthen my ankles and the operation didn't help me, I'm scared to get the hip replacement in case it goes wrong or I end up worse, I know my pain is unbearable but I think if it went wrong I'd be gutted, but my knees have never had a mri and why do my handshake, do you sleep more than awake and I have to lift my right leg in and out the car, while sitting while twisting to get out of bed etc and I'm sorry I couldn't find any answers for you jo, except I use electric blanket and hot water bottle and deep heat
This looks like a job for a chiropractor examination. One of the great tragedies of our NHS is that consultants know very little about the contribution of muscle behaviour to pain problems. This is an area that the complementary deals with.
I am familiar with the leg giving way. I had problems like this a few years ago. My chiropractor showed me that what was happening, in my case, was that quadriceps were too tight and they were pulling the lower vertebrate onto the root nerve. Every time I see the chiropractor I have my leg muscles stretched. This cured the problem of my legs giving way. You may have a related problem. However you need a McTimony chiropractor to check if this is the case.
As we get older we have less control of muscle behaviour which can lead to all sorts of problems unless attention is given to good muscle use. A muscle has various forms of nervation to cause it to contract, but no nervation to cause it to lengthen out again. All the brain can do is stop contracting the muscle and rely on other muscles to stretch it out again. This is why yoga can be helpful discipline to help keep muscles functioning well.
If your problem is due to muscle spasms you are not going to get useful help from the NHS. You are going to need help from people who do massage, Alexander Teachers, chiropractors and yoga teachers.
Also posture may have an influence on the pain you experience. If the head is not well balanced on the top of the spine then muscles end up trying to hold the head upright. This can led to muscle spasms in all sorts of places leading to back problems.
johnsmith thanks for your very detailed response, you seem very knowledgeable in anatomy. tightness does seem to be relevant with my muscles, I feel there is no give although a lot of this could be my fault as I don't exercise much becoz of the pain and cfs. actually I have a McTimoney chiro on my doorstep, but for some reason I am really frightened of their practice, well all chiro's actually. Seems very aggressive at times. I have a bone scan Thursday to see if it's anything to do with implant so guess best to rule that out first, then if not related to re assess the problem.
McTimoney chiropractor are extremely gentle compared to other types of chiropractor. I have McTimoney chiropractor treatment on the NHS for over 20 years.
Working on tight muscles in my experience can be painful. The person who does the work has to find somewhere to grab the muscle and get it to stretch out. The methods that release muscle spasms can be painful, but I have always found it worth it. This has been my experience when I have a muscle spasm.
Tight muscles can occur for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with lack of exercise. I do a lot of cycling, but I get muscle spasms in the legs on occasion and I have yet not managed to determine the reason why. All I can do is to stop what I am doing at the instant the muscle is going into spasm.
Yoga may be a possible way forward. Yoga under a good yoga teacher is designed to untighten tight muscles.
There is a suspicion that tight muscles have an influence in causing loss of bone density in some cases. Tight muscles impede blood flow to the bones with the result that calcium which leaches from the bone, as part of body requiring calcium for its everyday use, is not always replaced.
So your pain has not eased or getting better, so are you worse now than before having a hip replacement, have you tried an electric blanket, hot water bottle deep heat I find it eases not much but a little, but deep heat does really heat up on my knees it does on my back and hip
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