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Hello Sheri, and welcome. I also needed a new hip because I broke the femoral neck of my hip in a bike accident. My surgeon told me point blank at my pre-op appointment that I had to stop running. He did not explain why. I came home and cried. I went ahead with this particular surgeon because I felt that he was the most meticulous of the surgeons I had consulted with, and I hoped this would give me the best result. I figured that I’d deal with the running prohibition later.
I called his PA and asked her about running and she said that they had patients who ran, and they didn’t yell at them.
At my 3 month follow up, I pressed my surgeon on why he told patients not to run. His answer was that running aggravated the soft tissues. He said that patients who ran came in with aches and pains, and that those who didn’t run didn’t. He also said that there were not studies that proved that running wore out the prothesis prematurely, but his intuition told him that it would. When I heard about the soft tissues, I thought, “Oh, is that all?”
I am now 5 months out, and I still have enough swelling around the main incision that I think that if I were to run right now, it would indeed aggravate the soft tissues. My decision at this time is to wait. I think that eventually that will calm down. We’ll see what more time brings.
Best of luck to you.
HoppieInteresting. I thought you had the anterior approach because you’re so far ahead of where I was. It took me almost 3 months to be able to walk 5K.
Towards the end of my 3 months, when I started pushing the envelope a little, I felt tightness when I was trying to move further because of the scar tissue, and because I hadn’t moved in those ways in 3 months!
What I was told by my PT is that the goal was to get the soft tissues to “scar in” as tightly to the prothesis as possible; therefore I wasn’t supposed to do anything to stretch them. If they scarred in tight, they’d help hold the prothesis in and prevent dislocation. The risk of dislocation is highest in the first few months, but it never entirely disappears.
I would agree–it it hurts, don’t do it.
Cheers!
Glad to hear you’re on the “other side” of surgery, where your hip gets better every week instead of worse.
I’m only 4 months post op myself, so I’ll pass on what I keep telling myself. Keep your eye on the prize–the best possible long term recovery.
Hi Chris,
Just popping in to wish you good luck and fast healing on your surgery tomorrow.
I watched a few of your videos. My ex was an Anchorage native, and I had in-laws in Anchorage and Fairbanks. I’ve been there many times, but none in the years since we got divorced. It was nice to see it again. Thanks for sharing.
–Hoppie
Thanks, Buzz. Yep, your story is very similar to mine, right down the PT that didn’t work when my hip started hurting again. My surgeon has absolutely forbidden running. I don’t know what I’ll do about that. Right now, I don’t think my leg would tolerate it anyways. I’m glad to hear that you can run some–I’ll be happy if I can run about as much as you do in time.
HoppieHi Brent,
I had mine when I could no longer walk for exercise. I had to conserve steps to have enough left to do routine things like grocery shopping. Walking more than a short distance provoked horrible muscle spasms. It also hurt to lift my leg to get on a bicycle and the amount of riding I could do every week was declining rapidly.
-Hoppie
My place is also all stairs. I did my rehab at home. My partner took 5 days off from work to care for me at the beginning, and then he was working from home because of COVID, so there was always someone else here to help me. Can someone stay with you the first few days?
Hi there,
I am just 3 months post op now, and this is what helped me. Consider that you’ll be using your upper body strength and good leg to compensate for the operated leg for awhile.
I think the fact that I did pushups every day for months before surgery was very helpful. I was using my upper body for lots of things: turning over in bed, pushing up off the toilet, and it was also the only way I could get into my car without breaking the 90 degree angle. I put my butt on the car seat, and then put my hands down on either side and lifted my torso up in the air. Then I was able to swing my operated leg into the car.
Also, consider if you have a lot of stairs in your house. I live in a townhouse, and to live here is to climb stairs dozens of times a day. It was 9 weeks after surgery before I could climb stairs the regular way all day. My good leg did a *lot* of stair climbing. I’m sure as a runner you have very strong legs, but maybe it’s something to think about.
–Hoppie
Thanks, Brent. My 3 months was up today. I tied my shoes, crossed my legs, and drove my car without the booster cushion, but I didn’t push it any further than that. My leg muscles are stiff. I can see that I’ll be working to loosen them up.
You are so right about recovery being a long process. The further I go, the more I see that I have in front of me. I’m glad that your recovery continues to progress.
–Hoppie
Hi John,
For me, the most important exercises were to rebuild strength in the side of my thigh where they cut through the muscles and IT band: clamshells, lateral walk, stair climbing, side lunges, and balancing on the operated leg. Your PT should cover this.
-HoppieHi John,
When I had the screws put in, my surgeon told me that it would be 12-18 months before I knew that the surgery was a success and that I had not developed avascular necrosis. My first problems came in November 2019, about 5 months after surgery. I had pain after running. I rested for a month and it went away. Then, in March of this year, I noticed that I was not putting my weight equally on both legs when I was standing, that I was putting most of my weight on my good leg. I didn’t have pain at that time. In April the pain after running came back and got worse. It hurt to climb stairs, it hurt to lift my leg or to turn over in bed, and the pain sometimes woke me up at night. In May I stopped running and started restricting the amount of walking I was doing to try to give my leg a rest. It helped, but not enough to enable me to run. Physical therapy made it worse. An x-ray in August, more than a year after my initial surgery, showed that the ball of my hip had flat spots–I had avascular necrosis. I scheduled THR surgery when I started getting horrible knee pain when I tried to walk more than a small amount; I was literally rationing out trips to the grocery store.
I am 12 weeks post op as of today. I am not trying to run at this time. My hope is to be able to walk 5K this weekend–it’s my New Year’s goal. It has taken me 3 months to work up to this, but it is far more walking than I was able to do for months pre-op. My surgeon has told me that I cannot run any more. I haven’t decided yet what to do about that; my body is not ready to run, so any decision would be premature now. I’ll be evaluating how I feel in another 3 months or so. I take hope from this blog that I might be able to do some running in the future.
I wish you the best of luck with your hip.
–Hoppie.
PS: That first sentence should read, “I broke the femoral neck (non-displaced fracture) of my right hip in a bicycling accident in June 2019.” Sorry for my careless editing.
Hi John,
I broke my right femoral hip in a bicycling accident in June 2019. At the time, it was repaired with 3 screws. I was told that I could not run or jump for 3 months, but after that I could do what I wanted.
Recovery seemed to go well for a a while. Unfortunately in my case, the blood flow to the ball of my hip had been disrupted and I developed avascular necrosis. This necessitated a THR in October 2020.
I hope that you have better luck than I did and that you’ll be running in a few months. Fingers crossed for you!
Good question, Brett. I don’t have any answers for you, but I’m hoping that some other members will. I am 10 weeks post-op, and I was told emphatically, several times, by my surgeon that I could never run again. My PT told me that I could probably run, but that I should be prepared to have revision surgery in 10 years. I am heartbroken.
Hi Debra,
I felt awful for about 10 days after surgery.
I had mine done as an outpatient, and I had 8 prescriptions I had to fill before surgery. Four of them were painkillers, including oxycodone. If most people didn’t need them, there’s no way I would have had all those prescriptions.
Hang in there. I’m 6 weeks post surgery now, and I feel much, much better.
Hoppie
