Don't even think about it
You've only just left the hospital! OK think about it just don't do it yet. Even if you have the finest surgeon in the world working on your hip replacement, the most experienced anesthetist in the operating room, the best nurses monitoring your every symptom after surgery, there’s one member of the team that can really stuff things up. You.During the operation you are unable to spoil the party but when you leave the hospital Yeehaaah! Hand me my running shoes! It’s party time!
Your job: Stop the hip prosthetic loosening
The surgical team have done the hard graft but yours is a tricky job, keeping your implant attached to the surrounding bone when all you want to do is hurry up and start running again.Your new hip will be either cemented on with polymethylmethacrylate or the bone will be shaped to sit snugly against the implant so that it can grow into it. When glue is used it hardens almost immediately but bone in-growth is a very gradual process which leaves your hip replacement vulnerable over a long time.
Nurture your hip replacement early on
In the early stages of your recuperation any running (yes, even careful shuffling) can create movement between your implant and the bone. If this happens regularly enough bone in-growth can stop all together and a gristly deposit may grow over the bone instead. As you can imagine this is not going to be good news for your running plans long term so busy yourself with other aspects of your training. Cross training is good, ie cross running off your schedule for now.How long does it take the bone to strongly attach?
Bone will start growing into your prosthetic straight away, gets fairly sticky by two weeks and then stronger at six weeks. It is not firmly attached until three to twelve months – or longer in some cases. Retrieval studies demonstrate bone in-growth can continue for up to 2 years, in fact the femoral bone (thigh bone) is something that continually remodels itself. Like all living bone it’ll keep growing for the rest of your life.Tinhip tip: Smoking can slow down bone in-growth.
Everyone’s bone quality at the time of surgery differs, so the frustrating thing is there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to knowing how long it will take for your bone to be optimally attached to your implant. That’s why you need to stay in touch with your specialist and ask for regular updates.
The operation might be over and the surgical team have done their best. They have passed the baton to you. Don’t drop it.
In the next post we'll look at preparing for your first workout on crutches.
