Hip Replacement

My mom recently had hip replacement surgery. It was very difficult for her. The cost of hip replacement surgery is not just monetary, although the monetary cost is no inconsiderable.

The real cost, however, is the time lost in a slow and painful recovery, and the decreased mobility inevitably resulting from hip replacement surgery.

My mom had her hip replaced because of a rare condition from which she was suffering. She had pain in her hips for month before she knew that she would need a hip replacement – for months before she even began going to the doctor, even.

She came down with avascular necrosis, a strange disease for which she had none of the risk factors. Avascular necrosis is usually a condition which either scuba divers, alcoholics, the extremely old, or some types of athletes get, and she was none of these things.

Basically, the condition is when a certain area of the bone is not getting adequate blood supply. It begins to weaken and die on its own, but because it is happening inside of the bone, it can be a long time before anyone knows about it. For her, the necrosis did enough damage to make her need a hip replacement. Her hip was simply all weak and rotted out inside.

Fortunately, Hip replacement surgery has come a long way. Even so, it was months before she got most of her movement back, and my mom needed many quite intense and difficult sessions with a physical therapist to cause this to happen. The way things finally worked out, she has most of her movement back, but still walks with a limp.

Her hip replacement was a success, but even still will inconvenience her for the rest of her life. Because of the pin in her hip, she will always set off metal detectors at airports, which means that she is likely to be pulled aside and searched. In addition, she is

Finally, she has a complaint common to people who have major surgery. The hip replacement often tends to act up when the weather changes. Although this seems like no big deal, when there is a big storm coming, she can feel sore and uncomfortable all day, and sometimes all night as well. I don't blame her, while she's in the surgical room, I'm having nightmares of seeing her coming out with hip jewelry all over. I know, it's a weird dream, don't ask.