My Hip Replacement Story:
Told in Pictures (and Goofy Faces)
My first hip replacement was on my right hip in November 2021. I had no idea I’d be documenting this for others, so I didn’t take many pictures—and the ones I did take feature me making goofy faces. Apologies in advance! That’s a game I still play with my daughter to this day. While the surgery went great and the recovery went pretty well, I learned a lot of valuable lessons. Fortunately, I got to apply them sooner than expected when my left hip started giving out just a few months later.
My second hip replacement was in January 2023, and this time, I had a plan! I took all my lessons learned and started applying them even before surgery. I strongly believe that one of the reasons I had such an amazing recovery was because of the work I did ahead of time. So many people assume there’s nothing they can do to prepare, but that’s just not true. In fact, this realization is what led me to create the PREP program.
It was also during my second recovery that I tested one of my theories—now featured as a tip in Week 1 of my Get Back to Living guide—on how to prepare your bed for sleeping. Sounds simple, right? Nope! You quickly learn the hard way how painful it is to roll over in the middle of the night with a freshly replaced hip. Here’s the tip: Take two large body pillows and place them snugly on each side of you after lying on your back. Wedge them in close. This prevents you from involuntarily rolling over in the middle of the night. Trust me—rolling over and letting your hip just flop is not fun. I do not recommend it. Use the pillows and keep yourself comfortably in place.
Check out my guides for more tips!
1st Surgery: Pre-op pic. Please note that this pic was only meant for my teenage daughter and I never send her real pics with smiles, if I did she would be worried about me. We have a strong sense of humor in our family. :)
1st Surgery: Day after surgery and you can notice the lump on my right hip. I would later realize this is pretty common as almost the exact same thing happened on my left hip.
1st Surgery: Day 6 and the bruising has made it to my ankle. While not comfortable, I will say that it looks worse than it feels, though sitting on the toilet was not fun. :)
1st Surgery: Ice, Elevate, Ice, Elevate. Using the back of the couch was nice hack I figured out. Assitance may be needed. Oh, and if you have loyal companions, they'll make sure you do it right.
2nd Surgery: Pre-op pic. As I mentioned before, these were only meant for my teenage daughter. :)
Surgery 2: Post-op pic. I have no recollection of taking this pic. Some point right after this, I had to show the care team that I could walk, go up/down a few stairs, and I had to also urinate before I was allowed to go home. I did all 3 with no issues.
2nd Surgery: Day after surgery and I have the exact same lump on the left hip, so I already know there will be more leg bruising.
2nd Surgery: Day 5 and gravity is now allowing the bruising to drain down my leg.
2nd Surgery: Day 10 and the bruising has reached my feet! Aside from the bruising, by recovery is going excellent.
2nd Surgery: Day 19 and most of the bruising is gone, but for some reason my foot (and toes!) still had some residual bruising. I get my ugly toes from my father.
2nd Surgery: if you're familiar with Garmin, then you know their watches can track stress. Here is surgery day. I put my watch back on just after surgery and you can see my body was stressed out!
2nd Surgery: Here is how that first night of sleep went. More stress. Lots of stress. I don't have more screenshots of my Garmin, but I can tell you that it got progressively better each day and I believe I was having normal sleep by the 2nd week.
Just a few months after my 2nd hip replacement surgery, my mother started her battle with cancer. As she was losing her hair, I shaved my head with her in solidarity. I'm happy to report that she kicked cancer's ass and has grown her hair back, while I've elected to stay bald. :)