Bill, Hip Replacement Patient

“I had to stop fishing because couldn’t step up and down in the boat, couldn’t operate the trolling motor, and I couldn’t even get off the deck to net the fish.”

Bill’s hip replacement story

A few years before I had hip replacement surgery, I was retired and I farmed, fished and babysat for my grandkids.

Pain began to slow me down, and I was thinking it was my back.

In spring 2014 we went to Disney World with the grandkids. I was on a cane and having a lot of problems.

I couldn’t keep up with the kids, the wife, anybody.

I couldn’t keep up with my mother-in-law who is 80 – and I was 60!

They would all just go on, and eventually I would catch up.

Then I had to stop fishing because couldn’t step up and down in the boat, couldn’t operate the trolling motor, and I couldn’t even get off the deck to net the fish.

It got to where I had to get my wife or my grandkids to tie my shoes.

I went to the doctor, and he told me that the problem was my hip. I needed to get it replaced because it was wore out from arthritis. Age had just took its toll on it.

So I decided to have the surgery.

I went to an orientation class about a month before the surgery, and they told everybody what to expect and about recovery. We were told about pre-surgery therapy and that it would make the recovery faster. My doctor had suggested it, too, so I did that for four or five weeks and it was a good investment of my time.

The surgery turned out real well. In late October I had surgery at Johnson City Medical Center on a Wednesday, and on Thursday I was up walking down the hallway with a walker.

That afternoon the doctor came in and asked me if I was ready to go home, and I said, “Sure!”

By six o’clock the day after surgery I was walking into my house.

It’s been downhill easy ever since. I did the home exercises they gave me, and I used a walker about a month.

On Thanksgiving Day – about four weeks after surgery – my grandson and I walked in the Turkey Trot in Johnson City. I used a walker and finished about half the race.

After that I used a baseball bat for a cane until right after Christmas. By May I had weaned myself off the cane and haven’t used one at all since then.

If I had not had the hip replacement, somebody would be taking care of me.

I wouldn’t have been able to walk. And within three or four months, I would have been wheelchair-bound.

The pain was that bad.

After my hip was replaced, the pain in my hip was gone. I couldn’t have been more pleased.

It was a life-changing, life-saving event.

My advice to anybody’s that’s having the kind of pain that’s restricting what you love to do – whether it’s playing with the grandkids, shopping with your wife, hunting, fishing, or going on vacation – is to go to the doctor. Ask what is causing your pain and what can be done. I put off going to the doctor for two years.

If you have the surgery, I would also suggest going to Johnson City Medical Center where they have a floor dedicated to joint replacement.

They’ll get you in and out of there and have you back to chasing your grandbabies, hunting and fishing, shopping and walking as soon as they can.

You’ll be in better shape than you were before you started. It can be life-changing.

Is hip replacement for you?

If you think surgery might help you get moving again – like it did for Bill – learn more about total hip replacement here.