Broken hip :(
 

Well, I took a hard spill this week and fractured my hip. Sigh. I underwent full hip replacement surgery and I now have a titanium/ceramic replacement installed. Since I'm young (52) the doctors say I should recover quickly (walking within 2 weeks, back on the bike in 3 months).

Wondering if there is any wisdom to be shared from other forumites around recovery time, do's and don't's during healing, etc.

This sucks.

Total Wine curbside.

Other than "do your PT" I have nothing to offer.

On the other hand, would you care to give more details on the incident? I assume it was while riding. Road or MTB? What happened? If MTB, were you on a trail, and how did you get to the ambulance?

Best of luck healing well.

Were you a candidate for replacement before the fall? I dont know anything about this but am curious how the diagnosis escalated to the need for a full replacement. I wish you a full and speedy recovery. You’ll be back in saddle this summer.

More to the point, I don't know what to respond to first. Just hang in there. Don't rush your recovery. Having broken my leg last year (tibial plateau fracture. I'll send you some really gross pictures, if you want to see them), I can tell you it's just going to suck for a while. There are many enlightening ways to fill the time it takes to recover.

I suffered a big financial loss, during the time I was not able to work. Being a single guy and ferociously independant, I'm glad I didn't have anyone else calling my shots. Although, you're bound to find out that everyone is a self proclaimed doctor, and will be advising you on how to live your life. God bless'm.

Edit: One year ago, I didn't know if I were ever able to walk normally again. Today, I can do everything I want to do. First and foremost, ride. Walk, run, hike...and everything else ;). The only thing I can't do is sit on my heels, like people do before yoga class when they're sitting around, talking. So if that's the worst of it, I think I'm doing ok.

One plate, six screws. Behold the miracle of modern medicine, and orthopedic surgery. Every day, I'm thankful to have two legs that work.

Yes, while riding. Road bike, descending, caught some gravel and lost control. I wasn't going crazy fast, but fast enough apparently. The person I was with was able to flag down some strangers who were kind enough to take me to the ER.

No. I was definitely not a candidate beforehand. The orthopedic surgeon who reviewed the x-rays said that due to the location of the fracture, a replacement was the best option (as opposed to using pins or screws).

That stinks.

Gravel is a huge menace. Once I was in a parking lot, going very slowly in a turn, and hit some unexpected gravel. I went down so quickly it was amazing - one second I was riding along and what seemed like 0.0001 seconds later I was on the ground.

Take care.

As someone who is still doing daily PT exercises, from a broken right pelvis last fall (no pun intended - hit by van but back on the bike), here's my get well list:

1. See a PT therapist and get a list O exercises
2. Do them religiously, even if: hurt/tired/happy/sad. Keep a record.
3. Add to the 'work level' when you can. For example do 10% more reps, longer stretches, etc. for each exercise
4. Stay as active as practical, even if not bike related. Can you use a spin bike?
5. If you can go to the gym, do upper body and core exercises.
6. Watch your weight! Don't ask me how I got so fat over the winter...

Keep the faith. walkers and crutches suck, but you will get better!

Oh, and treat yourself to a new bike :banana:

Sorry to hear this, I've been there. If you have an indoor trainer and can get on it safely, that would be one of the best ways to hasten your recovery and maintain some fitness. Just easy spinning/flat pedals of course.

I broke my hip last year riding over some cobbles on a casual ride. I was 34 at the time and luckily got transferred to a great medical center (University of Maryland Shock Trauma) and they decided since I was young they'd use screws to put my femur back together and avoid a hip replacement. The upside is, no artificial hip, the downside was a much longer recovery process. As i recall it was 0 weight bearing on the leg for 6 weeks, then an additional 4 weeks at just 50% weight bearing, so 10 weeks with crutches, before i fully weaned off them at about 3 months or so.

As others have said PT, PT, PT. I bought myself a cheap amazon weight bench and some weights to do some weight lifting to build upper body strength since i couldn't do any running, riding hiking etc. As others have said, since you'll likely be burning much fewer calories due to the inactivity, you'll want to keep a close and strict watch on your diet to avoid putting on weight while you're down. In the first few weeks, i'd focus on just recovering, if you have a spouse, relative or friend that can stay with you that's great. if not, Order some delivery food for a bit to just take it easy while you heal.

here's the thread I posted a year back. I meant to go back and update it with pics of healing but never did.
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showt...&highlight=hip

Technicolor,
I am 71 and got total hip replacement 5 weeks ago (March 4th) on the right due to severe arthritis. It had gotten so bad that I could no longer ride and it dictated a lot of what I could and could not do. I assume you got the anterior approach like I did. Mine was done as an outpatient and I was home in the afternoon.

My first day of physical therapy (PT) was the day after surgery, and I had PT twice each week for 4 weeks. That helped a lot. I was on a walker for nearly 2 weeks and then was able to use a cane, but by 3 weeks I was walking without any devices.

I work out in the gym pretty much every day now and do the stationary bike, the stair climber, quadricep curls, and hamstring exercises, on the machines designed for those. That helps also.

I think it will be about 2 months (around May 1st) before I can ride on the road because of the unlikely, but still real, risk of a fall which could mess up the new hip before the titanium spike gets fused completely in the femur.

Early on I was very careful and I still am in order to avoid some kind of fall which could set me back.

Good luck with the recovery,
Dave

I was 81 when fractured my hip in 2019. I got pins and screws. You should heal a lot faster than I did.

Listen to your physical therapists. I'm still doing stretches every day. I stated out walking outside with a walker, graduated to a cane, while increasing my mileage. I really detested riding inside but my stationary bike became my friend. I'm still using it on rainy days.

Pain is your enemy. I tried everything including CBD and prescription opioids
with limited success. Advil always helped.

Good luck with your recovery.

Friend of mine had her hip replaced three or four weeks ago.

She assembled a series of tools to help her with dressing - grabbers, pullers, etc.

Turns out tying shoes is a challenge.

I cycled past her walking in the neighborhood yesterday; she was glad to see me...she asked me to retie her shoe! :)

When I smashed my leg to bits a while ago (age 41), I was off the "real" bike for 3 months, but I was back on the trainer spinning nice and easy in about 6 weeks.

I think the most important thing to concentrate on in PT is range of motion. It will hurt and will not be fun. But if you can get your full range of motion back, then everything else follows from there. I am glad that I put up with the suffering and have 100% full range of motion in my leg.

Good luck. Make sure you have someone to talk to. I had some pretty dark days when I was recovering from my injury. Wishing you the best possible recovery.