It started with a sore hip. Sometimes it was hard to walk on it for a couple of weeks, and then it would go away. By the time Linda Marshall was ready for a total hip replacement, the pain was so severe she was limping all the time—avoiding her basement laundry room, and sitting in her car in the grocery store parking lot for 10 minutes at a time, wishing she didn’t have to get out and go in.
“It was just debilitating,” says Linda, “very limiting. It didn’t matter if I was walking, sitting or sleeping. It didn’t matter where I was, or what position I was in; up or down. It was constant, like having a toothache in your hip that starts radiating down to everything—to your knee and all the way to your ankle. It seemed like everything hurt.”
She went to a doctor who thought it was bursitis and gave her a shot. When that wore off after two weeks, she thought she was stuck with the pain. When it became more than she could bear, she researched orthopaedic surgeons on the internet, was impressed with one doctor’s bio, and made an appointment. “The doctor had no doubts, I needed a hip replacement!” says Linda. “He compared my hip to a flat tire; not round, but flat.”
Linda’s hip surgery went so well, she was up the next day, walking across the room with a walker. After two weeks, she progressed to a cane. After three weeks of physical therapy she got rid of that.
The Stryker Mobile Bearing Hip™ Replacement Linda’s surgeon used is built to allow for more natural movement, with a new technology called anatomic dual mobility. For 61-year-old Linda, that meant within three months she went from her husband pushing her in a wheelchair, to resuming their regular walks—in the neighborhood, through the woods, at the zoo—on foot.
With two years of progressive pain and disability behind her, she now walks up and down baseball stadium stairs without leaning on her daughter’s arm, and hikes trails in Lake Tahoe with her son and daughter-in-law. She even gets in and out of kayaks.
“When I started physical therapy post-surgery, they asked me what my goal was,” says Linda. “I told them I wanted to get back to my normal lifestyle; nothing unusual. Now, my life is back to normal. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”
Individual results may vary. Not all patients will have the same post-operative recovery and activity level. See your orthopaedic surgeon to discuss your own potential benefits and risks.
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