My running friends have all said I should share my experience to encourage others who are facing the same challenges. That is why I am reaching out to you. Perhaps you would find interest in my story, a story I wish to share so that others may not look at hip replacement surgery as the death of their running/competitive lives.
Growing up, I was very active in sports all the way through college, managing my college’s fitness center as a senior and participating in gymnastics into my mid-20’s, while performing at theme parks around the country. Of course, injuries were quite common and I suppose my joints were receiving a bit of a pounding. As I approached 30, I decided to train for my first marathon and after completing it, I attempted to run at least one marathon per year. At 32 I began to notice a small but constant pain in my right hip. My doctor took X-rays and said that I had quite a bit of arthritis in the joint and that the top of my femur was beginning to "square off," becoming rather misshaped. Eventually I became accustomed to the pain and continued to run 10Ks, half marathons,
and one full marathon per year.
The pain continued to get worse and my mobility declined over the years, but the human body is very good at adapting to new circumstances. In 2011 at the age of 42, after jogging through about 12 marathons with a best of 4:09, I decided to commit to training harder for the distance. Through mutual friends I met Darren Brown, an all-American runner at Texas and son of the late, great masters runner, Barry Brown. He helped me along, bringing my marathon time down from 4:09 to 3:22 in just 2 years. I began to win my age group in shorter distances, placing a few times for my age group in marathons, even winning my age group one time. This was all happening while my hip was getting worse and worse. By 2012, my mobility was extremely limited...I had a hard time picking things up off the floor, sitting in a chair, driving, and things like putting on my socks and shoes were nearly impossible. The pain was getting worse as well and started dramatically affecting my sleep. I began a regimen of consistent chiropractic visits, hyperbaric chamber recovery sessions, massage therapy, some over-the-counter NSAIDs, wearing CW-X tights, a thigh compression sleeve, wearing Hokas...anything I could do to delay the inevitable.
In 2013 I qualified for Boston and ran 2 more marathons before running Boston in 2015. After Boston, I had very little lateral mobility left in my right leg, could only bring my knee up about 45 degrees, while my hip was beginning to fuse with my lower back which began to give me thigh and lower back problems. My doctor gave me Celebrex to take as needed, but after about 2 months my liver started to get irritated, so I had to discontinue its use. After 15 years of increasing pain, mounting injuries, and decreasing mobility I decided to get my hip replaced. I ran what I thought might be my final marathon (or my final run period, due to advice from friends and my general practitioner) in December 2015 in 3:42.
On March 7 of 2016 I had a total right hip replacement at almost 47 years old. The top of my femur (which looked square) was cut off, a titanium rod was hammered into my femur, a ceramic ball was placed on top of the rod, my pelvis was smoothed out and a cup was screwed into it (a titanium backing with a high density plastic cover). The surgeon went in through the front of my hip so there was very little cutting of muscle tissue.
Within 10 hours of surgery I was walking with a walker in no pain, with a cane by day 3 and without any assistance by day 10. I did 3 one-hour physical therapy sessions a week for six weeks with my own 30-minute stretching and strengthening routine at home every other day. I walked a lot the first 2 weeks, and then began to add in a stationary bike for 20-30 minutes in weeks 3, 4, and 5. At 6 weeks I began to use the elliptical machine for 20 minutes a few times a week in addition to my walks. At 9 weeks I began to “granny shuffle” the downhill portions of my walks.
At 12 weeks (June 3), I was given the go ahead to start running. The bone had begun to adhere to the replacement. I jogged about 3 or 4 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes for the remainder of June. In July and August, I increased to 3 times a week, 5 to 7 miles each time and would also ride my bike for a 90-minute ride on the weekends. At the end of August I ran a 10K in 47:30...not very fast...but I was just happy to be out there...without any pain.
September 2016 brought me to 4 runs a week totaling about 30-35 miles per week with a couple of runs up to 11 miles…but no speed work. At the end of the month I ran a half marathon in 1:39.45, not as fast as my 2014 best of 1:33, but eight seconds faster than I had run the exact same race one year earlier.
12 months after surgery, I was logging the same number of weekly miles I did from 2011 to 2015 (40 to 50 miles in four weekly runs) and I was running faster than I did right before I qualified for Boston in 2013. I even finished 3rd in a 5K...signing up on a whim!
An update on my progress - over the winter of 2017, after about 2000 miles on the new hip, I started having quite a bit of nerve pain and leg "deadness" while running at race pace. X-rays of my hip and a MRI of my lower back proved inconclusive. Although the symptoms got worse and worse, I was still able to manage a 3:38 marathon in March 2018. Summer came with a diagnosis...my right illium had rotated back and was causing me all sorts of problems including lots and lots of inflammation. This has been improved with physical therapy and injections into my SI joint.
2019 running included the Illinois Marathon (3:30) and a rather slow NYC Marathon (5:01). The disappointing time in NYC was caused by furthering deterioration in my left hip which I finally had replaced on February 4, 2020.
Now with two hip replacements, I plan on running again beginning on May 1.
Wish me luck!