I was wondering if anyone has or knows another carpenter who has had a hip replacement and continues to work? I have been told that in this line of work the hip replacement may not be the best line of action but none of the other options seem to be any better. Does anyone have any experience with this?
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I havent asked about a hip , but I have checked out a knee replacement. It was a no go for construction because of kneeling down. Be interresting what you find out here.
Tim Mooney
do you need a hip replacement because of your line of work or did something happen to you outside of work?
I was diagnosed last year with a cyst on my pelvis and severe hip displasia (no it doesn't just happen to dogs!) Last year i had surgery to remove the cyst (which may have been caused by the displasia or from some trauma in my past , possibly a car accident i was in) but I still have alot of pain. the doctors I have talked to think I should try an osteotomy (spelling?) which involves breaking my pelvis in half and rotating it out to make my hip socket more secure, but this involves six months recovery time, and may not work anyway, while the hip replacement they say 2-3 months recovery time and will work but they say I'm too young to have it done. (I'm only 33) and in my line of work, I would wear it out in 15 years then have to have another one done. My line of thinking was the 15 good years then doing it over would be better then losing 6 months now and maybe having it done again next year anyway. but my only concern was to about whether I would loose mobility or risk dislocating a new hip doing construction work? I too have tried other lines of work(just about every type of work) but nothing compares to building things with my hands, and unfortunatly I am not financially able to start my own wood shop (though I love the idea) thats why I was hoping some of you may have gone through this already ( well actually I wouldn't hope ANY of you had gone through this, but if you had you'd tell me how it went!)
My wife says I should get another desk job, but I love carpentry. I don't see how people can go to work every day and do the same exact thing day in day out, week after week. year after year. I never have to do the same exact thing more than a day or two at a time and that makes a career change just about impossible to think about!
Any help guys?????
thanks,
Corey
I will try to be a little more helpful although I dont need a hip replacement . I dont like telling this any more than I have to but it seems there is good reason in this case.
10 weeks ago I had a heart attack , open heart surgery [5 bypass] and a stroke while I was supposed to be in recovery. That caused four days on a ventilator and a loss of memory.
I asked several doctors questions. I confirmed my believe that docs know the answers in the hospital , but not in recovery. They just dont get the experience. You are doing the right thing asking other people who have had the same problem, but its only one case they can normally speak for and its pretty one case example. The best thing to do is talk to the reabilitation unit . A one hour visit will tell you what you need to know. They have treated hundreds if not thouands recover and they keep records.
I too wanted to know if I could recover to return to these trades. I think your answer will be the same as the answer I recieved . [ just my opinion]
My recovery to the trades will depend on my assoiciation. My involvement must change to no heavy lifting , as it wont be possible for me to lift what I could before the surgery that busted my rib cage open with only staples holding it together. My answer to the problem is management . I can still handle the work as long as I have help with me . I dont want to quit and it to me would be a waste to stop now with the years I have and the equiptment. There is a discussion going on now in the business folder about LLC. Thats another avenue. I believe it can be a full time job to sell and manage work. That wont be my course but there are many different ways to make a living as good examples. The fact probably remains is that you wont be going solo. Give up the thought now and plan the future is my best advice. The young guys do it faster anyway and sometime or another we have to start giving in to them. I stopped doing roofs several years ago, then crawling in floors and attics. My billing is too much for other kind of jobs so thats where subs are born , as they do it cheaper and normally quicker . Find a place on the food chain that you will enjoy. A handiman can pick his own jobs I understand plus thats a good business in these days and times.
Good Luck ,
Tim Mooney
Tim, I sent you an email a few weeks ago asking about progress.
Looks like you are progressing and healing.
Nice to have you back. Is the paralysis thing getting better?Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the HandymanVancouver, Canada
Aron , it is getting a little bit better . Over all its quite a bit a better situation as Ive learned to deal with it . Thanks .
Tim Mooney
This is probably not the kind of advice you are looking for but I read an article not long ago about hip replacement and they said there are several new products being tested now that substantially increase the length of time a hip lasts. I cant remember specifics but you should check into that. I would bet that if the first wears out in 15 years there will be something much better to replace it with by then. Good luck.
Ya dupes,
My pop had a hip replacement on one side a few years back and at banging 70 is still climbing ladders and doing stuff I'd think twice about.
I recall a ceramic ball was the normal procedure with the 15 year thing. There were other options available and if I remember correctly it seems it was a more expensive metal stainless steel deal that was to last a lot longer time.
He had it done at the Cleveland Clinic. Might be worth a web search for some accurate information. Best to ya.
I would recommend that you try some physical therapy first. I have spinal problems, one of the side effects of that was severe hip pain. I thought I had a bad hip but it turned ot to be refered pain from nerves being agravated. Bad paoture and body mechanics from the bad hip can displace things in the back and create a cycle or downward spiral of each making the other worse.
By doing PT stretches and excercises borrowed from Pilates regimen, I have strengthened my abdominal sheathe and interior muscles that support and maintain alignment.
Sometimes, I still have to reach for the Vicodin by thursday PM and other weeks, i get by OK. The spinal damage will always be there.
Some docs wanted to operate but others told me that I would only end up transfering the stresses to other discs and set up an continuation requireing more surgery and recuperative periods.
The physical therapy and exercise is cheaper by far. I know we have different situations but this idea mnay be worth investigating with your docs before they open you up again..
Excellence is its own reward!
yes I have tried physical therapy (only seems to aggrevate the pain) and in my case it is clearly a hip problem. The acetabulum is malformed ....you have a ball and socket joint in your hip, and my socket is only half there, meaning the support on the thigh bone is not displaced properly, wearing down cartilage in an uneven manor and osteoarthiritis causes the pain. sometimes it seems like there is no cartilage left! Anyway the xrays clearly show this to be the problem and I have tried everytype of antiinflamatory but to no avail and even light duty work doesnt work......it seems just being on my feet all day causes the pain and by friday, I need to spend the entire weekend in the easy chair to be ok to go back to work monday. (Now i know you guys have the jokes lined up about sitting and watching TV all weekend but I assure you in my case I'd much rather be out doing something! :)
corey
My dog sends her condolences. She says she can feel your pain.
;)
They say humour helps too! LOL
It looks like you are on the road to being rebuilt then, eh?
Even if I specualte that they could grow you some more cartilage in a culture and inject it like they do with some knees now, you still have the misalignment to be fixed or it will happen again - wearing the cartilage down.
The deal on breaking the hip to re-align you sounds severe but it goes to the root of the problem and breaks like that will be easier to recover from now than when you are fifty something.
I'm just thinking out loud here, not telling you what to do with your body.
Best of luck with whatever you decide. Attitude is half the battle.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
Anything like hip replacement takes one to two years to really build the muscle and bone attachments to where you're stable enough to do physical work. Of course, one is also more vulnerable to additional injury for the rest of your life so construction carpentry could be risky. I was a carpenter for 25 years but from a car accident, my neck if fused at two levels. I explored several other vocations but finally built a shop and now make furniture and cabinets. Nothing else had the satisfaction of building with wood for me.
I hope this wasn't from wearing overloaded nail bags??? Good luck, its a tough decision.
Phil
I assume you've asked your doctors the question.
If the answer is that you really should't work as a carpenter in your case, there are other options. A few which come to mind are, specializing in finish carpentry, cabinet making, foreman, building inspector, teacher, estimator, manufacturer's rep, sales, . . .
Don't know if this is particularly helpful, but...
An older friend of mine had an artificial hip put in several years ago. I believe he was 58 or 60~ when it was put in. He is an active volunteer, and is always busy. He slowed down after the surgery but still did a lot of stuff. Even saw him up on roofs a couple of times.
This past summer he was out with his kids and grandkids water skiing. He had been driving the boat, but got the idea that he wanted to give it a shot himself. The pressure from trying to come up out of the water ripped the artificial socket lose from his bones and just generally made a mess of it. He endured a 6 hour surgery to repair the damage, and won't be able to walk on it for several months.
So there definitely are limits after the surgery.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.
My wife is a physical therapist and she says that for a minimun of 6 months to a year after a total hip replacement, you must avoid flexing the hip past 90 degrees, crossing the involved leg past the midline of the body and avoiding internally rotating the involved leg. These movements can be difficult to avoid when squatting down, climbing latters, twisting to reach when feet are in a fixed position, getting in/out of a tub or on/off a standard height commode/in/out of trucks. If you can avoid those 3 main positions by modifying your work area/stations and using other adaptative equipment you may be able to continue w/ your work activities.
She recommends working closely w/ a physical therapist for at least 4-6 months after the surgery to build up the strength in the hip muscles and to give you advice on making work modifications.
ANDYSZ2
I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Thank you Andysz2....this was the most helpful info I have had (even after visiting three doctors. They just kept saying I was too young for the hip replacement but none could give me a more elaborate answer than that. Finally the third doctor when pressed hard mentioned posible mobility restrictions but your wife has shed more light on the subject then anyof them did!
Thank you so much for the info!
Corey
She was the type of person I was talking about. She has a lot more experience in recovery than a doctor does and thats just the honest truth. Doctors only see patients during a sickness not usually post sickness . You have to ask you self the question ; How could they know ?
Tim Mooney
Tim,
Welcome back!
Have you got all ten fingers typing now?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Yes sir , Im typing with ten fingers now . Im sure proud to have that little accomplishment back to, because I sure missed it. Thanks for the holler back , its good to hear from you too.
Tim Mooney
On the thing about being too young for surgery - I can surmise some reasons based on other older folks I know who've had replacements. They have been told that the average life of the replacement part is about ten years. So if you live to be 70, you could be looking at repeating this thing four more times. Imagine the amt of scar tissue that would be interfering with success by then. So there is advantagfe in the long run to postponing aas long as possible.
But newer sockets like titanium are expected to be able to last much longer....Who knows?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Your welcome, she has helped a multitude of hip replacement recipients and has seen reinjuries of the surgery one guy sat down on concrete floor got up and popped it out. I would do alot of research on the web about new techniques and devices and try to find surgeons on the leading edge of this technology. you may be able to get on a study for new tech and reduce your costs .
I am 8 months into recovery from 2 rotational fractures in my lower right leg both bones broke into splinters and they had to put 14" titanium rod and 4 bolts to reunite break. Never had a cast and was walking with crutches and working 6 weeks after surgery, but the pain was intense for the first 6 monthes and swelling issues are just now starting to be minimal.I got real lucky with the doctor who turned out to be the surgeon that all the other surgeons wanted. My biggest concern now is that they diagnosed me with pagets disease ( excess calcium growth) that could lead to more fragility in my bones. With dirt bike riding and carpentry I will probably incur more injuries but the exercise should keep my muscle tone up to help protect against breaks. The idea of giving up the things I love to do is not sitting well with me either but conscious caution should carry me for another decade or 2 and by then I should evolve my business to where other people do the manual labor and I set up the jobs.
Best of luck to you and don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions about recovery.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Does your wife know anything about the recovery/complications of having an osteonomy (breaking the pelvis and rotating the bone out to cover more of the "ball"??
I have been searching the web and slowly wading through information but I am having a hard time finding out about the osteonomy procedure and most of what i find on hip replacements is either about Dogs or about specific new products that are new and improved but not much about the recovey process/and how it affects our lives as active young people. I realize that some of these hip replacements are designed for older people who may not need it for much longer than 10-15 years. By the way 14 inches of titanium rod sounds pretty cool......until you see pictures of how they do it....I just saw a graphic of the tools used to ream out the inside of the bone.....looks like a wood rasp. Cant imagine rasping out the inside of a bone.....icky!
Man you have know idea how painful that reaming process is.The inside of my bone was a solid brown mass that they did a biopsy on and determined the pagets disease. This mass required an extra three hours of reaming and a second surgeon to swap out with. Doc said he never seen a solid bone like that. Its no wonder I sink when I jump in the pool. Wife has gone to church but when she gets back I'll get her to write back to you.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Regardless of which course you decide to take, don't count on going back to work as a roofer or a production framer. A joint replacement can offer significant improvement but is not the equal of a healthy hip or knee. Two years ago, at 48 I had my left knee replaced and leg realigned. The difference is amazing ........ the pain on that side is gone and I've regained quite a bit of mobility. Right hip and knee replacement is in the future but at this point in time I'm just trying to live with it. Doing handyman type stuff- siding, painting and doing ok physically. Been up on a few roofs for inspection but try to avoid it if at all possible. Like Piffin I have bad days but you learn to live with it. I have limitations but work around them and have no doubt you can too.