SURGERY DAY IS HERE
23M — Had my right hip replaced today due to AVN.
Honestly, the surgery went great. I’m already up and walking with a walker, and for the first time in over a year I’m actually walking correctly instead of limping. It’s honestly a crazy feeling. The deep hip pain I’ve been living with is just… gone. I do have pain in my femur from the metal rod insertion, but compared to what I was dealing with before, it feels manageable.
I’m definitely very nervous about dislocation, so I’m being EXTREMELY cautious with everything I do right now, but overall I’m genuinely happy I went through with the surgery and I feel like I’ll slowly be able to get back to living a normal life again.
I was prescribed oxycodone for pain, but I’m only taking it when absolutely necessary and I’m hoping I won’t need it at all by day 3 if recovery keeps going this well.
I mainly wanted to make this post because a month ago I was constantly searching Reddit reading every hip replacement/AVN post I could find because I was terrified and looking for support. Honestly, I was still scared this morning — I cried before going into surgery. So if anyone reading this is dealing with AVN or facing a hip replacement and feeling scared, I just want you to know it really does get better, and the surgery itself was nowhere near as bad as I built it up to be in my head.
Also, I want to genuinely thank everyone on Reddit who shared their surgery experiences openly. Reading those posts and comments really did help calm me down and made me feel a lot less alone going into this.
I also didn’t have the typical “gas” anesthesia. They used a spinal nerve block to numb everything from the waist down and then gave me IV sedation so I slept through the surgery while breathing on my own. From what I was told, it’s generally considered safer that way.
My surgeon used the anterior approach and went in from the front.
And honestly… I’m weirdly excited for sock day now lol.
Just wanted to put something positive out there for anyone doom-scrolling like I was a month ago.