Hip replacement

[KnittyNorah]

NWAS North West Ambulance Service) has - or had - a really good 'hospital car' service which you can phone for 48 hours in advance of your appointment (0800 number). They did ask you a few questions to make sure you're not taking the proverbial; however I don't have any idea what the service is like now given C-19.
I used it extensively before I had my eye surgery in 2020; they are well-checked volunteers who are paid fuel expenses and I thought it was a brilliant idea. There was no way I could've got to all my appointments in various hospitals all round the northwest - sometimes I had to be FX in Manchester for a 9 am appointment or in Skem for half past eight ... they wouldn't take anyone who needed much in the way of assistance eg wheelchair, or confused, but severe VI wasn't an issue.

 

[Accy cyclist]

NWAS North West Ambulance Service) has - or had - a really good 'hospital car' service which you can phone for 48 hours in advance of your appointment (0800 number).

I used them to do the 30 mile there and back trip from home to Preston when I was having radiotherapy and chemo' 14 years ago. They were ok, but I found that some drivers took the longest journey, probably to bump up their expenses. One driver used to go round the houses so much that the half an hour trip to Preston hospital took 50 minutes!

 

[vickster]

I've just heard Olympic medalist Sharon Davies on the radio saying that losing a pound of body fat reduces 6 pounds of pressure on your hips and 4 pounds on your knees. It makes me wonder how my hip and 'dynamic screw' would've help up if i'd been overweight?🤔

My concerns about my forthcoming hospital appointment are that the consultant will suggest physiotherapy rather then surgery due to me not being overweight. I'm 6 foot tall and weigh exactly 11 stones. Will I be penalised due to me not being overweight I wonder?🤔

If you have bone on bone arthritis and are in severe pain and/or have functional disability, they’ll do the replacement surgery if indicated. They might give you prehab physio to do while you wait for the op so you’re in the best shape going into surgery and get a head start on the post op rehab

 

[Accy cyclist]

If you have bone on bone arthritis and are in severe pain and/or have functional disability, they’ll do the replacement surgery if indicated. They might give you prehab physio to do while you wait for the op so you’re in the best shape going into surgery and get a head start on the post op rehab

I've heard and heard of people saying they've gone to places like Lithuania and Hungary and paid X amount of pounds to pay for a new hip instead of waiting years for one on the NHS. These are mostly older than me, some being in their 70's even 80's. I wonder why they had to wait so long for a replacement that paying thousands of pounds was seen by them as their best maybe only option? 🤔

 

[KnittyNorah]

I used them to do the 30 mile there and back trip from home to Preston when I was having radiotherapy and chemo' 14 years ago. They were ok, but I found that some drivers took the longest journey, probably to bump up their expenses. One driver used to go round the houses so much that the half an hour trip to Preston hospital took 50 minutes!

Nothing like that at all for me in 2017, 18 & 19 - maybe they tightened things up a lot?

 

[ColinJ]

I've just heard Olympic medalist Sharon Davies on the radio saying that losing a pound of body fat reduces 6 pounds of pressure on your hips and 4 pounds on your knees. It makes me wonder how my hip and 'dynamic screw' would've help up if i'd been overweight?🤔

When I weighed my maximum (~114 kg/18 stone) my knees hurt so much that I could not walk forwards down a flight of stairs, I had to turn and let myself down slowly backwards. I also had great difficulty getting up from my armchair. I thought my knees were wrecked by arthritis.

I lost 1/3 of the weight and the pain went away, just like that!

 

[PaulSB]

I would book a taxi or get a bus.This is what many, many people do. I know buses can be slow and inconvenient. Preston hospital is 11 miles from my home but takes three buses and around 90 minutes.

 

[vickster]

I've heard and heard of people saying they've gone to places like Lithuania and Hungary and paid X amount of pounds to pay for a new hip instead of waiting years for one on the NHS. These are mostly older than me, some being in their 70's even 80's. I wonder why they had to wait so long for a replacement that paying thousands of pounds was seen by them as their best maybe only option? 🤔

How many people do you know who’ve actually done this and when? How long were they needing to wait? What was their general health status, were they fit for major surgery?

Or did you hear about it in the Daily Mail?

 

[KnittyNorah]

How many people do you know who’ve actually done this and when? How long were they needing to wait? What was their general health status, were they fit for major surgery?

Or did you hear about it in the Daily Mail?

A friend of mine down south (Kent/Sussex borders) was on a l-o-n-g waiting list for a hip replacement - this was 10 or more years ago - and in order for the area to 'catch up' they were buying in a LOT of capacity from elsewhere. She, being a more adventurous soul than it appeared were most hip replacement candidates in that area, happily ticked 'any' on the list of places she could be sent to, and within 48 hours got a phone call asking her if she would be willing to go over the channel. No not the Bristol Channel ... She had two weeks in France - three or four days in the hospital 'proper' and then the convalescence wing for the rest of her stay with excellent food and wine with all meals (except breakfast). She said the physios in France worked her much harder than the NHS physios she later had once back in the UK, who were surprised at her rate of progress and who - she felt - rather let things slide, so she took to going to a private physio on a regular basis, to 'keep up the good work' as it were.
So she went overseas for her hip replacement - but all paid for by the NHS!

 

[vickster]

A friend of mine down south (Kent/Sussex borders) was on a l-o-n-g waiting list for a hip replacement - this was 10 or more years ago - and in order for the area to 'catch up' they were buying in a LOT of capacity from elsewhere. She, being a more adventurous soul than it appeared were most hip replacement candidates in that area, happily ticked 'any' on the list of places she could be sent to, and within 48 hours got a phone call asking her if she would be willing to go over the channel. No not the Bristol Channel ... She had two weeks in France - three or four days in the hospital 'proper' and then the convalescence wing for the rest of her stay with excellent food and wine with all meals (except breakfast). She said the physios in France worked her much harder than the NHS physios she later had once back in the UK, who were surprised at her rate of progress and who - she felt - rather let things slide, so she took to going to a private physio on a regular basis, to 'keep up the good work' as it were.
So she went overseas for her hip replacement - but all paid for by the NHS!

Doubt that happens any more with Brexit and Covid

 

[KnittyNorah]

Doubt that happens any more with Brexit and Covid

I'm certain it's not happened for several years, nothing to do with Covid! Apparently (according to my friend, who is a retired nurse) it wasn't an entirely successful experiment as I think some of the people - who voluntarily took up the offer! - were unhappy with the fact that the staff in the hospital spoke, you know, French, that they needed to have a passport (which the NHS didn't pay for) and that it was difficult, expensive and inconvenient for relatives to come and visit. My friend relished all of it, treated it like an adventure holiday and said she'd do it again in a shot, given the opportunity, if her other hip ever needed doing. It hasn't so far; her hip damage was mainly caused by old injury. She has also kept up her French since improving it so much during her hospital stay and last time I spoke to her, was considering doing some official French language proficiency qualifications.

 

[Accy cyclist]

How many people do you know who’ve actually done this and when? How long were they needing to wait? What was their general health status, were they fit for major surgery?

Or did you hear about it in the Daily Mail?

An 83 year old woman who's slim and very active went to Lithuania the other year to have a hip replacement. She told me this last summer, so I'll take her word for it.

 

[vickster]

An 83 year old woman who's slim and very active went to Lithuania the other year to have a hip replacement. She told me this last summer, so I'll take her word for it.

So one person then, some time ago it sounds. Nothing (apart from perhaps Covid and cost stopping you doing the same) although it’s a long journey if you can’t easily walk from the car to an outpatients clinic at least 3 hours flying time to Vilnius from London if I recall from an 18 hour work trip many years ago!

Given how quickly your clinic appointment came through I can’t imagine the wait be much more than 12 months if that?

 

[Accy cyclist]

I would book a taxi or get a bus.This is what many, many people do.

I haven't been in a taxi since August 2019 when I got one back home after spending the night in A&E after dislocating my shoulder. The taxi driver didn't help me in or out the car and even followed me into my flat for his payment. When I gave him a tenner he took/snatched the lot instead of giving me £3 change which we'd agreed on. I reported this @'~#! to his boss who did feck all about it! Then quite a few years ago after having an op' for a detached retina I was discharged soon after the op', with the nurse telling me to 'be careful not to bump or move my head abruptly'. I put this to the taxi driver who must've hit every hump and bump in the road as made the journey home!. I phoned a taxi firm the other year asking for a taxi to a PIP assessment. Scumbags put the phone down on me saying they couldn't understand what I was saying!

These tossers don't do disability understanding!! I will never use a taxi again unless I really have to do! Even the forthcoming old friends meet up has been scheduled for an afternoon rather than at night so I can get there and back on the bus rather than have to use a taxi.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Given how quickly your clinic appointment came through I can’t imagine the wait be much more than 12 months if that?

I'm in no rush to have it done and there's no way I'll be paying thousands for a private op'! I can easily limp around for the next 6,7,8,9,10 or whatever months while waiting. I've been limping now for nearly 2 years, so a few more months won't make much difference.
If as suspected it's what did you call it, bone on bone arthritis?🤔 that should then qualify me for that blue badge I've been after for ages.