George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president, has hip replacement

He's just a crotchety old man; that's all.

 

It is. It's an amputation of the top of the femur and they hammer a rail spike down the middle of the femur to anchor the metal that forms the ball of the ball-and-socket joint. They also grind out the old bone in your hip and create a new capsule to hold the ball.

But technique has improved greatly since the Bo Jackson era. Scaring is minimal, and they don't have to cut much muscle tissue at all any more so there is very little, if any, muscle atrophy. The pain is manageable through percocet or oxicodin, and you're on blood thinners for a couple months to prevent clotting. The leg swells considerably for a week or two but them goes down and I'm sure he had a good surgeon who could get the leg length pretty close to dead even.

Most likely he was up and out of bed within 24 hours of the operation. For sure he was up within 48 hours, using a walker, and already beginning rudimentary PT like leg lifts, etc., to increase the range of motion and massage to break up the scar tissue.

Normal hospital stay is 3-4 days, 5-6 at the most, depending on how quickly you bounce back.

He'll use a walker for 3-4 weeks, then go to a crutch, and should be walking completely on his own within two months easily. He can start walking in a pool within three weeks if the incision doesn't get infected. Plus he has medical resources and home help that most of us don't because he's an ex-president and also very wealthy.

His hip probably feels a lot better, too.

 

Thanks for the explaination, micro. I had no idea what went into it. I was also hoping DocTalk would stroll by and give us his thoughts.