At 26 years old, happily married and with an intense career as a dog groomer, Sophie Cater should enjoy life to the fullest.
Instead, he has a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, can’t put on his socks, and is in pain virtually 24 hours a day, all due to a hip replacement he had in 2023, after developing arthritis.
‘I thought it would give me back my mobility and put an end to the pain, but it has gotten worse; I have less mobility and feel more pain than before,” says Sophie.
A year after his operation, he relies on a daily cocktail of powerful painkillers (gabapentin, amitriptyline and dihydrocodeine) to get through the day and can only walk with crutches.
Sophie Cater thought her hip replacement would be a “golden ticket” to a pain-free life, like so many older patients who have had the operation. Instead, a year later, he still relies on crutches and a daily cocktail of painkillers.
He has also had to redesign his dog grooming as he cannot stand for long periods, and even neighbors in their 70s who have had hip replacements wonder why he still “limps”.
“It’s upsetting. I feel like they’re saying I’m making it up or squeezing it out, but I was suffering,” says Sophie, from Warwickshire.
“If I had known there was a risk of feeling worse after surgery, I would never have had it.”
Around 100,000 people (mostly aged between 60 and 80) have hip replacement surgery each year on the NHS.
About 90 percent of new hips last more than ten years and 80 percent last more than 20 years.
But each year, about 5,000 people need revision surgery to repair new hips that have gone wrong, often as a result of a joint dislocation, an infection in the joint, loosening components or inflammation caused by debris. that remain after the procedure.
And studies show that if revision surgery is needed, artificial joints tend not to last as long as the ones you “wear” the first time.
“If I have a patient whose hip is failing due to infection, they may need to be reviewed urgently as there is a risk of sepsis,” says Caesar Wek, a Dorset-based orthopedic and trauma surgeon specializing in hip replacements.
Caesar Wek, an orthopedic and trauma surgeon, says, “Although hip replacements are considered something that older people have, we are performing them on younger and younger people with osteoarthritis and hip pain.”
Sophie’s hip replacement came after years of pain, which was initially considered simply “growing pains.”
It wasn’t until he was 13 and experiencing excruciating pain in his right hip that he was diagnosed with slipped femoral epiphysis, where the bone at the top of the thigh fractures, causing the ball at the top of the bone to bulge. falls from its place. . The doctors said it was something he was born with.
Sophie remembers: ‘I missed a lot of school and when I did attend, other children bullied me; That took a toll on me physically and mentally.
“I had surgery to correct the problem, but was then diagnosed with hip dysplasia,” where the socket for the femoral “ball” (the round part at the top of the thighbone) is too shallow. She also had surgery for it.
Sophie’s pain and mobility improved to the point where she was able to enjoy a social life: she met her future husband, James, and established her dog grooming service. Everything was going well until several years ago, when Sophie began to feel pain in her upper leg.
She was only 21, but it took another two years of badgering doctors about her symptoms before she was finally sent for arthroscopy (in which a surgeon inserts a fiberoptic probe into the joint) and diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the joint. hip, a condition normally associated with advancing age.
Despite being in her early 20s, Sophie was told she would one day need a hip replacement.
Doctors assured him that it was one of the most frequently performed operations in the UK, that it was usually very successful and that it would improve his quality of life.
“I had seen countless people have hip replacements, usually older than me, and they were excited about the change in their lives, so I was really looking forward to the improvement,” says Sophie.
“I knew it would be something I would need one day and I saw it as a golden ticket to feel totally good and improve my life.”
Then, during a routine appointment with his specialist last year, he was told that his arthritis had progressed significantly.
“It became pretty clear that a hip replacement was now the best thing to do,” he says.
“My consultant said I had done many successful exercises and there was a good chance I would be pain-free afterwards.”
Mr Wek told Good Health: “Although hip replacements are thought of as something that older people have, we are performing them on younger and younger people with osteoarthritis and hip pain.”
Rising rates of obesity and a more sedentary lifestyle are also factors. Another cause in younger patients is hip impingement, which can damage the hip joint in the long term and cause hip arthritis, says Wek.
Hip impingement occurs when a lump in the ball of the hip bone sits right against the hip socket, or the hip socket “pins” against it. Either can damage the surrounding cartilage and cause stiffness and pain that can lead to osteoarthritis, even in young adults.
The defect, known informally as “young hip” and often affecting people in their 20s and 30s, can be present from birth, but is also seen in those who play sports that involve a lot of hip twisting or squatting. .
Before the surgery, Sophie says she “was really looking forward to living life afterward and not being in pain.”
But, he says: ‘When I came to, the excruciating pain returned. At first I knew it would hurt, so I didn’t worry at the time.
But when six weeks passed and he still wasn’t getting better, the alarm bells rang.
“The pain was worse than before surgery,” he says. “I knew something had gone wrong.”
His consultant assured him that it was part of the healing process. However, Sophie’s pain continued to worsen, as did her mobility.
“I joined Facebook groups of people who’d had hip replacements and they were all extolling the virtues, posting pictures of themselves running and jogging and pain-free,” Sophie says.
‘However, I was in agony. I couldn’t even put on my socks (James has to do it for her) and I walked with crutches.’
Around 100,000 people (mostly aged between 60 and 80) have hip replacement surgery each year on the NHS.
Sophie admits that hers was not a simple case, as she had undergone surgery before.
But she insists she was told her hip replacement operation was a common procedure.
However, he later discovered that when the surgeons began the procedure, they noticed that his pelvis was tilted backwards, probably as a result of the previous surgery.
“This made fitting the new hip more complex,” says Sophie.
‘The doctors insist that this surgery should have worked and that my only hope now is steroid injections (to try to relieve the pain and inflammation). I wish they had never done it to me.
Wek says the success of hip replacements in young people depends on the reason they are done in the first place.
“The bigger the problem, the less successful you can be,” he says.
But staying active is key to maintaining hip muscle strength and keeping weight down, Mr. Wek says. “If you take care of your hip this way, it will take care of you.”
At her most recent appointment, Sophie was informed that she now also has a condition called iliopsoas tendonitis, or “moving hip syndrome,” where the tendons in the hip joint slip out of position and also cause a “crunch” or “snap” sound. like pain
This may also need surgery at some point. And you have bursitis: inflammation of the bursa (the fluid-filled sacs that protect the hip joint).
“For now,” Sophie says, “all I have is pain control.”