Question?

Hello....I will try to condense my situation, I need advice and help with some decisions!  Bottom line, I need a hip replacement, I am 41. I had arthroscope on my hip last year which was unsuccessful and now suffer extreme hip pain. Hip surgeon said because my weight was at 263, he needed me to get down to 220/230ish before he would do my replacement. (That was my original weight during my first surgery last year, and I also decided not to go to the surgeon who did my arthroscope last year). I went to look into bariatric surgery last year, discovered I needed to have a weight lose program for at least 6 months so my insurance would approve it. I'm at month 5 now and am looking into a second opinion about bariatric surgery to see if this is something right for me. I want to be certain that I make an educated decision, it's pretty major surgery!  My question is this: does it matter is you have bariatric surgery before or after a hip replacement?  Is there any time that you must wait after a replacement for bariatric surgery or if I decide to do bariatric surgery first, how long would I need to wait for my replacement?  Of course I will consult with each of my doctors, but I wanted to see if anyone else out there has gone through this, what was your decision, and would you have done something different when you look back on your choice?  Thanking you in advance for any insight....Jenn

I would definitely get the doc's opinions on which to have first.

• On one hand, the hip replacement will make it easier for you to be active after wls
• On the other hand, getting wls first will make it easier on your hip being in an automatic "losing cycle".  One thing about getting wls first, is that you will have to be extremely compliant with your supplements to ensure you're in the best condition for the hip replacement surgery.  You should be anyway - but there is a heavier consequence to NOT being compliant.

Exactly what I would have said just adding my 2 cents.  I would have the WLS first because you can lose qickly to where the surgeon will replace your hip and it's all a plus there.  Then, when you have replacement, which you will be VERY happy to have done that, all the recovery PT and exercising will benefit both surgeries.  You cannot escape the post op pain from either surgery and the hip replacement will definitely be more painful and difficult than after WLS but all will be worth it in the end.

It truly is a win/win situation.  How often do ya get that in life?

I was in a similar situation as you.  I had my WLS on Feb 17th and my knee replaced on March 26th.  My bariatric surgeon wanted at least 6 weeks between surgeries so that I had a good nutritional base before knee surgery.  The timing made it 5 weeks between surgeries instead.  Both surgeries were uncomplicated and successful, and in hindsight, would have done it the same way again, assuming similar cir****tances.  Losing the weight before my knee surgery helped a lot with the pain as I could not take NSAIDs, so, to answer your first question, it mattered for me.  My orthopaedic surgeon asked me to lose weight before my knee surgery as my BMI was a little too high for him (his cutoff is a BMI of less than 36!).  Of course, he can afford to be so picky as he performs around 300 joint replacements per year.  Given that, I told him that I was having WLS, and he was okay with it.  The biggest concern both surgeons had was wound healing and being assured that I was getting good nutrition to promote that.   How long should you wait?  That would have to be answered by your surgeon if you have WLS first, or vice versa, especially since everyone's course is different.  Good luck to you, these are not easy decisions to make.