Total hip replacement with breast cancer

the people i know who have had hip replacements did just fine and were happy with the results.

i know how hard it is to deal with so many things in a short amount of time. in the last 4 yrears i have had spinal, hip, thumb,wrist, knee, and arm fractures. but i'm older than you and have osteoporosis, right now i'm recovering from a broken arm.  i am very active and get super depressed from time to time, but refuse to give up nd sit on the couch. in fact, i broke my arm in bootcamp class.   hang in there---you can do this!

hi Audreydiane,

I haven't had the hip replacement  but I understand the Christmas timing.

I was 44 when they found my  breast lump that was called nothing on the previous Nov mammo was indeed cancer. It was Nov again and I had a mastectomy beginning December and got turned over to the onc mid Dec. He wanted scans immediately as my nodes showed positive and he insisted I get them done immediately. That was Dec 24th. He read them the same day and called me to his office to tell me I almost definitely had mets in one of my vertebrae. Wasn't 100% sure so would need MRI. He would book that for me asap. And by the way have a Merry Christmas. We were travelling to visit my in-laws for xmas so I spent christmas day in shock and crying my heart out as he had told me I would probably get a few years but to start doing everything I wanted to do before time ran out.

MRI was booked for Dec31st. Travelled back from my in-laws and had it done. Then cried all new years eve for the end of my world. Just to add extra joy to the whole event new years day is my birthday. How I got though those few weeks amazes me now. We have named this time "Worst Christmas ever" 

Over the next few weeks they needed more tests and eventually found cancer cells in my back. Took a bit as each scan was very suspicious but not definite so for a while it was good and bad.

Three years later they found mets in my hips so I have some idea of the pain. One hip to start with and then during treatment for that I slipped off the rads table and damaged the non hurting hip. Guess what? Mets found in that. Didn't even hurt until I landed funny on it.

After such a long story what I wanted to say is that was 5 years ago, the original story. I'm sitting here in good health and going aqua jogging later this morning. And in 3 weeks I will celebrate my 50th birthday.

The beginning is the very hardest. It can get easier but it does take time. Remember you are also in pain and that brings you down even before considering the cancer. I hope you have good pain relief. When my hips were very painful I got stronger drugs from the pain management team. It helped enormously and that wasn't even factoring in the Christmas feelings of the earlier dx.

I'm not sure there is a way to get the christmas feeling for you this year but I dug deep and thought I wasn't letting that b*****d cancer steal one of my precious celebrations from me and my family. Sheer stubbornness and anger made my thumb my nose and grit my teeth and get into it. Even though I wasn't feeling it. That first christmas was miserable but we still had the day and even that new years eve we went out with the town's celebration and listened to it all and I prayed for better.

No-one can say this is your last Christmas. None of us know that, not even people without cancer. The future does not belong to us. But the present is ours and if you can get yourself some pain relief and work hard at faking enjoyment it can actually turn itself around and you really will enjoy it.

There is a saying "Fake it til you make it" Start in small ways when you know you don't really feel it and slowly the better feelings become ok and easier and you can feel happier. Don't expect miracles but something more than sadness. Don't let cancer steal this special time, it doesn't deserve it.

This has been an incredibly long story but I know how much the Christmas timing hit me and here I  am 5 years later looking forward to my darling daughters coming home for Christmas. I'm so excited, so it can be done.

Good luck with that hip replacement, my mum had one and it made such a huge difference to her mobility.

Chin up, chest out, deep breath and off we go. (My personal mantra when struggling)

Moira