The Hip Replacement Recovery Manual: A Practical Week-by-Week Guide for the First 12 Months (Joint Recovery)

A working manual for the most consequential surgery you'll likely ever have.Hip replacement is one of the most common and successful operations in medicine. Most patients do well. The recovery is real work — but with realistic expectations and the right preparation, the outcome is usually a return to a quality of life many patients had given up on.This book is the practical, week-by-week working manual for that work.What this book coversThe full arc of hip replacement — from the decision-making that brings you to surgery through the years of living with the new joint:How to know when surgery is the right callChoosing your surgeon, approach, and implant — what actually mattersThe six weeks before surgery: physical, mental, and home preparationWhat to buy (and what's marketed but rarely needed)Surgery day, hour by hourThe first three days, the first two weeks, the first three monthsPain management beyond the surgical team's pamphletReturning to work, driving, sex, and daily lifeWhen recovery doesn't go as planned — and what to do about itThe return to running, sports, and demanding activitiesThe second hip, if you'll need itLong-term care and what to watch for over decadesWhat makes this differentMost patient resources for hip replacement are either cheerleading ("you'll be back to normal in no time!") or clinical ("monitor your incision daily for signs of infection"). Neither is what patients actually need. This book is direct, calibrated, and respects the reader as someone making real decisions about their body.It addresses what other books skip: the second-week dip when patients think the recovery has failed. The bowel situation. The pre-op terror. The emotional weight of a hard recovery. The patient cohort whose surgery was technically successful but functionally disappointing. The decision about running. The grief and adjustment of a recovery that doesn't follow the curve.It tells you what to push for and what to push back on. It explains what your surgical team is unlikely to have time to explain.Who this book is forPatients deciding whether to have hip replacement, preparing for surgery, recovering from it, or living with a replaced joint over the long term. Caregivers of hip replacement patients (Chapter 12 is written specifically for them). Patients facing the second hip. Patients researching to support someone else's decision.The book speaks to the broad range of hip replacement patients, from people in their 30s and 40s addressing avascular necrosis or hip dysplasia to people in their 70s and 80s addressing decades of osteoarthritis.What's inside20 chapters organized in five parts, plus 14 working appendices: pre-consultation checklists, surgeon evaluation worksheets, equipment shopping lists, daily pain and medication trackers, the red flag quick-reference card patients photograph and keep on their phone, return-to-activity planning worksheets, and more.The book is meant to be used, not just read.About the seriesThis is Book Two in the Joint Recovery Series. Book One, The Knee Replacement Recovery Manual, applies the same framework to knee replacement.About the authorJ.M. Struijk writes practical, direct manuals for major medical decisions and recoveries. The Joint Recovery Series is built on the conviction that patients facing surgery deserve substantive working guides, not generic reassurance.This book is not medical advice. Specific medical decisions belong with your surgical team, your primary care doctor, and your physical therapist. Read more