Right to surgery earlier due to quality of life

KarenHayden

Hi, I have a friend who has ms. Her mobility had been greatly affected, some days it’s all she can do to get to the loo, in agony! Recently drs have found that her hip is deteriorating rapidly. It leaves her with almost constant pain, sitting, standing, walking.... She has been told she needs a hip replacement but, they won’t do it till she’s 70! That’s 10 years away! Her qol due to chronic pain is already affected. With the ms progressing why can’t they see she needs the op now! The reason they give is because they generally need to have it replaced after 10 years! But she knows this but needs the op now to help her qol now. She frequently looks after her grandsons, the oldest who is 6-7yrs has noticeable autism. She is completely shattered after having them as they need constant attention. The level of her pain often leads to her shouting, becoming short tempered and frustrated. As the drs suggested she has lost quite abit of weight, they implied she needed to do this to have the op. Unfortunately I believe some of the weight loss is du to skipping meals as pain to great to make it.
she is a lovely lady (most of the time), but she is also proud and finds it difficult to accept she needs help more than she admits.
How can I help her?????

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @KarenHayden and a very warm welcome to the community!

It sounds like you care a great deal about your friend and it's great that she has for support.

Does she want the operation now? If so, it might be worth getting a second opinion. Like you have said, the pain it causes will impact her quality of life.

I know from other people's experiences, that they do try and leave hip replacements as long as possible, due to the amount of times they may need to be replaced again. However, if it can be shown that it would greatly improve her life then they would be more inclined to operate.

Please do let me know if we can do anything else!

Adrian_Scope

Hello @KarenHayden, has your friend had any luck with requesting a second opinion?