Hip Replacement + Army

[fisherhoo]

I am an 18 year career Army soldier, who has been told needs to have a hip replacement (by a civilian doctor)  I continue to do PT, and perform all missions, albeit with a limp at times.  I do not believe this is service related, but from competitive high school and college sports before the military...or so my civilian doctor believes and makes sense.  My question is does anyone know of soldiers continuing service after hip replacements? or would this be an automatic medical discharge?  I am trying to decide whether to suck it up for another couple years or not, I do not want to lose my military service and I do not plan on trying to get any sort of military disability from this, but am concerned to see military doctors on this at this point in my career. My doctor says I cant really mess up the hip joint anymore, and will just have to have it done at some point if and when the pain or mobility becomes too much of an issue.   Thanks for any info.

[fisherhoo]

Thanks for the info.......not an infantry type, no worrys there!

[JMcCormack]

Good Morning,

My guess is you are an infantryman or similar a career .  Putting in for a transfer to Armoured, Recce, or a Service Battalion role would be much easier on your hip and plus you might get licensed to operate heavy equipment for a post service career.  I have heard of some orthopedic surgeons in the Chicago area that have done hip replacements with minimal recovery time, but the risk here is the all the heavy kit you guys lug around and the effect that my have on the prosthesis post surgery.  

The other real danger is that you may compromise your own and your unit's safety in a combat role if your hip should fail on you at an inopportune moment.  

Hopefully you can resolve this issue with the best results.

Best Regards

[Dr Vinod]

Hello!

The most important thing for you is to prolong the hip replacement as late as possible. If it is possible for you to limit intense physical activity and be on roles where you can compromise physical activity you can delay the hip replacement procedure. After hip replacement you have to go for intense physiotherapy for recovery and it is possible to have nearly full range of movements if everything falls in the right place. It would depend on the sickness leave which is required for surgery and rehabilitation and also the recovery for your future service. You would need to ask your orthopedician to check this out for you as he is the best person to have understood your case.

Take care!