Hip replacement & Type1 diabetes

[gort]

I am 76 years of age, & have had type 1 diabetes for about 20 years. It has never been well controlled.

About a year ago I had a below knee amputation of my left leg, Shortly afterwards I had an accident in my wheelchair and smashed my right hip. The surgeon operated & repaired the fracture with stainless steel plates & screws.

Since then, despite physiotherapy, & countless painkillers, I have been in extreme pain, & I am finding that life is just not worth living.

To make matters even worse, I have just seen a hip specialist, & was told that the only way the pain can be relieved is for me to have a hip replacement. However, I was warned that my having Type 1 diabetes the risks would be very, very high, including the possibility of my having a stroke or heart attack.

What should I do? Shuffle around in pain for what's left of my life, or take on the stark odds of having a hip replacement.

 

[KARNAK]

Welcome to the forum @gort 🙂. Blood sugar levels play a big part if you are having surgery, I know of plenty of diabetics who have had successful surgery including hip replacement. The criteria was always control of BS unless there was an underlying cause e.g. heart problem or any other problem that would endanger you by having surgery. Yes T1D is a mitigating factor but so is excruciation pain, can you provide the forum with some blood sugar results over the last few days please.

 

[mikeyB]

You’ve got to remember, he’s giving you a worst case scenario. Hip replacements aren’t done under general anaesthetic these days, it’s usually spinal block. That reduces post op problems enormously. You speak of stark odds. They aren’t. They wouldn’t offer to stick a £3k hip in somebody they don’t think would get value from it, or drop dead the minute after the op.

If you can get your BG levels stable pre op there shouldn’t be any great worries, particularly if you have no heart problems currently. I know that’s a challenge.

As you say, life isn’t worth living with the pain. It’s a no brainer getting the opportunity to get rid of that pain. What have you got to lose?

 

[Flower]

Hello and welcome @gort

For my last elective orthopaedic operation to try and save my leg I was asked to achieve an HbA1c result of 6.5%/48mmol/mol to give me the best chance of healing and limiting the other risks- infection etc.

As this is an elective operation have you been given advice to try and get the best control possible pre op to try and give the best possible outcome?