Riding after surgery?

I'm due to have a hip replacement in December and was wondering if anyone on here has had anything similar done? If so how long was it till you got back in the saddle and any advice?

It takes about 6 weeks for all the tissues around the hip to heal properly. You don't want to disclocate your new hip when you swing your leg over the bike the first time post-op, so I would say a minimum of 6 weeks. This is my opinion as a doctor, but I'm not an orthopaedic surgeon.

However, an orthopaedic surgeon I know, told a 70 year old acquaintance to wait 3 months. I thought that was a bit long, given the guy was itching to get back in the saddle.

You don't say how old you are, but if you are young-ish and fit-ish then you can probably get back to cycling sooner than that, maybe using an indoor trainer to start with.

I'm 28, I currently can't swing my leg over my bike. Have taken to laying my bike on the ground stepping over it and then picking it up. Makes me look like i've never ridden a bike before but does the trick.

Thanks for your opinion, i think i will try a indoor trainer to start with. I'm not grieving too much about not cycling through the winter but am very keen to get back for the spring.

It can depend on the how the op is carried out, as to how long, and immediately functional your new hip is. You may have an incision on the front or side of the hip, and both take different length of times to heal up.
Short term recovery can mean 6 weeks - where movement is eventually restored.
Long term recovery can mean 6 months - where tissues are fully healed etc.

Your physio, who will monitor you during recovery, will let you know when you can cycle. Good luck!

28? That's very young for a hip replacement . Are they planning a total hip or a hip resurfacing?

Total replacement. I broke it in my early twenties and it didn't heal properly. Now have something call avascular necrosis which in layman's terms means its buggered!

I haven’t had a hip replacement but I had two fairly similar operations (arthroscopy, both keyhole and not) when I was 23. Keyhole surgery was a nice easy recovery, but open surgery was less so, I was on crutches for over three months. I didn’t ride an actual bike for months and then it was a borrowed dutch bike to save having to swing my leg about. But I rode on a stationary bike as soon as I could (advised by my physio), and found it really helpful, even if it was incredibly boring. I did tons of walking too, once I was off the crutches, equally boring but also quite useful.

I’d suggest having a bike fit done once you are ready to ride again. My legs are now different lengths (thankfully not noticeably!).

Good luck with it – the first few weeks are pretty grim but it gets better.

A vascular necrosis is pretty bad, unfortunately.

With regard to leg length, your bad leg is probably now a bit shorter than the other due to collapse of the femoral head and surgery should restore that length.

Your recovery will depend on how proactive and motivated you are following your operation. Quite a few centres are now implementing some form of enhanced recovery, fastrack surgery, or rapid rehabilitation. These are various terms for the same thing coined by Henrik Kehlet.