Motorcycle Riding after Hip Replacement

I had a buddy fall on his bike recently and broke his collar bone. It was one of those deals where he pulled up on a hill sideways and his left foot was below his bike. He could not hold it up due to the steep lean angle and was body slammed by his 1200 Triumph Tiger. I was thinking "what if that had happened to me with my ceramic hip?" Anyone know the possibilities?

I had what turned out to be a scare with my 1st THR. I was in the house on a short step stool which slid out from under me on a slick wood floor. Sort of tossed me into the living room which is below by ~14" the floor I was on. I landed on my butt and hip hard with my 215#'s! Must be OK as that was last year...
This past winter I was riding mtn bike on beach near St. Augustine. FL and front wheel hit a water trough where water ran back to sea. It locked the front wheel instantly, then threw me over the handlebars onto a very hard sand beach. I landed on my other hip, which is now my 2nd THR. Came out with a nasty deep tissue purple bruise , nothing else.
Being a KC Royals fan I watched Bo Jackson put a THR to the test only one of the best athletes in history of sports can do as he stole home with a THR. Call that possibilities...

I saw my bill and I won't be complaining about how much I pay for insurance (close to $600/month for a family of 5) any time soon! I paid $4,200 out of pocket for a $364,000 surgery. Granted, that was for both hips and three extra days in the hospital dealing with an allergic reaction. I should have gone into the medical field.

$364k ???

What a f'n joke. That probably worked out to $60k/day. Nice scam if you can get it.

Wow! Makes me realise how lucky we are here with universal health care. Had both hips replaced, top surgeon, great hospital, cost $0

Not to go after controversy but the small amount I pay for Medicare is one thing compared to a $0 dollar universal plan in the UK or Canada, etc..
One must compare the WHOLE cost to live in a certain place to get the WHOLE story! Another single sided e.g. of what I'm saying is for me to compare FL to KY as a place for living in retirement. FL has no state income tax but is in fact a more expensive place to live than KY overall. I pay zero income tax in KY because I'm not required to file on our retirement sources of income, thus it's $0 to $0 on taxes inspite of tax appearances.
I chose my surgeon-he's world class, gets patients from abroad,etc.. The hospital same thing.
I'm not being negative toward universal care just saying there are no free rides in this world-it all costs money that comes from someone.
25% of the adults in my state are on disability, match that figure?

I think the per capita spending on health care is a better indicator than looking at isolated cases.

US spends FAR more per capita compared to Canada for worse outcomes.

You can't overestimate the reassurance that comes with never having to worry about paying for health care.

You need to remove your insurance companies from the middle of your health care transactions.

Sure we pay more in taxes up here. But we pay $0 for health care, so I think it all comes out in the wash. We may actually be ahead on a per capita basis.

I've had three hip replacements. I have no idea what the cost of this would have been. The surgeries were stressful enough.... I can't imagine adding in the worry about money.

I'll get off my soapbox now and say no more.

I would agree with what you stated for the most part. We all know that no matter the delivery system NOBODY! pays zero for healthcare. Somebody pays sometime.
Neither do I maintain a memory bank of per capita anything and not interested enough to really dig in more on healthcare. I also didn't stress over either of my hip surgeries as I'm just not a worry some sort. The minimal PT for an anterior THR was about 6 weeks both times for me so mostly a short break, not the extremely tough work I had to put in with a full tear in my shoulder! I read about a young guy in a magazine the other day. As I remember he'd come up with a typical admin overhead burden for healthcare systems of ~40% of outlay. He had a new plan that he's testing in some African country to prove it out.
To fully "discuss" the healthcare comparisons one must take waaaay more time than i care to do and know more than I do. I do find it interesting that those doctors in the USA that comment about whether to go universal healthcare via such as letters to the editor, articles, etc., tend to fall inline with their own personal politics every time I read their comments.
I'll stop there. Enjoy the holiday season.

Just had my posterior THR on 11/27 and had my final PT on Wednesday. I was out of the hospital in 24 hours (felt great as soon as I woke up in recovery - had a spinal for anesthesia). I did take Percocets for 10 days and was told not to drive until doc cleared me - 2 weeks. I missed taking a Celebrex a few days ago and come evening, I felt it, otherwise, the leg feels good and I’m walking well. One of the PTs where I went said lots of scary stuff - “no more Krav Maga, no dirt bikes” but just this Wednesday, she told me that I need to use Shea butter on my incision more often than I am or it may pop open! A month out, I don’t think so! She just lost all credibility and I will discuss future restrictions more thoroughly with my doc at my 6 week check up. He told me up front, no more running, which I knew. My pal and I wanted to do the TAT this year but we both ended up on the surgeons table (both in our 50s). Staying out of the dirt just isn’t an option.....

After my second replacement I walked the halls the day of surgery. The hospital has a board in the hall to keep track of the rehab patients activity. They had to start my chart twice because I maxed it out in 24 hours. When I left the hospital I had no further pt. at my 6 week check up I rode my v-storm. Dr. just shook his head, his attitude is do as much as you can as fast as you can without causing pain...

I'm 62 and had both hips replaced during the past 13 months. i was back on my moto 23 days after the first surgery; the second one was in early Winter so i did not ride until Spring (which would have happened even had i not had surgery). The only change I have made in my activities is that I have stopped skiing. I'm not very good at it and in the past there were just too many times where I fell and found my feet wrapped around my head, lol. My surgeon of course did not recommend I resume riding, but i find that docs in general don't recommend riding motos. My PT told me to do anything i wanted to and not worry about it and so far that has been great advice.

My two cents: Doing proper PT is not a sign of weakness, it's the fastest way to gain strength & return to full use in a joint area or general use of a limb. In some cases it can be done at home which I did for my shoulder by also including some PT visits which included theraputic hands on theraphy which was important in that case. In some cases it is the ONLY WAY! to have a usable limb or joint. THR's are an easy joint, especially anterior where no muscles are cut through. Most docs will give you a list of the PT to perform at home and write an Rx for the PT to use in their stuff.
One thing I learned from the shoulder PT was that certain therapist had magic hands while others were clutzy. Sort of like my experience with athletic trainers & chiropractors, osteo docs-some have the magic hands, some don't.
My docs protocol after an anterior THR is you walk and climb stairs in the hospital before you leave the place and go home. I suppose their are exceptions but thats the regular deal.
To say what one can do vs. what we should do is highly situational indeed. At 74 I find smarter ways to lift stuff that this former strongman could easily have done at earlier times in life!
Riding a MC after the surgery was easy but asking the larger question as to being fully healed just depends on the wound, surgery specifics! My shoulder doc said he was satisfied in me having full range of motion alone in my case, aside from what I could lift.
My doc doesn't ever get into personal choices of hobbies, his position is to get you back to your lifestyle which may include things that have factors of risk. He re-iterated that to my various "can I do this" questions by the same answer every time-"yes, anything you did before surgery,but with caution for awhile until your body is back to normal". That reference is due to reality that before surgery your activity level might have been lowered or due to PT time of precautions.
I don't even cross country ski now!

Last night as I sat on the floor watching my son draw I realized that I was sitting cross-legged. That is something I hadn't been able to do for many years. My surgery was just over a year ago. Man, I'm glad I did it! Riding feels completely back to normal - still nervous about putting that foot down when riding off-road though. Regarding the conversation about cost of surgery: I have some recollection of seeing a cost breakdown of my surgery at some point and the single biggest expense was for the device (it was in the tens of thousands of dollars). That is a fundamental problem with a for-profit medical industry.

The manufacturers make the devices for a couple hundred, sell them for a couple thousand, and the HC system teams you with them accordingly...

I'll take the current situation with overpriced devices over the pain and relatively easy PT for a THR, anytime over the alternative of doing nothing.
Like Motorius I'm very conscious of medical costs while others seem to think this stuff falls out of the lovely governments pocket. When I was doing shoulder PT I asked this lady beside me if she'd seen the bill yet for the high-tech sling they use, her reply was "no, but why should I care the insurance pays for it".
There's a letter to the editor in my newspaper today from an MD remarking about a fellow doc who keeps sending in letters saying we should all be on Medicare , without ever a comment as to how to pay the cost.
I'll say this again-
I know people who need knees, hips, etc. and they have Medicare, etc. to pay for it, yet they are either afraid to have surgery or to damned stupid to follow through. I do understand a working person who has the off work, no pay concerns.
My neighbor here on a visit last week and says "he needs to get his done" as he has been saying for many years. I asked him if he planned to do it before he died or keep himself in pain... go figure?
I tested my oldest THR again on Tuesday when I got out of my PU truck and the first foot that hit the ground found a frozen puddle. I landed on the early THR side and hit my head on $X$ truck door bottom as my body flew under the door. last winter I wrecked my mtn bike on a beach when the front wheel locked up in a water trench throwing me over the handle bars and I landed on what became my 2nd THR past July. These things are definitely tough! My back & head, not so much.

I know this is an older thread, but I'm 34 years old, needing a THR on my right side. Long explanation but I have AVN of the femoral head, with collapse, so I've been in pretty significant pain for the past 6 months- COVID-19 didn't make getting my leg pain figured out any quicker.
I'm now facing the decision of ceramic on ceramic or plastic on ceramic. I don't do any running, however I do still do some off road riding- potentially some single track but nothing too crazy. I also ride mountain bikes- mostly flat land here in SNJ.
Any comments/suggestions regarding the material of the replacement? My surgeon initially scared me with the potential of the squeaky ceramic on ceramic and potential of "shattering", however the more I think about it I'm weighing the durability of it more now.

Most people will tell you good things about whatever they decided on doing because THR is pretty successful overall.

You are really young though so your decision is pretty important. How did you select your surgeon? He's giving you two options?

Post up an xray, interesting to see how bad your femur looks in comparison, i had the same thing

Welcome to the club. Hip surgery is changing all the time. I have two hips 12 years apart and they were both done differently. The last one in 2017 is plastic and ceramic. Seems to be good. Im 57 now and working as a firefighter. I haven't really cut back on my activity other than no running. I have slowed down do to age.
and other injuries. I can tell you that you need to really do your research and find the best surgeon that you can get. It makes a difference. He will ultimately decide how the surgery is going to go and you need to be onboard with everything so don't go into it blind. Also find a physical therapist that you like (based on results) . In the end the first week kind of sucks but it gets better every day. stay with the program and don't go rogue and start doing burps on week 3 because it feels good, listen to the doc. Thats it for the free advice. You'll be happy you did it....cheers

I'm a volunteer firefighter(Deputy Chief), but my day job(for now) is USPS Rural Carrier. My main concern was the possibility of it squeaking, but I feel 50 years before needing replacement is worth it...but only time and personal experience would tell.

My surgeon was recommended by the orthopedic doctor I was seeing, however I've checked him out- and had several people tell me he does top notch work- he teaches hip replacement at Jefferson in Philly. He's been a Philadelphia Magazine "Top Doc" several years, but I realize that's just a magazine. My brother is also an RN at a vascular surgery center nearby, and he mentioned it to their surgeons, and they said he's top notch, one of them actually went to him for a knee replacement. When other surgeons go to him- I feel confident.
He said with the way they do the surgery now- there is NO PT anymore. They'll provide you with some exercises to do when you get home, but otherwise, post op I am without restrictions.
I'll have to figure out how to get the images on here. I only have them on the CD in the DICOM format. The X-ray actually doesn't look too bad- you can definitely tell, however the MRI it looks like someone nuked my hip.

Sounds like he is a good surgeon. Those are the kind of references you want. As far a PT I really benefitted from it. They will tell you its not needed but your hip has been toast for a while, so the muscles are most likely atrophied and there will be strength differences between legs. If you feel like you don't need it then cool but my insurance didn't think I needed any pain management a few hours out of surgery.........Wrong! Insurance companies are trying to save money any way they can so don't believe everything they are telling you....