Not wanting to give mainstream medicine another chance to mess me up, I take large quantities of MSM/Glucosamine S. And stave off the discomfort of arthritis in hips, knees, shoulders - both my own and those of my partner. The latter, finally convinced that this has helped him (!) asked if it would help his friend! I'm going to work on that. I am hoping I just drop dead before my hips get to that point of no return. But I do find the testimonials of those who have endured the replacements en-heartening.

One dear friend had a replacement (at 50 due to hip dysplasia) in June and helped us load the truck in November. The healing took longer than she expected and her husband bought a good recliner for her comfort. That might have helped her comfort before hand as well. I thought only dogs got hip dys. but she has it on both sides and it does severely erode the hip socket. I had two dogs who had it and their x-rays clearly show the lack of socket. It is apparently due to a muscle that does not develop properly and, hence, pulls the leg at an inappropriate angle, eroding the socket. One dog wad a pectinectomy (cut the muscles that were wrong) at five months and lived a healthy 14 years. The other was diagnosed at about 6 years. The pectinectomy only helped for a few months and then he was in severe pain again. Hip replacement would probably have been the way to go - even though the x-rays looked identical.