I wouldn't listen to the horror stories, as they have little to do with what normally happens. My mom had malformed hips, and after getting away from the incompetent doctor who told her she had arthritis, had both done.

One was in 1973 (it was Vitallium*) and the other (stainless steel) in 1974. They've made a lot of progress since then.

Yes, it was painful, but my mom said that when they to her up and walking, it hurt less than the pre-surgical hip. After the 2nd, she was over the moon that she could ride a bike again. She was 53 years old for the first and 54 for the second. She did have problems with the 2nd involving the femur implant moving, but she learned to work with it. She died in 1992, aged 72, and the hips were still fine.

I'm very allergic to nickel. I have two surgical steel screws in my knee. No problem!

* When she was a kid my mother had been given a ring made of Vitallium from the inventor of the alloy. She had a charm bracelet, and after the first surgery, had the ring melted down and made into a charm shaped like the femur-implant "ball" part of the hip.