Drive after a total hip replacement?

Your biggest problems will be lumping freight and raising, lowering loaded trailers vs landing gear into the mud. Pulling the 5th wheel if you are able to use the good leg with the natural socket to pull against.

I have had one two months ago and am cleared to bowl and horse etc with just one restriction, that never to fall backwards with a twist which will take the whole thing out of joint. I healed much faster than most of the recent patients due in part to my younger age 50's

Driving my own vehicle is not that fun due to it's high seat (Tahoe) but it is what it is. There is no reason if you can stand it why you cannot drive a 18 wheeler. However...

I don't know if you have been told or not, but working with that joint will wear it fast. At some point in your life from work you will endure another fixing whatever it may be when that original implant wears out or breaks from over work and wear. It's designed to last a lifetime or a minimum of 10 years for those who are not too active in life or physical in work. Ie the elderly.

Depending on the root cause of your joint failure (Mine was loss of blood supply called avascular necrosis) which made the bone die and have to be replaced after it collasped or broke. statistically I can expect the other good joint to fail at some point relatively quickly. Osteo arthritis is the intermediate problem resulting from trucking most of my life and that made it easier for the joint to fail faster. (Among several other joints that are not doing well)

You will find walking long distances will work that new joint and maybe find that you are limited in that way. If in a place with a thousand docks and a mile to get the papers (Ludicrous but you get the idea) it's going to be a wear on that joint. Remember also that if you spend your trucking on bad roads, slamming on rough concrete and frost heaves or bridges etc it's even worse becuase you are not allowed football type activity.

You will want a minimum of 6 months, to grow that bone around your new joint very strongly. Talk to your bone surgeon before you attempt this. He may or may not have had people engaged in this kind of work. It's pretty physical. Trucks are nicer than what they have been in the past but eh... you still have certain issues.

One other thing, there is a weight limit on that joint. You take your body weight plus whatever you plan on lifting. For example a meat box 120 pounds will exceed my allowed gross weight so to speak on the new joint. Wear it even faster due to it being ceramic. So lumping is out. I don't mind bowling and I don't mind horse but trucking will be very limited and part time if I get back into it. It would not be a important income source either.

 

Plenty of companies with no-touch freight and automatics.
Maybe some drivers on here will make some recommendations.
Many refrigerated companies are driver no-touch freight.
Maybe Millis Transfer, check with that company.

 

It is a risk indeed.

I think compared to what is known about your current work, will fail in terms of weight and walking standing etc against no touch freight and less walking in trucking it might be doable for you. Your 9 months post, that should mean you have your range of motion right? For example getting down onto hands and knees if not also lower to pretrip your rig. Or raising the hood to do same.

It's a given you must not have freight that requires touching in that trailer. That will be something that needs branding into dispatch of whatever company you run with. You already will do a certain amount of walking but should not be as serious as your current work.

A digital xray for me which was new for our area showed the bone damage, it had been broken since about a year ago, only I was too tough and stupid to understand the pain levels that high says it's busted dummy get to ER and have it looked at. I finally did one night about 5 months ago. I never liked to go to ER or any place doctor because I am a long term pain patient and that seriously impacts the kind of care around here due to a very high level of meth and other drug abusers seeking same. But with proof of the break etc they took good care of everything.

Im not really supposed to be too active until 6 months but Im already pushing past the muscle issues that remain, which is probably pernament from the hammering of that joint into the long bone. Surgeon did a very good job and was lucky to have him. I did not particularly like how deep they had me in the OR with life support in the throat but they had to do it. Ive had surgeries before where that was not a issue. I did say before that it's ok for temporary but did not think they will do something like that.

Now the money.

People are getting paid .35 a mile around here as newbies. In 2001 my last year of OTR I was team with wife involved in Narcotics and medicine via McKesson in Memphis, high dollar loads and all that. It was .75 more or less to the truck. Sometimes on certain hauls that year coast to coast twice a week the money just overflows. Other times when we are not used correctly for some reason by dispatch as a team to sit and lose three days loading you end up with a small paycheck of a few hundred for two people.

Normally I would say you stay at your work. At the wage you make. But your situation involving the certain loss of the new joint (When they hammer in the ball onto the stem that goes into your bone, there is a engineering machining designed to fuse a sort of screw like layers between inside of ball and stem. Once beaten on, it's permanent.) I don't know if it is replaceable. You might stand to lose your leg when that joint breaks again. You could either have the attitude that you can always buy a leg which are getting pretty good due to our wars or you will find yourself in a pickle.

Medical advances include lab work to print and build replacement bones so... 5 years? 10 years? You might drop in a new leg bone patterned close to your other one and call it good, excepting the rehab for that knee joint attachment. Who knows?

You may end up in trucking a form of poverty if you do not run out the miles needed to keep all of your bills taken care of and adding on retail expenses for food etc. With a careful savings pile enough for a few months before you start you can get through the rough patches such as the slow holidays or winter weather which is pretty epic this year (Finally...) but it goes.

I encourage you to try it. But be very strong to just stick with Autos (With a manual mode and a engine braking mode) essentially pushbutton. And no lumping (Unloading) freight whatsoever. The rest of it should not be too bad.

It's a risk. But thinking about your known future failure in the current work and the relatively nice trucks we have now.. eh Im tempted to get into it for that. Ive already started thinking about it myself other problems aside.

 

I work for covenant. Their freight is almost all no touch, and you can pay lumpers, rather than touch your own freight, on the company. As an older woman, I have my physical limits. They have a video on their site of the physical test they do for hiring. If you can do all that, you can work for them. The hardest things are pulling the 5th wheel pin and if the trailer is too low, cranking it back up. Both could be done with "the good leg". If you park, you sometimes need to park way out in the truck stop lot, but it still sounds like way less walking than you do now. Covenant does teams mostly, but sister companies star and srt are solo, shorter runs. So far I have found them to be a nice company to work for, and I loved my trainer, and I love my fleet team. My partner is my hubby and he has no problems doing the harder work for me, like cranking up a low trailer. My pay as a new driver is about 1k a week so far, with bonuses that add on to that. I have a 2018 automatic freightliner. It's a nice truck, but even the nicest truck is going to rough you up on bad freeways. So far, my older body is handling it well. Good luck!

 

You will be fine, my brother had an injury resulting in a hip and knee replacement, another friend has had his hip done at 64 and is still driving. Just be sure to watch your diet as many truckers gain a lot of weight when they get on the road due to poor rest and bad diet choices. Maintaining your flexibility and keeping up with exercise/therapy will be the hardest thing as an OTR driver.

You may want to look at a LTL company, plenty that will have you home daily, or at least every other day, doing linehaul and this will allow you to maintain a life/work balance for the best health options. It is rough building double trailer sets but not nearly as bad as manual labor at a mill all day. LTL linehaul is what my brother does with is hip/knee replacement and he handles the little bit of labor building his set just fine.