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48 hours before my hip replacement at Macclesfield I held the pen above the consent line for 10 seconds. I put the pen down. I asked the consultant one question. His answer is what changed the last 16 weeks of my life. I'm Anne, 65, Cheshire, about 10 miles outside Crewe. Retired 32 years senior care assistant in a residential home in Sandbach. Geoff is 67, retired Northern Rail train driver, worked the Crewe-Manchester line 31 years. We have 2 daughters and 2 grandsons, the youngest just turned 3. Right hip bone-on-bone, advanced, diagnosed at Leighton Hospital 2 years ago. The usual story. Co-codamol every evening, omeprazole because the daily Brufen burned my stomach. H&B magnesium £42 a month for over a year. Voltarol from Boots. 2 steroid injections, 18 days of relief each. 6 sessions of NHS physio. Sock aid from Argos £12 because Emma had to order it for me when I couldn't put my socks on. I cried when she opened the parcel. Moved into the spare bedroom 4 months ago because the 3 in the morning burning was waking Geoff and he has a bad back of his own. NHS letter came 13 months in. Surgery scheduled 14 months later at Macclesfield District General Hospital. I packed the overnight bag 11 days before. Emma drove up from Manchester. Geoff washed the car. We were ready. Two days before, Tuesday afternoon at 2:35, I went in for pre-op assessment. The consultant came in 15 minutes late. Mr Ashworth. Mid-fifties, kind eyes. He had my file open in his hand. He went through the procedure, the recovery time, the physio schedule afterwards. He told me hip replacement had a very high success rate. Then he slid the consent form across the desk and put a pen on top of it. I had read the form 3 weeks earlier. I knew where to sign. I picked up the pen. Geoff was in the waiting room reading a copy of last week's Cheshire Life. I held the pen above the line for about 10 seconds. I asked him one question. I said *Mr Ashworth. Can I ask you what percentage of women my age are still in pain a year after this operation.* He paused. He looked at my file. He looked back at me. *Mrs Henshaw. The honest figure for women your age with the kind of arthritis you have is around 1 in 5. 20%. I tell every patient this now.* He used that word. *Twenty per cent.* I put the pen down on the form. I did not sign it. I told him I needed a week. He told me his secretary would hold my slot. He showed me out himself. In the car Geoff turned the engine on and waited. I said *Geoff. He told me 1 in 5 women my age are still in pain a year after. I can't sign for that.* He nodded once. He sat for a minute. Then he said *love. We'll find another way.* That night I sat at our kitchen table at 3 in the morning and I started searching properly for the first time in 3 years. Mumsnet women 15 months post-op still in pain. Versus Arthritis boards saying their new hip clicks and gives way. Patient.info women saying they'd give anything to go back. NHS and private, same failure rate. I read about central sensitisation. The deep gluteal and hip flexor muscles lock up trying to compensate for the worn cartilage. The surgery changes the joint surfaces but it doesn't change the locked muscle around them. That's why 1 in 5 never recover. Then I found an article by a recently retired NHS consultant orthopaedic surgeon. 3,000 hip replacements in his 31-year career. Wrote it after his own wife was on the waiting list. He explained hip pain has 4 mechanisms feeding into each other 24 hours a day. The locked deep muscle. The collapsed circulation. The stiffened fascia (that's why I can't put my socks on). The inflamed peri-articular nerves 2 inches below the skin. That's the burning at 3 in the morning. He explained why my magnesium never worked. Less than 1% of an oral dose reaches a locked muscle around an arthritic joint. Blood normal because the blood is normal. Tissue around the hip not. He's developed a hip belt that works on all 4 mechanisms together. 3-level medical-grade heat. Two motors at 6,000 RPM. Adjustable compression wrap. 105 red-light LEDs at 660nm to reach 2-3 inches into the tissue. 20 minutes morning and 20 minutes evening at home. I ordered it at 4 in the morning. I didn't tell Geoff. The first night I slept 4 hours straight on my left side. The first time in over 14 months. Week 3 I cut my evening co-codamol in half. Fortnight later the omeprazole went in the bin because I'd stopped the daily Brufen. Week 6 I walked the dog round the village without sitting down. The full route, three quarters of a mile, the first time in 18 months. Month 3 I bent down to plant the spring bulbs in the front garden. Geoff watched me from the kitchen window. He came out and stood next to me without saying anything for a minute. I'd put my own socks on that morning. The Argos sock aid was in the bedside drawer for the first time in 15 months. 2 weeks later Mr Ashworth's secretary phoned me. She said *Mrs Henshaw. I've kept your slot for the surgery if you change your mind. I just wanted to check.* I told her thank you. I told her to take me off the slot. She paused. She said *Mrs Henshaw. Between you and me. You're the third patient this month who has rung to say the same thing.* She wouldn't tell me anything else. I'm 65 and I have bone-on-bone in my right hip. I'm not anti-surgery. If the day comes when the belt is not enough, I will go back on the list and be glad of the surgeon. But for now I am holding the function I had at consultation. If you have a consent form on your desk and you're awake at 3 in the morning wondering whether to sign it, please don't sign anything before you read what I read. I'll put the link in the comments below. The consent form is still on my kitchen counter, unsigned. The pen is back in the drawer. The surgery slot is gone. I might not need it.