Left hip done, I drive an automatic. Everyone says six weeks but WHY would I wait the same as someone whose braking foot was operated on?

#1trev_lefthip(Joined Jul 2025 · 13 posts)November 8, 2025, 10:14 am

Right, going to ask the thing nobody will give me a straight answer on. I had my LEFT hip done three weeks ago, posterior approach, and I drive an automatic. Every page online and every person in my life just says "six weeks, six weeks" like it is carved in stone.

But that number surely came mostly from people who had their RIGHT hip done, or who drive a manual and are working a clutch. My left leg does absolutely nothing in my car. It sits there. I am not touching a clutch, I am not braking with it, it is a passenger. So why would I wait the identical six weeks as someone whose actual braking foot just had surgery?

The registrar at my check said "when you feel ready" which is honestly worse than useless, because I have felt ready to do all sorts of things I definitely was not ready to do. My wife thinks I am fishing for an excuse to get back behind the wheel and she is not entirely wrong. But I also cannot keep asking her to drive me to physio twice a week forever.

Has anyone with a left hip and an automatic actually been cleared earlier than the magic six? Or is it six weeks no matter which leg and which gearbox?

#2pbike60(Joined Feb 2025 · 36 posts)November 9, 2025, 8:37 am

trev_lefthip said:

my left leg does absolutely nothing in my car. It sits there.

Different situation to you, mine was the right hip and an automatic, so my braking foot was the one that got operated on. But the thing that stopped me was not whether I could drive gently to the shops. Anyone can pootle along a quiet road at four weeks.

It was the emergency stop. I sat in the drive at about week four, foot over the brake, and tried to imagine a kid running out. I could not get my foot to slam down fast and hard. There was a half second of hesitation and a bit of a wince, and half a second is a lot of tarmac at any speed. That was my answer, and I waited.

Your left leg thing might genuinely put you ahead, I am not saying it does not. Just do the stamp test before you trust the calendar.

#3gardeninggwen(Joined Jan 2025 · 29 posts)November 11, 2025, 4:52 pm

I will be honest, I fixated so hard on the six week date that I completely overlooked the bit that actually caught me out, which was getting INTO the car at all.

My little hatchback sits low. First time I tried, I realised I could not lower myself into that seat without folding my new hip right up past the angle I had been told not to go past. So even if my braking foot had been perfect I still could not have driven, because I could not get in safely without breaking a precaution. Nobody warned me the seat height would be the problem, not the pedals.

#4Ms Priya RamanSurgical moderator(Joined Oct 2024 · 91 posts)December 2, 2025, 11:20 am

There is no universal date, and anyone quoting you one as a rule is guessing. The honest answer is that you can drive again when two separate things are both true: your reaction at the pedals has returned to something like normal, and you can get in and out of the car and sit in it without pain or breaking your precautions. Those two things do not always arrive on the same day.

What moves the date around:

Which side, and the gearbox. In an automatic, the right foot brakes and accelerates and the left foot does nothing, so a left hip in an automatic (Trev, your situation) genuinely tends to be the earliest case. The published studies of brake reaction time are mostly done on right hip replacements, and those tend to return toward pre-operative levels somewhere around 4 to 6 weeks. Left hip in an automatic has shown a faster return in some series, sometimes in the region of 2 to 4 weeks, but that is a group average, not a promise about your leg. A manual car changes it again, because the left leg works the clutch, so a left hip and a manual is not the free pass the automatic version is.

Medication. If you are still taking opioid pain relief, that alone is usually a reason to wait regardless of which hip, because it slows reaction and judgement. Being off the strong painkillers is often the real gate, not the week number.

The approach and your precautions. A posterior approach usually comes with hip flexion and rotation limits for a period, which is exactly why gardeninggwen could not lower into a low seat: the car forced the hip past the angle she was told to avoid. The diary's hip dislocation precautions page explains why that specific movement is the risky one. Sliding the seat fully back and reclining it first, then sitting and swinging both legs in together, is the usual workaround, but only your team can tell you which precautions apply to your operation.

One thing people forget entirely: your insurer and your licensing authority. In most places the standard is simply that you must be in full control of the vehicle, but many insurers expect you to be medically fit to drive and some will ask you to confirm it, so a quick call before your first drive is worth it. Haidee's account of getting back behind the wheel walks through the off-road checks she used first.

Revision surgery, complications, or a slow recovery all push the date later. So take the range as a starting point and get your own surgeon to sign off on a date, because they know your approach, your precautions, and how your leg is actually doing.

#5moira1963(Joined Oct 2025 · 8 posts)December 4, 2025, 9:05 am

Ms Priya Raman said:

your insurer and your licensing authority

The insurer point genuinely had not occurred to me. I rang mine and they just noted it on the file and said I needed to be medically fit, no drama, but I would rather have that conversation before an incident than after one. Ten minutes on the phone.

#6trev_lefthip(Joined Jul 2025 · 13 posts)January 15, 2026, 6:41 pm

Update for anyone who finds this later. I did not just jump in the car at some earlier date I had decided was fine.

At my check I asked directly, told them left hip, automatic, off the strong painkillers. They were happy for me to try, but off-road first. So I sat in an empty car park, did the emergency stop stamp that pbike60 described about ten times until it felt automatic and not painful, then drove two slow laps. Right foot was completely normal because it was never the operated side, which was the whole point I was making at the start. Rang the insurer the day before like Ms Raman said.

So in my specific case, left hip and an auto, I was driving properly again a good bit before the six week mark. But I am now fairly sure I would still have been sat at home at six weeks if it had been my right hip. The gearbox and the side really do matter. Thanks all.