Les, I may be late in joining this thread (I don't know how I missed it till now), but I thoroughly empathize with you and Ken. On other threaads I've mentioned how my wife suffered till she finally had her hip replacement. You can't imagine what a diffference it made to both of our lives. When one of a couple suffers, so does the other, each one in their own way. Like RB has reported, there is a while when you suffer as you recuperate, but the constant nagging pain is gone and the world becomes a happy place again. My wife is as happy as she was before the osteoarthritis developed and her "repair" was so successful that she never even thinks as if something in her body was exchanged (that is, until the detectors sound off when she has to go through a security gate). From the sounds of what you describe, it seems a certainty to me that you'll eventurally decide in favor of the hip replacement, and then regret not having done it sooner.
I hope you consider us all as your friends, and as such, look positively at the advice so many of the posters here have expresed.
We all only want what is best for you and that is to have you feeling healthy and happy, painlessly.
