A woman sits on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a photo on the left and the same woman sits on a brown horse on the right

Within three months of surgery, Louise Correnti was back to her active, pain-free lifestyle

At 78 years old, Louise Correnti has logged over 425,000 miles on her Harley-Davidson motorcycle, attends Pilates three times a week, and keeps up with strength training in her home workout room. But in 2024, her mobility was severely limited when an injury during a pickleball game aggravated her preexisting hip arthritis. 

However, Correnti didn’t let the injury stop her from engaging in an active lifestyle. For the next year, she did her best to keep up with her Pilates and exercise, but the pain became so severe that she knew hip replacement surgery was the only real solution.

Nearly a year after her injury, Correnti underwent a successful hip replacement surgery at Loma Linda University Health from orthopaedic surgeon Parke Hudson, MD, to get her back to her active lifestyle. 

Before her injury, Correnti’s decision to start playing pickleball at 76 years old was supposed to add another healthy activity into her active lifestyle. Unfortunately, Correnti’s attempt to keep up with more advanced players led to an unexpected injury on the court. 

At first, she assumed the pain was from a pulled muscle that would heal with over-the-counter medication and rest. But as time went on, her mobility worsened. 

“I struggled to walk even short distances and had to cling to grocery carts just to make it through a store,” Correnti recalls. “I was hanging on for dear life.”

When the pain didn’t go away, X-rays revealed that her preexisting hip arthritis was severely aggravated by playing pickleball. To help manage the pain, Correnti received several cortisone shots over a year, but the relief was always temporary, and her pain kept increasing. 

By the time she saw Hudson for hip replacement surgery, her once-active lifestyle had become extremely limited.

“She was essentially bone on bone,” Hudson said of her X-rays. “I knew how active she had been with Pilates and riding her Harley, but her hip injury was keeping her from living the life she wanted.” 

But at her age, and living with a pacemaker, Correnti was nervous to undergo surgery. 

To prepare for her hip replacement, Hudson required that she undergo clearance from her primary care physician and cardiologist to avoid any complications with anesthesia. 

Once cleared, Correnti had a total hip replacement with the Hana Table –– a specialized operating table that allows a precise and minimally invasive approach to position the patient in a way that optimizes access to the hip joint without the need to cut through major muscles or tendons.

Read: The ease of hip replacement surgery with this surgical advancement

The results of the surgery led to a stable implant and a well-aligned hip. For the first time in a year, Correnti could work on regaining her full mobility.

“They had me up and walking within hours,” she said. “I went home the same day!”

Once in recovery, Correnti followed every at-home rehabilitation activity assigned to her, a vital step in the recovery process that many patients slack off or skip entirely. 

“As a surgeon, I can set the patient up for success in the operating room, but the long-term results depend heavily on the patient’s commitment to rehabilitation,” Hudson says.

Correnti committed to doing her chair exercises multiple times a day, walking her cul-de-sac, and gradually regaining her mobility. 

Within two weeks, the pain was gone. At three months, Hudson cleared her to start back with Pilates, and more excitingly, he gave her the green light to get back on her Harley.

Now, six months post-surgery, Correnti is back to her regular active lifestyle, even walking up to three miles three times a week.

“Last year at this time, I could barely walk,” Correnti says. “Now I’m moving again.”

For Correnti, her hip replacement allowed her to reclaim her active lifestyle, return to her regular workouts, and get back on her motorcycle. With her sights set on reaching 450,000 riding miles, the new hip was just a brief stop on the road to her goal. 

For more information on hip replacement surgery, call us at 909-558-2808 or visit our website here.