I had my right hip resurfaced by Dr. Gross last week (April 20) and I am already walking with just a cane! Don’t settle for total hip replacement until you explore other options!

I had resurfacing surgery on my right hip last week, and feel like I’m doing really well – no pain meds except for the occasional Tylenol, and walking (or at least hobbling) fairly well with a cane. My problem is going to sleep at night! I have to sleep either on my back or on my left side, which is not how I normally go to sleep. The post surgery instructions say to keep a pillow between your legs at night. I just cannot get comfortable! The other night, I moved from the bed to the couch to the recliner, and nothing really worked. I finally fell asleep around 3 am, and when I woke up a few hours later the darn pillow that was supposed to be between the legs was on the floor!

June 2, 2011

I had my 6 week post-op visit today with Dr. Gross and Lee Webb. Everything looks great, and I think they were surprised at how strong my operated leg is already! Almost all of the restrictions were removed (other than crossing your legs at the knee, extreme stretching, and high impact activities). Still cannot lift more than 50 pounds with the lower body either, but that’s still so much better than the last 6 weeks! As soon as I got home, I went to the gym and hopped on the elliptical (not exactly hopped, but I did climb onto it) and had my first mini-cardio workout since surgery. Also did some lower body work with light weights. It felt wonderful!!!!

I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Gross about the metal ions issue. He said he has never seen a problem with anyone with a cup angle of less than 50 degrees. I think only about 4 of his 2000+ patients have developed this problem. Mine is about 34 degrees for the implant, but he showed me on my X-rays that the angle for the unoperated hip is about 55 degrees. Evidently, when surgeons first started doing resurfacings, they (quite naturally, I think) tried to duplicate the natural socket angle as closely as possible, which is almost always steeper than 50 degrees. Then some people started developing the problems from metal wear, and the doctors realized that they needed to modify the cup angle to avoid this.