Age 38 with OA living in the UK

[morph]

I am 38 years old living in Scotland and was diagnosed with bilateral OA 3years ago, the surgeon at the time was prepared to do HR on the left hip which is severe, the right has a bit of life left. I have been living with the pain for about 10 years altough it is only in the last 4-5 years it has got worse to a point where it is seriously affecting my quality of life.  I have finally decided enough is enough, my wife is 20 weeks pregnant with twins too and we already have an 18 month daughter, so this was a big deciding factor also.

However, with the recent bad press, the same surgeon has told me that he is only prepared to give me a standard cemented metal on plastic THR. I was a bit taken aback, shocked and distressed by this, especially knowing that the press have not been reporting all the facts. Luckily I have private health care and on the 20th April I am scheduled to have a consultation with James Holland in Newcastle.

I have gone through all the emotional worry, but now although anxious I just want it done asap. I just hope I am a good candidate and he is still prepared to do HR.

This is site very helpful, just what the doctor order to pick you up when you are feeling down about OA. It would be great to hear of anyone who has seen Mr Holland or just generally has nuggets of info for the consultation, surgery and rehab.

cheers

Neil.

[Dannywayoflife]

Hi neil,
          I know Jim holland is an excellent surgeon he was on the list given to me by vijay Bose. However if for whatever reason you don't like him or he is sceptical get reffered to my surgeon Ronan Treacy in birmingham. He's the most experienced in the world by a long long way and is available on the NHS.
If you want any info on anything just drop me a pm
Danny

[morph]

Many thanks Danny. I initially sent an email to Jeremy Latham, who states one of his interests are younger patients, explaining the situation. He was extremely helpful and quite prepared to see me, but highly recommended Mr Holland should I want some one closer to home. So that and Bose listing him makes me feel at ease.

Ideally I would like it done and well on the way to recovery by the time the twins arrive, but time is running out. From reading other posts I am trying to get a general feel for post-op recovery for driving, being able to lift etc. but everyone is different. I suppose I will know alot more after the consultation. After that I am sure I will have loads of questions too. I have lots lingering in the back of my mind about rehab at home like is it advisable to get your own physio, personal trainer or is it sufficient just go on the guidlines/excercises given to you at the time of surgery?

As time goes by I am sure I will be posting again.

Neil.

[hernanu]

Hi Neil, echoing Danny's welcome. Sounds like you've been guided well on the surgeon. Danny is a good resource for folks in the UK, as he definitely fought the good fight on his HR.

Post op recovery for me (I had two HR's), was two to three weeks after surgery for driving, I loved having both in home PT (for the first three weeks), and about a month of outpatient PT starting at about four weeks. Then individual workouts, as you'll see in many of the hippies here, we are all over the place on recuperation routines.

Good luck and don't hesitate to post again.

[Dannywayoflife]

Neil,
      I know that legally your insurance is invalid for I think 3 weeks as a resut of a anaesthetic. I would have thought if you heal at an average rate you'll be fine to drive after that.
I believe Jim Holland has done around 900 bhr's (or he had when I looked at it) so he's fairly well experienced. However do not be put off if by any chance he too has been swayed by the recent gmc crap that's been in the news. I know that a lot of surgeons are now refusing to do bhr's thanks to that.
Once again feel free to drop me a pm or email if you need a hand or just want to get it off your chest as we all have done!:-)
Danny

[morph]

Thanks hernanu and danny for your replies.

Danny I have just seen your thread in the story section, it really does help to read other people going through a similar situation, I will read all the thread later. I am just new to this site and there is an aweful lot of info. I think it might be a good idea to have a pen and paper at hand to write down any useful bits of info.

Neil.

[Dannywayoflife]

Neil,
      I will help you in any way I can mate. All the best Danny

[hernanu]

Neil, the main page is also filled with information for current or prospective hippies. There's the list of experienced surgeons:

http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php

Overall doctor and surgery information, such as questions to ask your doctor, how to select a surgeon, etc. :

http://www.surfacehippy.info/doctorinformation.php

Frequently asked questions:

http://www.surfacehippy.info/faq.php

There's also a wealth of other things that Pat has put in its own separate categories. Don't get me wrong - the discussion is priceless even if just for my contributions  ;D , but the assorted knowledge of all these hippies has been somewhat categorized to help us out.

[mark-taffy]

hi neil
im 39 living in  swansea south wales ,just had my hip resurfaced(BHR) on april 1st by dr woodnutt , he gave me two options if my hip was not suitable for a refsurface he would have put a uncemented ceramic on ceramic THR in .dont think i would have been happy with a metal on plastic to be honest myself . but good luck i was done through health care and was done within 2 weeks of consultaion ,8 days post op and im feeling really good so best of luck .
atb mark

[Dannywayoflife]

Mark congrats on your recent BHR and welcome to the group. You had a result by the sounds of it. I had to use the NHS as I didn't have a health plan in place at the time.
Atb Danny

[hernanu]

Hey mark, welcome - how are you feeling?

[imgetinold]

Welcome, morph, and good luck.

I was driving at about 4 weeks.  I probably could have driven sooner if I tried my car (better adjustability of the seats), but is is a manual tranny and I was advised not to.

I want to address your rehab question.  There are many surgeons who are very pro-rehab, and the results are very good.  My surgeon is not a huge proponent, and sends us home with a batch of exercises to do.  So, I've had zero PT to date, other than my do-it-yourself exercises, and I feel like my recovery has been outstanding.

If your surgeon is good, you can't go wrong, and recovery will be no problem.

[morph]

Mark - hope your recovery is going well, is it tougher than expected? I have come cross Mr Woodnutt in my research and he seems very good, I think he did a trial on the ACCIS HR device. I also remember reading an article about him getting up early to walk miles to work in feet of snow and blizzards to see his patients. Ceramic would have been the next best option for me, to be honest though it is probably a blessing in disguise that I was not offered it. Now I am dead set on a BHR.

imgetinold - thanks for your comments, maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit and everything will fall into place naturally. I've been reading some of Danny's posts on the wobble cushion, deep tissue massage and the foam roller - ouch! I get a sports massage on a monthly basis at the moment because my glutes,IT band and hip flexors - double ouch - get very tight and sore. This is probably for later on in the rehab. It sounds like doing the very basic things are the biggest challenge to start with. But I am making a list of things that maybe useful to buy, so far I have compression shorts for icing, wobble cushion and foam roller.

[mark-taffy]

neil, 2-3 days after sugery it was sore and tender once i started to get mobile this all got better and every day its a  improvement ,i have reduced meds today as i dont need them every 4 hrs so i took some this morning and the same this eve ,dr woodnutt did walk miles in the snow to see his patients a really nice guy , and he told me he would fit any hip i wanted but  the BHR was the  first recommended option he stated he would like to see it last me 25yrs sa the results showed very good success rates in young people ,well happy with everything so far it relly does feel like you have your life back .
thanks for the welcome guys
atb mark

[Dannywayoflife]

Hay Neil,
            The wobble cusion is definatly the beat piece of kit I bought for my recovery. It really works the small stabiliser muscles that take the longest to recover.
Mark is right when well placed these should last at least 25 years! I Personaly think longer than that if there perfectly placed as they work with a fluid film lubrication regime. So wear is incredibly low. I've seen figures of recovered THR's that were implanted in the 60s that are the same metalurgy as the bhr and the measured wear after 26 years was 20 something microns! That's 20 one thousands of a mm! So all this metal ion stuff is really just media hype!!

[morph]

I saw Mr Holland on Friday. There is a 90% chance of BHR, depending on the bone quality in surgery, the back up being a ceramic on ceramic which was my choice. The bone quality was good except for a small section on the left hand side of the left hip, but he did say that often the hip was in better shape than appeared on an Xray, I suppose with it only being a 2D picture. He did seem relatively optimistic, but I guess it is out of my hands now. I am VERY happy with Mr Holland and his ability so feel whatever happens will be the best for my hip. He did tell me not to get too hung up if a HR is not possible, basically I need a replacement of some sort no matter what.

It is just a waiting game for the date and time of surgery, but sounded highly likely within a month. Hopefully I will be joining you hippies but if not I hope the ceramic will serve me well for a long time.