Hi Gene
Thanks for writing to me. If you are younger, under 70 or 75, and are active - you should have a hip resurfacing if possible, not a THR. Hip resurfacing is bone conserving and has no restrictions on your activities after you heal. You can do whatever you want from tennis, karate, or an ironman triathalon.
http://www.surfacehippy.info/athletes.phpA THR requires that they cut the top of your femur bone off, drill it and pound the long stake of a THR ball into it. So if you ever need a revision, it is much more difficult to remove the stake from your femur. Here is what has to be done
http://www.surfacehippy.info/thrrevision.php If you start with a hip resurfacing and ever need a revision, you have your whole femur bone left to revise to a THR.
Here is a list of many of the more experienced surgeons
http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php and their statistics
http://www.surfacehippy.info/doctorstatistics.phpHip resurfacing is a much more difficult surgery than a THR and you need an experienced surgeon doing your surgery. The learning curve is steep for hip resurfacing according to the studies I have on my website and other doctors recommendaitons. Usually it takes 50 - 100 to be experienced. In my opinion, it takes many hundreds. My doctor, Dr. De Smet has done over 2400 hip resurfacings and recommends a person always use a surgeon with over 100 hip resurfacings.
If you have a complicated case,you definitely need to use a very experienced surgeon. Don't worry about who is closest to you, decide who is best for you and your situation. Many of us have travel accross country or to other countries to get experienced surgeons. You only have 2 hips and if the surgeon does not do a good job, you could have a difficult time for the rest of your life or face revisions.
Many of the experienced overseas doctors will do both hips at one time. The US surgeons are usually much more conservative. That will be your choice as to how to face you hip replacment. I only had one hip done, but would have done both at one time if I needed to. That way you only have one recovery and get it all over at the same time. There have been bi-lats go to Belgium like I did by themselves and traveled home by themselves. It is difficult, not not impossible.
Let me know how your progress is coming. You can get free consultations from Dr. De Smet of Belgium and Dr. Bose of India if you send them emails with a digital copy of your x-rays attached in .jpg form. The usually answer quickly and are very honest in evaluating your situation. Hundreds of us older hippies have gone to both surgeons since we wanted experience and could not get a BHR in the US before May 2006.
I posted your email to me - without your email address on my Hip Talk - to see if anyone else has used any of the Oklahoma doctors. Check it out
http://surfacehippy.info/hiptalk/index.php?topic=52.0Pat