April 9, 2016

I just past my one month mark having my right hip done (I’m a  49 year old fairly fit male, singles tennis player), and am amazed at the entire process I went through.  Dr. Stephen Raterman in Tampa, FL performed my surgery at Florida Hospital at Wesley Chapel.  I had an absolutely amazing experience with both Dr. Raterman and his staff and Florida Hospital.  Truly world class, compassionate, professional medical treatment from Florida Hospital and Dr. Raterman’s team, it was well worth the 5 hour drive I did to go to their facility. 

After exactly one week post-surgery I never touched the walker or cane again.  Below is the summary of my experience to date, thought I’d share some of the details for those considering the procedure.

•   Wednesday, March 9th – Surgery at 8:00 am.
•   Thursday, March 10th- Walked with walker for 200 feet, and up and down 5-6 steps using railing with no issue, was released by 10:00 am.  Back to Jacksonville, FL by car, 5 hour total drive with family.  Stopped every 1 hour to get out of car and walk. 
•   Friday, March 11th – Back home walking around the neighborhood with walker.  Burned out first set of tennis balls on walker, replaced with new ones.
•   Saturday, March 12th – Walked with walker, however was walking so easily I decided to try walking without a walker or cane.  Did so without pain, however had heavy limp so tried the cane, which worked great, let me walk with a much more natural gate.
•   Monday, March 14th – Wednesday March 15th:  Went to out-patient Physical Therapy to learn how to walk again (physical therapy at Coltman and Baughman Physical Therapy in Jacksonville, Beach, little plug for them, they’ve rehabbed me several other times in the past and they are amazing, best of the best).  Since Wednesday March 15th, exactly one week after surgery, I never touched the walker or cane again. 
•   At the three week mark post-surgery most people could never tell I’ve had major hip surgery.
•   At one month I have virtually no discomfort and move practically normally.  I still have the leg cross limit and still sleep with a pillow between my legs.
•   I have a feeling I have recovered a bit quicker than most.  I attribute this to my great surgeon and PT, I was fairly fit pre-surgery, followed to a tee what Dr. Raterman and my PT have told me to do.   I went to out-patient PT 4 days a week for my first two weeks post-surgery, then 3 days a week after that, and I do my full PT regiment everyday faithfully when I do not go to PT.  I always took my pain meds so that I could do my full PT.  Dr. Raterman told me that  most importantly is to do the PT, so do not try to come off the pain meds too soon and then not perform the full PT regiment each day.  I have followed that advice exactly.
•   I really cannot believe how painless the entire process was.  About 10 years ago I had my ACL replaced and both  meniscus rebuilt in my left knee, and it was brutally painful the first month, and took 6-8 months to rehab to the point of where I am at the one month mark with the BHR.  The most pain I have had for my BHR is what I would consider strong discomfort the first 2-3 days.  In fact the most pain I actually had during the entire process was working through the post- surgical/opiate induced constipation, but I’ll spare everyone those horrid details!

May 8, 2016

I consider myself a wimp compared to what so many folks suffered through on this site.  I suffered for less than a year before I made the decision for might right BHR.  I was very worried I was going too soon, as I had really only suffered for less than a year before making the decision.  As soon as I was not able to play tennis anymore that was it for me.  A key item for me was that all of the work I was doing prior to surgery, all of the physical therapy, was only slowly preventing a more rapid decline, and by no means treating the root cause of the issue.  What is so wonderful with this surgery is you are fixing the root cause of the issue, and all of the effort put in post surgery is going to move you closer to being “normal” again.   At 4 weeks post surgery I had significantly less pain than pre-surgery.  I’m now 8 weeks post op and can’t believe how good I feel.