December 27, 2008

Had my hip resurfacing done on Dec 18th by Doctor Prevost of the Anchorage Fracture and Orthopedic Center. Dr. Prevost has done over 1000 THRs and has about 80 previous Femoral Head Resurfacing operations. I think I am his 5th BHR. So far, things went fine. I went into the hospital Thursday the 18th which was the day of the operation. The operation was about two hours and two hours in the recovery room.

The reason I wanted to post is to mention the Game Ready Device that the doctor prescribed for me to rent just prior to surgery. I took it into surgery with me and when I woke up in recovery it was already in place and providing coolness as well as compression. This really helped as I came out of the spinal block.

I went home on Saturday (2 days after the operation) and have used this icing system every day since. I am sleeping in a recliner right now so when I go to bed I just put on the pants, prepare the ice bucket in the system and turn it on. I have the Control Unit programmed to provide cooling on a 30 min on 30 min off cycle and the ice and cold water that circulates through the pants lasts about three hours.

After using this system I don’t know how anyone could properly ice their hips with bags of peas etc.

It is really nice to have the BHR resurfacing option here in Anchorage. I just couldn’t imagine spending two weeks in Seattle, in a hotel, recovering – plus the 4 hour ride in a tiny airplane seat being just 14 days post op.

Doc Prevost says no more than 50% weight bearing for at least the first four weeks. And I can possibly go back to work after six weeks (I am a commercial pilot)

For me, this was a great choice.

Thanks to all who work at providing their stories on this site. It was an invaluable resource especially with the military health care system as I am a retiree. I used the list of questions to ask your doctor when I first met Doctor Prevost. When he finally got done talking to me and it was my turn to ask questions I brought out the list and found that he had already answered pretty much every question. Thanks also to the Doctors who spend their valuable time on here answering questions and being guest “speakers” their thoughts were a great resource and I used some of their papers and publications when discussing this with my Doc at the Military Treatment Facility.