February 05, 2010

My wife drove me to the King Edward 7th hospital off Harley St in London at 5.30 am-lamp lit London streets fresh snow on the ground, looked beautiful and provided an amazing memory to my HR. Signed in at 6am, pre op procedures went like clockwork. Saw my surgeon Prof Cobb at 7.45 had a very long chat about dev’s in HR and of course some of the discussions I have posted re- his navigated/acrobot approach. Said he expected the surgery to last 1 and half to 2 hours but was in no hurry-just after perfection. Went for surgery at 8.45, had general, woke up in recovery just over 2 hours later, back in room had lunch at around 12-15 absolutely starving! Saw Prof Cobb early evening said all went to plan, he is a truly wonderful man. Bed exercises rest of Saturday. Didn’t feel like I’d undergone major surgery-in fact felt great and family couldn’t believe it (I did keep very fit pre-surgery).

Next day walking on crutches, did the bed exercises and had no pain etc but some swelling. Next day a stick and hydrotherapy-how fantastic-vg range of movement and able to move the joint where it hadn’t been for years. Anyway, I came home yesterday (day 5) following 3 hydro sessions, great food, superb support, so now just feel great.Out for my daily walks, doing the physio stuff etc but just want to say a couple of things about my experience to help others in London. King Ed hospital hits 10 out of 10 in every area-Prof Cobb has established a series of protocols with brilliant booklets(pre-op/post op/avoiding clots/medication options/physio-hydro/going home etc) everyone was just fantastic-as good as any 5 star hotel I’ve ever been!

Prof Cobb is a wonderful man- more interested in precision surgery than a numbers game-did 3 ops last Saturday. All his patients (including those I spoke to in private emails pre-op and those I met post op including a guy I reckon must be 70 and was resurfaced 3 years ago ) the nurses and physios all speak very highly of him. He visited me every day. Hence, you have to wait a long time for an appointment but when you get him it’s special as my 42 yr old fellow patient agreed (he had to wait 3 months and travelled 200 miles!)

Wish I had my surgery earlier I’m 57 but very sporty and the last couple of months pre surgery were very difficult-deterioration became rapid!
Better get out for walk number 2 now but I’d be happy to talk to anyone further, particularly fellow Londoners considering HR.

January 29, 2011

I had my op at KE7 exactly one year ago today! I’m delighted that the fine standards have been maintained.

I too got to the point, prior to my left BHR, where I had no range of motion left and couldn’t lift either leg over the bike when dismounting. I could lift the right one over to get on and then needed friends to lift it back off for me! Or else I could lean against something and push away…it got to the point that I just stopped riding.”

March 27, 2011

Last time I posted re-getting back to running, I did first run (1.5 miles) post op-great but had slight discomfort in lower back, so thought I’d let it heal. Then few weeks later did couple of gentle runs (again 1.5 miles) and felt tear in calf. So after a 3 week lay off to allow tear to heal, I was feeling pretty good. This Friday evening did 10 mile Hampstead Heath (X country) on mountain bike. Saturday’s my usual swim day. So cos I feel it’s time to get going( thinking TRI) I thought that yesterday, I’d do a two mile steady run-followed by 10 mile Heath XC bike ride and then my usual 2.3 mile swim. Run went well, bike ride good, Swim also good but because I usually mix breast stroke/crawl I did feel calves around the 1km point. Anyway, finished the 3 events successfully without a problem and felt quite jubilant. Last night. out celebrating-my daughter’s been successful gaining places at Bristol and Liverpool Uni’s to study vet science and I had an extra glass for my own little accomplishment and growing confidence re- the running. But strangely, whilst out a couple of hours ago- broke into a bit of a sprint going to the shops and bang-calf went immediately!

August 21, 2011

Had a big blow-on holiday in Kenya-went back into the squash court after about 20 years-hip responded superbly-managed to get down to all low shots etc Second day of playing-got more confident and competitive-went for it-BANG-ruptured achilles tendon. Real shame as planning Triathlon as mentioned in my post a couple of months ago! My stupid fault really- didn’t warm up at all-behaved like I was 20 again cos hip’s so strong and generally feeling great. Didn’t want surgery in Kenya, so put in plaster cast to finish final week of holiday.

August 25, 2011

I had the surgery on Monday (pretty sore) and came home on Tuesday.
Gotta say this is way harder than the HR. I’m in a special boot and have to keep leg elevated for next two weeks-only time I’m allowed to get up is for the loo. No weight bearing for 6 weeks. Boot to stay on for 3 months. Not even swimming for 3 months. Impact Sport can’t start for 6 months. As a result of the inactivity(prevention of DVT) I’ll be taking blood thinning injections for 6 weeks (didn’t take any for my HR-infact I was even off pain killers by day 4). So yeah I’m feeling quite annoyed with myself for being so obviously stupid.

With HR you progress every day-here I’m in limbo having to take it so easy to avoid any mishaps to this intricate surgery.

July20, 2012

life’s been one hell of an adventure! Sorry but it’s going to be a long post-but will hopefully help others.

After the achilles tendon op last August(same leg as resurf) around the one week mark I was feeling really awfull, but with the usual determination tried to remain positive and pull myself together. I just couldn’t believe that after such a beautiful hip resurfacing surgery that something less major was making me freel so dreadful.
Anyway, to cut a long story short (12 day mark) just had to contact my surgeon explained the situation-he asked me to get to hospital immediately and that he will arrange for his plastic surgeon to be present look at wound too.

On their inspection they indicated it was serious and would organise emergency surgery. I had a deep tissue and systemic infection(virulent and unknown bacteria at this time) which had destroyed the Achilles Tendon and the other concerns were the metal hip and even more seriously my life. Swabs from surgery came back with ecoli and other virulent bowel bugs! These probably got there from my trip to Kenya, into a graze on the ankle and being in plaster for 2 weeks prior to returning home for surgery they had time to colonise and despite surgical cleaning, opportuntistically entered the surgical site. Again to cut long story short-had 3 further debridement surgeries, IV drip/pic line/vac pump-eventually at the end of November, confident that I was infection free-my surgeon closed the wound and placed a skin graft over the lower section. Luckily, the hip (despite stiffening up from such a period of immobility) remained infection and trouble free!

I made a good recovery despite learning to walk without a tendon (it’s like a ball which doesn’t bounce) I returned to work in January and by April could walk ok but used crutches for long distances-I was back on the mountain bike and was doing the usual 2.3k swim every Saturday and worked hard to regain hip flexibilty.
OK now I’m at home recovering from surgery last week.The original surgical plan was to do a tendon transfer (FHL) and free up the scar tissue and cover the wound with a vascularised free flap. Instead, my surgeons made the intra operative decision to resect and recreate a tendon using the scar tissue which had miraculously filled the gap between the proximal and distal tendon and to carefully close the existing skin graft-much less invasive and will be a real result if it works!
So feeling good and positive at the 9 day mark and whilst I’ve a long road ahead a triathlon remains my eventual goal (which I was working on post hip resurfacing). Throughout all this my Prof Cobb hip resurfacing has been me with tremendous loyalty!

January 30, 2013

Following my post op July update where my achilles was reconstructed using the scar tissue all was going well over August. I returned to work(teacher) first week in September for the start of term, mobile on crutches and in a Vacoped boot. Unfortunately, after 2 days leg was very red swollen and sore, in my true idiotic style I didn’t take heed of the signs, I guess I didn’t want to let my colleagues or students down and so continued to teach. Anyway by the end of the week I was back in hospital leg resembling elephantitis (maybe I should post some pic’s if there’s the interest and Pat’s approves)-it was actually severe Cellulitis! I/V antibiotics, special potassium baths, creams etc and fortunately things improved but this was a major setback which put me back a couple of months. Cellulitis is pretty horrendous particularly when it affects post op healing tissue.

Anyway, fast forward to now-6 months post op. I am able to walk normally(very swiftly) without a limp, I’ve been back on the exercise bike for past 2 months and now that the wound has been healed for a month I’m ready for swimming. Still have quite a lot of stiffness, mainly start up stiffness and internal inflamation (some of which remnants of Cellulitis), ROM slowly but surely improving. My surgeons (orthopaedic and plastic) are amazed by my recovery and put it down to my determination and desire to continue with sport. They indicate that it will take 18 months for the maximum recovery I’m likely to achieve.

So all in all, to use the old British phrase-mustn’t grumble. This time last year I was hoping to be able to walk again-now my future goal is to be able to achieve a jog (I’ll never see 6 or 7 minute mile pace again-I’d be grateful for 10 even slower but would love to experience something resembling slow running). Hence, I’ve been pretty lucky I guess.

BTW today is the 3rd anniversary of my HR and throughout all this with huge periods of immobility the hip has been great!

February 9, 2014

Just wanted to check in with my 4 year mark. Had my check up couple of weeks ago. Xrays great-no change-spot on 40 degrees. Bloods-Chromium 1.4 Cobalt 1.2
So all good news with the HR.

Prof Cobb-says he’s such faith in BHR and Adept that I can wait until 10 year mark for the next check up! I admire his confidence but I’ll see him every other year.

Just want to take the opportunity to say a huge thanks to Pat for all the support I received over 4 years ago and this continuously wonderful resource.

February 1, 2015

Friday marked the 5th year anniversary of my hip resurface. My hip continues to feel excellent and I can’t remember if I posted this previously but in October I completed my first sprint triathlon (an experiment!). Now 62 I’m currently training to complete more sprint tri’s in the new season. I never thought this would be possible as old friends might remember that 2 years after my resurface, my hip was so good that I returned to all sport, but while playing squash, ruptured my left Achilles tendon, suffered a deep wound infection which necessitated 7 surgeries over a year (along with months of IV antibiotics) to clear the infection and reconstruct a tendon using scar tissue. Luckily my hip didn’t get infected and remained strong throughout. So the limitation to my performance is a weakened ankle not hip. So I feel very fortunate and I take this opportunity to thank Pat and the many other surface hippies who were incredibly helpful 7 years ago when I found the site and the support I received after my new hip.

January 31, 2016

My fantastic HR was six years old yesterday. I celebrated with a 20k bike ride followed by a 2k swim- rainy day so I’m off to Hampstead Heath for one hour mixed walk/ run.

Time of year again to thank Pat and the other pioneers of HR.

Cheers, Toby

Ps Saw my surgeon last year for X-rays and bloods and his protocol is next check up at 10 year mark