Jan 19, 2007 Two Year Update

Two years ago I had my left hip resurfaced. When I was active on this list I always appreciated the updates from people a few years out, so thought I would do the same.

I am pain free, and my hip is flexible and strong. I can bicycle as far as I want, climbed to the top of a mountain this summer, can run on soft surfaces, play singles tennis — pretty much what I want. I was a marathon runner in my 40s, and am not running hard anymore. When I run a couple miles on concrete my hip is a little sore after, though that goes away in a couple hours.

I’ve worked pretty hard at the rehab and range of motion stuff. That is a lifetime deal at this point. Also, the metal hip is not magical. I need to exercise, stretch, core strengthen, watch what I eat — all that. I have to work on my whole body, but on the hip especially, because it’s artificial.

My device isn’t perfect. It’s got a slight wobble and clunk in it sometimes. I find that the more I exercise and tighten up the muscles/ligaments/tendons, the less I notice this. No big deal though.

A cautionary tale. This summer on a very hot Kansas evening I went out to play basketball for the first time. I was running, jumping, cutting. The hip hurt a little, but I kept on. Then it started to feel squishy. Then it started to squeak out loud, and hurt. I stopped. I stayed awake all night, thinking I’d ruined my hip. But the squeak and squishy was less the next day, and gone a few days later. I called Dr. Stachniw on his cell phone in the middle of it all. After calming my nerves, he laughed, “Remember we talked about basketball maybe not being your best idea at age 50?” I tell that story only so you can know that you can even do a bit of trauma to this device and the thing still works, at least in my case.

So onward and upward hippies. Like most people, my only regret is that I waited too long before doing the surgery.

Be well.

Bill in Kansas City Stachniw C2K, 1/18/05

“Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better . . . stronger . . . faster . . .”