Bob’s Hip Resurfacing Story with Dr. Gross 2005
| L Biomet Dr. Gross July 11, 2005 |
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One detail that may be of interest to your readers concerns a pain that I had after the surgery, and what (with the assistance of Ms. Webb, Dr. Gross’s nurse and surgical assistant) I was able to do about it. Perhaps this would fit on the Slow Recovery page. (I’d be happy to provide a more explicit email, if that would help). Anyway: About a month after the resurfacing of my left hip, I would experience an excruciating pain on that side whenever I would attempt to get up and walk after being in a deeply seated position (as in a car seat or a low upholstered chair). It would be very painful to take the first step. But after taking 3 or 4 steps, the pain would disappear entirely. This would happen each time. If I took the time to stretch my left leg a bit after first getting up, it would not be a problem. This went on for several weeks, and did not seem to be improving. When I emailed Ms. Webb about it, she said this was a fairly common observation and suggested I look into a stretching exercise for the iliopsoas muscle (which I had never heard of!). I found an exercise online) and started doing that stretch daily. I don’t know whether it was a coincidence or not, but within a few days that pain started subsiding, and within a week or two it was completely gone. I continue to do that stretch as part of my daily exercise routine, and the pain never did return. I can’t tell you how indebted I feel to Dr. Gross, Ms. Webb, and Midlands Orthopedics for restoring my active lifestyle. I had always been active – biking, skiing, tennis, lacrosse, etc. But, starting in 2002, I began to develop severe osteoarthritis in my left hip, and I was soon unable to run; even walking was painful. I thought I was faced with a choice of a total hip replacement, which – since I was in my 50s and used to being active – didn’t appeal to me at all, or increasing doses of pain medication, which didn’t really help very much. Fortunately, I found out about hip resurfacing, and made arrangements to come to South Carolina for that procedure. Within a few months of the resurfacing, I began to ski again, and the following summer I began playing tennis again. Two years after the procedure, I now play tennis several times a week, with no joint pain whatsoever. This procedure was absolutely perfect for me! Bob C.I feel a personal mission to spread the word about hip resurfacing, so I do whatever I can. I had the usual story: my local orthopedic surgeon never even mentioned resurfacing to me, he just said my choice was to continue pain meds for as long as I could stand the pain or undergo THR (he used the same phrase “gold standard” that most in-denial docs do). I had to find out about resurfacing on my own (in my case, there was the article in the AARP publication about Dr. Stachniw AARP ARTICLE and – if I recall correctly – another article in the NY Times, at about the same time, about people who went overseas for surgery, and then – once I knew what to look for – the explosion of information online and Peggy Gabriel’s book. I tried to buy time, while I located a resurfacing doc and went through the insurance issues, by volunteering for a clinical trial on the use of Synvisc in hips, but was turned down because my cartilage was so far gone there was no place to inject the Synvisc. Eventually, I connected with Dr. Gross and Ms. Webb, and their office was able to work the insurance issue. The rest, as they say, is history. I have never had any regrets. |
