Bryn’s Bilateral Hip Resurfacing with Dr. Pritchett 2011

Personal Blog Here http://onehipdude.blogspot.com/

In March 2010 I found out that I simply had bi-lateral OA from a not-so-helpful Dr. that said nothing about impingement, femoracetabular impingement (FAI), potential treatment options,…eventhough he was looking at my x-rays during the exam. Sadly I walked out of there thinking that my active lifestyle was over at the ripe old age of 41. He said, “I’m not trying to sell you a new hip” and then handed me a thin booklet on THR. “Get on the hip train to local ortho clinic and get yourself some shiny new hips (THR)” was how I sarcastically felt about the whole thing. So I embarked on the journey I am now on. I had serious limited ROM in the left hip with pain during walking and other activities. Cycling, soccer, running, stairs, decent sleep, were all becoming something of the past. Right hip, surprisingly, had less spacing on the images, but better ROM and no pain.

I did some research and the first thing I honed in on, was FAI and arthroscopic techniques to clean up the osteophytes and acetabular rim. Not sure why, but I really had little knowledge of RS. I focused on some papers by Phillipon in CO and looked for a doc in the northwest. I found Wagner in Portland, OR. I scheduled a visit to Wagner and he did the ROM exam and took some pics and told me I was not a good candidate for arthroscopic work. I think it had to do with limited spacing (I think less than 4 mm between ball and socket). Wagner was great though and he recommended that I see a PT that’s had a lot of experience with FAI and hips. That was Mark Ouellette in Eugene, OR where I lived. He gave me lots of great info and he even studied with Phillipon. He recommended cortizone, and possibly fake synovial fluid until I was ready for a new hip or RS.

In September I got a cortizone injection on the left hip and instantly had relief. The gait got better, I played a little bit of light soccer, ran a little,… all the while knowing that I’d be looking at major surgery sometime in my future. It gave me a little reprieve from the pain, which I did not realize was that bad until it was gone. I think the pain was associated with a labral tear, but have no images to prove it. During the reprieve, I thought I ought to get busy and start looking at the next option, RS.
 

January 21, 2011- Left Hip Resurfacing

I have my left scheduled for the 22nd of Feb by Pritchett in Seattle. My right will follow 6 weeks later. I was fine with all of this until I started reading the pre-op details and then I started getting a little freaked out. The way I deal with that is to remind myself of all the very positive stories here on the website and all the positive info from the doc. He was so matter-of-fact and confident about my hips that I feel pretty much run-of-the-mill. He does about 6 RS’s a week and has over 2600 now. He was researching this stuff in the 80s so I feel very confident with him. It’s still surgery though.

February 25, 2011

I just got home yesterday from the hospital, had a BHR placed on the left side by Pritchett at Swedish Ortho Institute on Tuesday afternoon (2/22/11). I was super anxious and now I’m just trying to get my guts back in place from all the meds. I don’t think oxycodone and I agree. I’ll send more info later but for now, here’s a summary:

Bests – 1. Ice chips never tasted so good in recovery
2. Warm blankets never felt so good in recovery
3. Never knew hospital meatloaf was that good
4. Unloading 4 solids meals with prune juice and coffee never felt so good
5. Having my beautiful wife be at my bedside the whole time

Worst – 1. Pre-op anxiety for a whole freakin week
2. Recovery shakes
3. First PT session, made my cry like a baby, made my wife almost pass out
4. Drive home,5 hours with traffic and snow
5. First night at home, kids wigged out, nausea, everyone saying, “what the hell did we get ourselves into?”

Today is much better. My Dad reminded me, like many of you here, that recovery is not exponential or linear, you have good days and you have bad days.

March 14, 2011

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since surgery and I am doing about as well as should be expected. Sitting in a hard chair is still a little tiresome for the left flank. Probably due to residual swelling. I’m walking with a cane, but not using it much, or at least trying to not put much weight on it. When I walk without it I have a swagger, which I think is more fear than much else. My PT thinks its more of a subconscious disconnection due to capping the surfaces with something that isn’t bone. There really isn’t any pain with rest. I do get some discomfort if I walk too long, or put too much energy into my exercises.

I went to my kid’s soccer practice tonight where they practiced with the North Eugene High Team and it was great for me since I didn’t have to coach. Also the kids are beginning to connect with the high schoolers where they will be next fall, so it was good all around. I wanted so badly to get out there and play, but stood on the side with my cane and did my simple dance steps to work the new hip. With time I might be out there again, but I might not and that’s just the way it goes. Even if I do no. 2 this fall, I will have a solid 1.5 years from now before playing an impact sport like soccer. With the 1.5 years since I’ve played, that will be 3 years without playing. A lot changes in 3 years and I’ve lost any drive to play soccer with people who are super aggressive and rough. It’s sad because a lot of those people are 50 years old, 10 years older than me and they still don’t understand what’s important in life

April 13, 2011

7 weeks Post op
It’s been 7 weeks since I had surgery on the left hip and it feels really good. Pretty much no pain at all in the hip. None in the leg like I had previous to surgery. Problem now is that the right hip is hurting because I’m pushing the range of motion on the left and it works the right over. I get pain under my knee cap and down the side of the leg. Weird how I just got used to it in both legs and hobbled around not really knowing I was in pain. Sucks.

Oh well, I plan to get the right done some time in the next few months before my insurance costs go up next year. My PT is very happy with my progress and so I am I. However, I still can’t tie my shoe very well. Some day.

August 23, 2011 – Right Hip Resurfacing

Day of Surgery No. 2 (August 23rd Right Hip Resurfacing)
Much of the 2 days prior to surgery were spent wandering around Seattle’s waterfront stewing about the upcoming surgery. I knew I had already done it before, but that didn’t help all that much. I had a lot of anxiety the day prior. Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday morning at 0730, but I was required to be there at 0540. I don’t think I slept much at all the night before. You know you’re anxious when you get up before the alarm clocks go off at 0500.

September 13, 2011

Three weeks ago I was in the hospital watching a movie with my wife sitting next to me in the huge hospital bed. I was falling asleep and missed half the movie and we had to be careful with all the lines coming in and going out of me. The nurse “murse” was from Nigeria. He was pretty cool, sort of inspired me to become a murse. He was there on the first hip I had in February. On the first go round I told him “I think I’m getting backed up” and he said well, “order some coffee and prune juice and if that doesn’t work, we’ll put a suppository in.” Not sure why that’s inspiring, but maybe it is was because of his matter of factness. The second hip surgery was much easier.

So today, I walked/caned if you will, from my parked car to the office about a half mile distance, and then at lunch went a few blocks for a burrito, and then back to the car at the end of the day. As I worked into the stride, it got easier and things loosened up. Tunes on, walking, and sun out, saying hello to everyone. Felt pretty damn good. I can feel things starting to get normal again and it just feels great. Starting PT tomorrow and looking forward to it. I consider the PT more than a physical therapist, he’s funny, and we always have a good time joking around. Looking forward to it.

I’m able to sleep on my operated side and roll around in bed, still on the raised toilet, but that’ll stay with the posterier restrictions. Bruising is now in the knee and calf, pretty ugly, and it’s kinda tendor. Next will be 1 mile walks to the PT’s office, then the bike, then the unicycle, then skiing (if my insurance doesn’t take all my money first), maybe I’ll take up surfing.

February 21, 2012

I am at 6 months for righty and one year for lefty and I’m doing everything I expected to be doing.

March 26, 2012

I’m closing in on 7 months also since RBHR. I started running a bit about 2 months ago. I think it was a touch early. I started doing some moderate uphill sprints and it felt great, but the downhill was probably not the best. After about 3 miles, I’d get a little pain in the front of the hip. Enough that I would just stop running and walk for awhile. I think I need to do more hip strengthening work. I’m hoping it will go away with time, but I’m also like MrHappy in that I’m fine with shorter distances and happy to just get out and exercise.

June 20, 2012

I feel good today, but a bit sore. 2 days after, which is always a little more sore for muscles and such. No pain whatsoever down deep. I’m just working the soft tissue a lot.

The idiot hit me square on in the side of the chest/arm when I was in the air and thus I landed on my side. No direct impact to the hip, but I had that crunchy/popping spine feeling with the impact. I still think it’s really strange to only have muscle/soft tissue soreness after soccer. So many years I would hobble around for 3 or 4 days in near agony, thinking that I was just getting old at 40.

I’m 8 months on no. 2 and 16 months on no. 1.