Continuing participation in barefoot waterskiing?

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I just stumbled onto this site. I have been an active waterskier for over 20 years. I show skied for about eight years and have spent the past 15 years competing in three-event barefoot waterskiing. About two years ago, I experienced an injury while jumping that I thought was nothing more than a pulled muscle. When it didn't go away after four months, a friend who is a physician specializing in sports medicine took a look at it and recommended that I get a hip xray. Turned out that the cartilage in my right hip was gone and hip resurfacing was recommended. I immediately gave up barefoot waterski jumping and all other impact sports and activities. I have skied through the past two seasons and deal with the pain by taking over-the-counter meds and simply putting up with the pain.

I have contemplated having hip replacement surgery (I've consulted with Dr. David Palmer, Dr. Andrea Saterbak, Dr. Scott Anseth, Dr. Tom Nelson, and Dr. Robert Trousdale) and done some research. Dr. Trousdale from Mayo Clinic has performed more resurfacing procedures than all of the other surgeons combined and is my leading candidate to do the surgery when I decide to do it.

I'm writing here to get some feedback from athletes who've been down the resurfacing path. My hesitation in having surgery is that I'm fearful of having to give up my sport I enjoy immensely. I've been told there are risks with dislocation when taking a fall at 45mph or with doing a toe-up start (placing the foot of the leg attached to the resurfaced hip in a toe strap and being towed behing the boat and then planting the opposite foot and coming off the water while being towed by the boat with the foot remaining in the handle). Is the risk of dislocation of a resurfaced hip that much greater than the hip joint that God gave us? What about femoral head fractures after resurfacing when doing something as I describe? Seems like most physicians want to cover their butts and don't want to recommend athletes doing much of anything. I'm curious about the realistic risks with a resurfaced hip in comparison to an original hip joint under similar conditions.

Any feedback anyone can offer is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Pat Walter]

Hi

Just wanted to welcome you to Hip Talk.

I am the owner/webmaster of Surface Hippy and althoughtI have a great BHR that is 2 years old, I am not a waterskier.  I can't offer any info about people with resurfs that are back to barefoot skiing.

I do have a lot of very serious athletes stories listed here http://www.surfacehippy.info/athletes.php  and some people are doing amazing things.

We recently had the power lifters and weightlifters talking about what they can do. 

So I hope there is someone that can address your questions. 

You might also consider joining the large Yahoo Surface Hippy Discussion Group of over 6000+ members.  You might get a response there, but don't remember anyone off the top of my head doing barefoot waterskiing.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/surfacehippy/

I am normally the kind of person that feels if you get rid of pain and can get your life back - maybe it's time to consider some other sports.  I have, however, been reminded by the weightlifters that it is not always necessary to change your lifestyle.

Dr. Bose of India is one of the best hip resurfacing surgeons in the world and does a great many athletes. Some back to marathons in 3 months.  He will give you a free email consultation if you send him your x-rays in a digital format  .jpg  He would be one of the best doctors in the world to tell you if you can return to such a sport.  More so than any of the newer, conservative US doctors.  They just don't have the experience the overseas doctors have and are always afraid of having their patients do things out of the norm.

The overseas doctors have been doing resurfacing since 1997 and much better know what to expect.  My doctor, De Smet of Belgium has done over 3000 Hip resurfacing and over 3000 THRs.  Don't know if I can quite say he has seen it all and done it all - but they have a vast amount of experience.

I would contact Dr. Bose if I were you and get information from a surgeon that knows what limits if any would be placed on you falled at 45 mph on the water.  I think that sounds like hitting concrete to me and could be hard on a new hip. 

The hip resurfacings are the same size as your old hip and supposedly capable of doing what was done in the past - but the body takes 1 - 2 years to heal around the hip.  You are more limited by how your body heals than what the actual hip can take.

I hope you get an answer, but I doubt anyone on this board will be able to give it to you.  I am sorry about that.  You can find Dr. Bose email address here  http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php

That's the best I can do for you - send you to the man that would know.

Pat