After meeting with Dr Klug, and being told that his waiting list was 5-6 months in all likelyhood, I had resigned myself to hobbling around on this leg until after Christmas.   In the meantime, I was deluging him with emails asking various questions, all of which he answered quickly, and never gave the impression that I was being a bother (I most likely was... :)  )

In one email, I had asked him what the next steps were - what happened between now and surgery.   In response, he gave me the number of his surgery coordinator, and promised that he would work on getting me taken care of.   I debated calling the coordinator, but figured that since he gave me her number, it was ok.   So I called, and was promptly told "we have an opening on Saturday, August 31st. (this was on August 22nd)   Do you want it?"     Long story short, I did NOT take the opening for this Saturday, but have been scheduled for surgery on September 21st with Dr. Klug.   That will give me time to coordinate things at work and at home.   Less than a month to go, and I can't wait to be done with this hip as it is...

A bit of background - I'm a 39 year old father of two, and have had arthritis in my right hip for about 5 years.   I currently have two bone spurs on my femur (right where the ball forms) and little cartilage left in the bottom of the pelvic notch.    when I was 17, I had hip surgery to remove a cyst that had formed inside the head of my right femur.   The Doctor had told me that I would eventually develop arthritis in that hip - it was only a matter of time (and I got 20+ years out of it, and that's not bad).   My wife is looking forward to me being able to go for walks with her again, and my 10 year old is excited that I may finally be able to keep up with him again.  :)

Big thanks to Pat for running this site.   Lots of helpful information here, and lots of encouraging news from those who have gone before.


Chris