Beginning the Journey...

[EdK]

Hello, and thanks for this site -- I believe this will be most helpful in our journey to better health. Although the story I'm about to tell is probably all too familiar with all of you, I beg your indulgence and look forward to your experience on this subject.

My wife has been an athlete (runner, cyclist) for many years and a few years ago started to develop a great deal of pain in her thigh when running. She is 'doctor-adverse', so she has tried all kinds of self-therapy treatments to ease the pain. Finally I convinced her to see a doctor and get x-rays to at least rule things out, but not surprisingly it turns out that she has bone-on-bone osteoarthritis in her right hip. The doctor said that a hip resurfacing or replacement would be in her future, but recommended that she put it off for as long as possible (she just turned 50). However, the pain is getting quite bad and I think we're less than 12 months away from a hip resurfacing.

Unfortunately, my wife doesn't have any health insurance (we're recently married and she didn't have any when we got married). And of course the pre-existing condition precludes health insurance from benefitting her in this situation anyway. So it appears that going overseas to have this procedure done may well be in the cards. Of course like everyone else I want to get the best doctor and best procedure for my wife at the lowest cost. And so our journey begins. Thanks in advance for any advice, stories, experience, doctor recommendations, etc. etc!

[Pat Walter]

Welcome to you and your wife.

Her story is similar to many of our stories.  I am now a 63 year old female that had my hip resurfaced with Dr. De Smet of Belgium when I was 61.  I started with pain in my hip at 50 and tried everything from shots, chiropractor, herbs, massage, etc.   Eventually, there is only one solution - a new hip.  I did not want the THR they were trying to give me and waited 10 years too long.  I did not have health insurance and due to preexisting conditions could not get any either.

Please don't allow your wife to sit in pain for the next 10 years.  You do less and less until your only acitivity is sitting in a chair.  I could not sleep at night even with the best meds like Vicoden etc.

If I had insurance, I still would have choosen Dr. De Smet.  He is one of the best hip resurfacing surgeons in the world. He has done over 3000 hip resurfacings and over 3000 THRs.  Unfortunately, due to the dollar dropping in value, the cost of going to Belgium continues to increase.  It cost my husband and I a total of $18,000 to the medical portion, the plane fare, housing and food in 2006.

I used my credit cards to get to Belgium and will spend most of the rest of my life paying them all off. It was the best financial investment I made in my whole life.

If money is tight, you could consider going to Dr. Bose of India. Also on of the best in the world.  Vicky Marlow that helps me with the website went to Dr. Bose.  She can help anyone considering going to India with information.  I think you can still do Dr. Bose for $10,000 to $12,000 total.

As far as I am concerned, those are about the best options.  Others have gone to Dr. Bala, Dr. Malhan in India and have been happy, but Dr. Bose is used the most.  The other Indian doctors are even less money. http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php

You can read many stories from patients of all these doctors here  http://www.surfacehippy.info/hipstories.php  the stories are all from people that have been there and done that, some very recently.

I have a complete 65 page book I wrote about going to Belgium and my experience. It is a free download here  http://www.surfacehippy.info/belgium&mybhrebook.php

The easiest way to start is to write to Dr. De Smet and Dr. Bose via email and attach your x-rays in a digital format.  If you don't have them that way, you can take digital photos of them from the real x-rays by holding them up to a window without the sunshining on them.  Make them about 500 pixels wide or high. That is a good size.

Dr. De Smet and Bose do free evaluations and normally veyr quickly. They will tell you if you are a candidate or not. The are very friendly and will answer all your questions - no matter how many.

The UK doctors like McMinn, Treacy also do overseas people.  The total cost for a lady recently with Mr. Treacy was bout $28,000 I think.

The cheapest in the US would probably be Dr. Gross who is very experienced. He was about $25,000 the last time I checked.  http://www.surfacehippy.info/costcomparison.htm

I hope that starts you on your journey.  You will probably want to read the articles here too   http://www.surfacehippy.info/visitorguide.php  It will give you a good overall quick education.

Please keep in touch and let us know if we can help further.

Good Luck.

Pat Webmaster/Owner Surface Hippy

[EdK]

Thank you so much for your reply, Pat -- your site has so much tremendous information and we'll be visiting regularly to digest it all. I've made a donation via PayPal to show my appreciation. We will take your advice and get digital versions of our x-rays and send to Drs De Smet and Bose to kick things off.

One more bit of information that I should mention is that my wife evidently has small (smaller than normal?) hip sockets, according to the doctor who reviewed the x-rays, so I hope that won't be a problem in getting a hip resurfacing, since we definitely want to go that route vs. a THR. Might you point me in any direction regarding unique pre-exisiting conditions (e.g. small hip sockets) on your site?

Thanks again, and we'll be back with more questions I'm sure.

[Pat Walter]

Hi

Thank You for your kind donation.  It will help me keep Surface Hippy hosted and help pay for the many programs and software I use to keep Surface Hippy up and running.  Thanks again.

One lady with very small hips was recently done by Dr. De Smet.  I can't remember which US surgeons told her she could not be done since she was so small.  Not true if you use the experienced doctors.  There was a lot of converstation on the large Yahoo Surface Hippy Discussion Group about it.  The group is now in moderated mode and there is much infighting happening. You might however, want to join anyways to have more sources to learn from. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/surfacehippy/


Just make sure if one doctor tells you NO - continue looking until you have heard from a handful of the really experienced doctors.

Good Luck and Thanks again.

Pat