Dr. Brooks in Cleveland

[Pat Walter]

Hi Pat.. Found your web site and wanted to share my story.
 
I am a 43 female and had a RBHR on April 16th with Dr. Peter Brooks at the Cleveland Clinic Euclid Hospital.  I will be at 6 weeks on Memorial Day.  I have been using crutches since I got home from the hospital and I am hoping to get released to use a cane next week.  I have been doing some limping without the crutches and that has been going well but Dr. Brooks also told me no walking.  I am hoping to get a release to go back to work at least part-time next week and be able to drive.  Please share my story and I would be happy to answer questions of anyone who wants to ask them.  Thanks for creating a great web site.
 
Lori Jarosz, Ravenna, OH

[Pat Walter]

Hi Lori
 
Thank you very much for sending me your story. 
 
I had my hip resurfaced with Dr. De Smet in Beligum March 2006.  They told me that as long as I was limping, I still should be using a cane or a crutch.  I was walking quite a bit after I got home. I was walking about 3/4 of a mile by 10 days after surgery. Dr. De Smet believes in lots of walking as the best PT. 
 
I am happy that you shared your story because Dr. Brooks just wrote to me a few weeks ago to have his name added to my Doctors list.  It is always nice to have stories from patients of the doctors to go along with the listing. 
 
I am an ex- Clevelander.  I moved to Marietta OH in 1981, but spent the first 39 years of my life up in Cleveland. East side and west side.  I am glad that you have a good doctor doing BHRs in Cleveland now.  I did not have health insurance and could not afford surgery in the US and the BHR wasn't approved yet when I had my surgery.
 
I hope things go well for you and you can get back to work soon.  I was able to drive when I first got home because I had my left hip done. I was so happy when I got back from Belgium that the next day I drove to Wal Mart and walked the whole store on my crutch.  I hadn't been able to walk the whole store for years.  I had no pain walking after surgery - just a lot of stiff unused muscles trying to get back into shape.
 
Please keep in touch and send me an update now and then.  Also let me know if I can help in any way.
 
Pat

[Sapita]

Hi Lori.  I am thrilled I found your post!!  I have an appointment with Dr. Brooks for  September 27.  Don't have a surgery date yet.  How are you doing?  Were you happy with your experience?  How long did you stay in the hospital?  Did you go home afterwards or had to stay in Cleveland?  I will be looking forward to hear from you and how you are recovering.

Sapita

[Pat Walter]

Hi Sapita

Lori send me an email and I just posted it for her on the discussion group. She had not joined at that point.  I just sent her an email asking her to join and talk with you or to send you a private email.

Hopefully, she will get my email and respond. I often post the emails I personally receive on the discussion group because I know they are of interest to other people. Since people send them to me and say they will answer questions, I feel it is a good use for them.

I am sorry that she can't answer right away. I do hope she will write or answer shortly.

Pat

[Lori]

Hi Sapita.. I would be very happy to answer any questions you have and share my experiences.  It was by far the best thing I could have done.  I'm sorry I waited so long.  I was in some form of pain for about 3 years and it got progressively worse.  I was scheduled to have a Total Hip Replacement with Dr. Michael Moore of the Solon Cleveland Clinic in May 2007 but I found Dr. Brooks (saw him on TV with a BHR patience.  Contacted Dr. Moore's office and they got me in to see Dr. Brooks in Feb.  I love him and I also think very highly of Dr. Moore.  Needless to say, I had the Right-BHR procedure done in mid-april.  I was in the hospital for 4 days (Euclid General).  I had the choice of going to Euclid or the main campus of Cleveland Clinic.  Both are a little over an hour away from my home in Ravenna.  However, everyone I talked to said Euclid had the better rehab staff and abilities.  I could not have been more pleased at the supreme level of care provided to my by the wonderful staff on the 5th floor.. I wanted to take chocholates but I never made it back up there.  Dr. Brooks or his asstant Phillip comes to check on you every day, sometimes twice to see how you are doing and if you have any questions.

I was able to move around a little on the second day, I think maybe sit in a chair.  Third day they took me down in the afternoon for an ultrasound because of past issues with blood clots and then they had me using a walker and I got trained on crutches on Thur and then released.  My Mom came and took care of me and I borrowed a walker for the first week or so.  My house is basically all on one floor so that made it so much easier.  Once you get past the first week, you can make it.  I required very minimal pain meds in the hospital and even after I came home, probably because I was in so much pain before hand.  I am an avid bowler and had to give that up in Feb and then went to using a cane full time.

Well, I am almost at my 4-month mark.  I still have somewhat of a limp and need to be much more strict with myself and doing my exercises.  They were easy to do when I wasn't working... Oh, yeah.. I was on the crutches for 6 weeks, with NO weight bearing on that hip and I couldn't drive either so my Mom had to play chauffer.  That's one of the reason's I waited until April so my Mom could be with me and help out.

So, I went back to work part time after the six weeks on crutches for 1 1/2 weeks with a cane and some restrictions.  I am a computer support person at two manufacturing plans to I have a lot of ground to cover but couldn't carry anything or do stairs.  I can't do any heavy lifting for at least a year and I have to be very careful to not fall, since I am very accident prone.

I hope this helps as a start.  Dr. Brooks assistant is a great guy and always returns your calls, even for silly questions.  There is very little pain or discomfort.  I have found that sitting in a chair for two long is not a good idea.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have things you don't want to discuss here at pclori@yahoo.com.

[Pat Walter]

Hi Lori

Thank you so much for talking to Sapita.  I know she appreicates it.  Also a lot of other people read the responses too.

You need to be patient. I know you hate to hear that.  I felt much better about about 4 months and then at 6 months.  There seem to be plateaus in your recovery. 

Your recovery will continue to take place even if you don't do a lot of extra exercises.  There have been some people that never did any PT or anything extra.  Everyone eventually ends up in the same place. It just takes time for your body to heal and you can't force it.  I do think the water exercises and stretching help the sore, stiff muscles, but my PT said walking also helps it too.

Good Luck. Next year at this time you will have forgotten about the time it took to get better and just enjoy your great new hip.

Pat

[Sapita]

Hi Lori:
Thank you for answering my message.  I thought all these messages and the board place were virtual!  Imaginary hippy friends.   But it's real!! 
 I have come to learn that the skill of the doctor is most important and so I am trying to decide between Dr. Victor Goldberg at University Hospitals and Dr. Brooks. When I called Dr. Brooks the PA told me he has done 75 HR. Dr. Goldberg is at 95.  Is this a significant difference?  Also Dr. Brooks uses BHR and Goldberg Wright.
I have an appt with both at the end of September.  It seems so far away.  I am constantly in pain and it feels like my life is out of my control, or that my life is controlled by the pain.  Ufff...

[Pat Walter]

Hi Saptia

I just wanted to say that you are right - the people writing on this board are real people.  I sometimes post messages that I have received personally because they answer questions many people often have.

The difference between 75 and 95 hip resurfacings really isn't very significant.  Now if one of them had done 750, that would make a difference to me.  But they are about equally skilled at this point.  A lot will depend on how you feel about the two after you meet them.

There is also not much difference in receiving a BHR or a Wright C+.  Again, the Wright C+ has more sizes available than the BHR.  Most doctors using the BHR will also use the Wright C+ if they need a different size.  One lady I was with ended up with a Wright C+ because Dr. De Smet need a different size that the BHR or she would have had a leg shorter than it should have been.  You can read here http://www.surfacehippy.info/wrightcplus.php  that the Wright C+ has 11 different femoral head sizes as compared to 6 for the BHR.   Both hip devices are similar otherwise.

I hope you will find a doctor that you like and get out of pain as soon as possible. All of us that have had our hips resurfaced know what pain is like.  I waited 10 years before I had a hip resurfacing because I did not want a THR and did not know about hip resurfacing. The pain stops your activities and your life. Most of us were unable to sleep even with meds. After awhile the meds just don't control the pain.

Good Luck.  Pat - a real person with a real hip resufacing.

[Lori]

Pat

Any word on Sapita and her surgery?  It will be interesting to find out which one she went with and how different the after approaches are.

Is that a Springer Spaniel I see in your picture?  I have an 8-yo Liver ESS... She is like my kid!!! only I think she is more spoiled than any kid could ever be!!!

[Pat Walter]

Hi Lori

I haven't heard from Sapita.  Maybe she will get back to me or the Hip Talk group.

Yes, I have one springer spaniel and a mixed springer.  I help the Springer Rescue Group when I can.  We have 15 dogs.  11 from our local shelter. I do their website and help with rescue.  We ended up with the dogs we couldn't find homes for. I was also the Assistant Manager one summer - added too many then. Ours is a kill shelter and way to many are put down.  We have a blind dog, a crippled dog and a bunch no one seemed to want.  I just hated to see them put down. 15 are a bit too much for us any more as we get older.  We have a handful of very old ones 14 1/2 years and our numbers will gradually go down.  We have always had between 4 - 6 dogs during our 28 years of marriage. We started with yours, mine and ours when we were married for 4.  Here are our dogs  http://www.sixdogstudio.com/patsdogs.php

If you like dogs, you might like my A Poet's Corner featuring a lot of my dog poetry and art http://apoetscorner.com/

Pat

[Manofword]

I have sent probably 4-5 people not including myself to Dr. Brooks and all have done extremely well and would recommend him. Personally, I could not be happier at the level of pre-op, op & post-op care. I had an amazing recovery even though this was major surgery. It restored my level of triathlon activity and should keep me active for many years to come. Dr. Brooks and his staff did an excellent job and even in my 1st meeting with him, he took all the time I needed to answer all my question. I had previously seen a THR doc and felt like I was rushed and was little more than $$ on the table. Dr. Brooks has done about 1500 BHR's and his success rate, I believe, is only one failure and that was a patient who was doing leg presses at the gym at only 8 or 12 weeks post-op. Certainly not the surgeon's fault for that failure. I don't think they have had any infections that I'm aware of. If you want someone in the Northern Ohio region with experience, Dr. Brooks trained with Dr. McMinn and started doing BHR's in 2006 when it was first introduced into the U.S.