A surgery date with Mr McMinn

[Granton]

My right hip was resurfaced (BHR) almost fourteen years ago. It has been a huge success - it allowed me to make the most of my fifties and early sixties. The left hip has now gone bad and I had an appointment yesterday with Mr McMinn and some of his staff.

I have a date for surgery on 8th October.

I am well aware of the issues with MoM resurfacing and in fact my sister had a catastrophic experience with a BHR (not fitted by Mr McMinn). She has now been revised to a THR and had a lot of pelvic bone grafting.

In spite of that I am going ahead with this because a) Mr McMinn's results are 98% survival  at 15 years and b) my own outcome has been so good. I have been very active - lots of tennis, for example and never had a moment's worry about it.

With respect to metal ions etc, my father had two McKee - Farrar MoM THRs fitted when he was 56. These are the same metal as is used for the BHR. He had them until he died 34 years later and never had any trouble with them. Nor any of the side effects people worry about from metal ions.

Obviously, anecdotes like this have no value as scientific evidence. However, it does show that problems will not necessarily arise.

[Jason0411]

You must have had your BHR about the same time as my brother Nick. Both he and I would not hesitate to go back to Mr McMinn for our other hips. Even though mine nearly went wrong but that was my fault for over doing it. All good now though.

[Pat Walter]

Granton

Welcome to Hip Talk. Thank You for joining and letting us know about the success for your original BHR.

I am sure your next hip will be just as great as the original BHR.  You certainly can't go wrong with Mr. McMinn.  He is excellent.

I look forward to your posts and updates after your surgery.  I will post your story on the main website after your second BHR for everyone to read. There are almost 1500 unique visitors a day to the website and I think the personal stories show the wonderful results of hip resurfacing.

Pat

[Dannywayoflife]

Hope the second goes as well as your first did mate! It's so true about the safty of these devices there is so much very long term associated data I'm amazed that the negative media hasn't been shut up by it!

[Mike D]

Hi Granton,
You can't go wrong with a surgeon of McMinn's calibre. Those stats for your dad's THR's are amazing-great reading for the people here  like me that have them.

[Granton]

Hi All,

Thanks for the encouragement.

I do not feel half as nervous going into the second one, because the first has been so life-changingly good.

Mind you, you can forget a lot of detail in 14 years. I have been reading some of the recovery stories on the site. I cannot remember mine being painful post-op after the first couple of days. I am fairly sure that I took no painkillers after about day three. And you would not characterise me as "brave". My wife certainly wouldn't. Maybe I have just forgotten it.

Although I am quite happy with the 8th October date, I have said I would be prepared to take an earlier date if they get any cancellations. Just want to get it done now.

Is there anything useful one can do to prepare?

David
Rt BHR 11/11/99
Lt BHR scheduled 8/10/13
Mr D. McMinn

[Lauren Lee]

Fourteen years!! That is great. 8 weeks here and I already know I would do it again if I needed to. Thank you for the encouragement for us new hippy's and we'll be thinking of you as you go forward. You were some kind of a pioneer I would think.Even though you have all of this time since your first one and the memories of the detail may be a bit faded,  it will be interesting to see if you notice differences related to advances and/or improvements in the surgery, meds, therapy etc.
You probably didn't have this site either. It is great support. That alone should help make your second BHR experience even more positive that the first.

[Reno]

Hi David-

It is wonderful to stories like yours and your father's!  It is amazing that his hip lasted so long.  I too, am a newbie here and I am scheduled for my first THR surgery in 8 days, on Aug 26th.  And, I can hardly wait, although I am scared to death...  Hopefully, your date will be moved up from Oct 8th.  My original date was Oct 7th and I was at my wits end, now knowing how I would survive the pain for 3 months.  There was a wait list of over 40 people, with me at the end!  :-(
But, almost three weeks ago my doctor's scheduler called me and said there had been a cancellation for Aug 26th and asked if I would like it.  I still don't know why I was given the cancellation date, but I feel so blessed.  Perhaps the same will happen for you. 

I will be following your progress. Take care!
Reno

[Granton]

Hi Reno,

All the best for 26 Aug.

Pain-free soon!

David