Hi, I'm Steve and this is my 1st post.
I wanted to share this mainly because I read so many stories involving difficult recoveries post op from so many folks. Most everyone provides their sex, and usually their age, but what seemed to be missing were weight, BMI, and a general description of activity level going into resurfacing surgery. So, I would like to provide those to you because I seem to be well ahead of the "recovery curve" and maybe I can provide some inspiration.
I'm a male, if you hadn't guessed by the name, 60 years old, 185 lbs., with a BMI @ 25. I was competing in Triathlons up to the 70.3 distance, through 2012. However, by early 2013, I was experiencing pain when I ran. The pain was 360 degrees around my right hip, but worse in my lower back. Unfortunately, this is the area I focused on and after 11 months of chiropractic visits (45), PT visits (20), MRIs and injections into my SI joint from the local Spine Center, I finally got to a physical therapist, who after over an hour of ROM and other evaluative tests, said "We need an x-ray of your right hip"! Sure enough, the x-ray showed severe arthritis.
Around the same time (Nov. 2013), I ate lunch with a friend and biking companion whose limp from a bad hip was gone. He told me all about the wonders and benefits of hip resurfacing and told me to go to surfacehippy.com, which I did that very day!
From that day in November to May of 2014, I read and researched everything I could find. I must also admit I was putting the decision off, largely because I was swimming occasionally, still biking about 100 miles a week and going through most of my daily activities pain free. The only problem was that by May, walking much past 1/2 mile brought on the pain and running more than a block hurt. At this point, I decided to get ahead of this disease and I sent my x-rays to Dr. Gross in Columbia, SC. About a week after sending in my x-rays, Dr. Gross called me and said he saw about 3cm of bone-on-bone in my right hip, but also said he believed that I was a good candidate for resurfacing. We set my surgery up for July 9, 2014.
I kept riding my bike those 100 mile weeks right up until we packed up the car and headed to Columbia, SC.
Today I am 10-days post op and things seem to be happening in three's. I was off pretty much all the narcotics after 3 days, used both crutches for 3 days, one crutch for 3 days and my cane for 3 days. At 9 days, (yesterday) I began walking, including up and down stairs, without the cane or any other assistance! While the first few days post op brought more pain than I ever expected (probably just didn't want to think about it!), I am experiencing very little pain today. I also started walking about 1/2 mile with my cane one week post op. with very little pain.
I am hoping that anyone reading this who is considering resurfacing will go ahead and make the decision to have their hip resurfaced, making the selection of a very experienced surgeon their top priority!
Topic: 10-Days Post Op. - Dr. Gross (Read 2987 times)
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