Ioannis Hip Resurfacing Dr. De Smet 2006
Fri Feb 23, 2007
Hi there,
I am Ioannis from Greece and in August I will be 14 years old. I had left hip AVN since early 2005, diagnosed after five months and for one year and a half I used crutches. I was told by the doctors here that I have to wait until my bones will be mature enough in order to do something about the collapsed hip of mine. Then I wished I was a few years older so that I didn’t have to go through my teenage years on crutches. So at this point I believe you have an advantage over me. At this point was that my godfather found out about the surfacehippy group and we became aware of the hip resurfacing procedure. It didn’t take long for us to understand that it was the best alternative if I wanted to live my youth as a normal teenager. We sent my X-rays to Dr. DeSmet in Gent, Belgium and also emailed Dr. Bose in India to have their opinion about my case. Fortunately my bone was good enough (on the limit) for a resurfacing and this happened on December 5th last year, thanks to Dr.De Smet who did all his best so that I didn’t have a THR instead. I was really anxious about the operation but I received really good care and I was in great shape after 10 days when I flew back home. I spent six weeks post OP with my old crutches because I wasn’t allowed to step on the operated leg and afterwards I gradually put weight on it. Now I can walk full weight using just one crutch mainly because of a limp which still has to be worked out with physiotherapy. I feel great that I can go to school on my own and generally I believe I will be soon healthy as before the AVN. All I have to advise you is send your X-rays to top resurfacing doctors and ask for their opinion as soon as possible. I hope the best for you and don’t be afraid of the operation in case that you are good for resurfacing.
God be with you, Ioannis.