Update: November 15, 2019 – 8 Year Anniversary

November 15 will be my 8th anniversary. I’ve got to thank Pat for this site that helped me with the decision. From the day I walked out of NYU Hospital for Joint Disease after bilateral surgery, it has been all just great!

Running is going better than it has in years. Still race and finish at the top of my age group. Same with triathlon. I don’t even think about my hips anymore.

Like I wrote earlier, life is great. I am one happy hippy!

Update: November 15, 2016 – 5 Year Anniversary

Wow, does time fly when you’re having fun.  I had my bilateral surgery with Dr Scott Marwin on 11/15/11.  Being bilateral, I was able to stay at NYU Langone for nine days total having PT three times a day.  On the ninth day I surprised my wife by walking out of the hospital using just one cane.  I was able to open the car door and get in with no help.  I had retired from working as a Union Carpenter in NYC on September 10 and I spent the first six months working on my rehab.  Feeling great, my next thing was to put two additions on my house; a 1 garage with a big attick for storage on one side and a 16 x 16 ft sunroom with a stone fireplace on the other.

Next it was time to start racing again.  My first race was a 5k Thanksgiving race where I got 3rd in my age group. Yahoo, I’m back.  Next was a sprint triathlon in Haleiwa, Hi where I finished 4th in age group.  Then in a mountain bike crash,  I tore a glute tendon.  This gradually caused my to lose strength in my left side. After another stint in PT I got back to short course triathlon racing and it has all been great.  This year I went 8 for 8, 1st in age group in short course triathlon.

I finished this year with a half marathon mountain trail race in California.  It was brutal, steep, one uphill was over 15% grade and over a mile long, hikes up followed by brutal pounding runs back down; over and over.  I thought I had trained to run a 2 hour half marathon and I finished this monster in 2:45.  Over the next week I kept getting more sore.  When I went for a massage, 8 or so days later, my quads and glutes were still sore to the touch.  About three weeks ago, I realized that I had no strength to lift my knees and I’ve been working on that every day.  I’ll finally get back to racing with a Christmas 5k race and a sprint triathon the first week of January.

This has been an great five years.  I wouldn’t have been possible without these shiney new hips of mine.  Without the Birmingham hips, I’d probably be in a wheel chair by now, sitting in front of the tv all day.  Birmingham Hip Resurfacing has definately given me my life back.

Thank you Pat for this great website.  I never would have found out about resurfacing without SurfaceHippy!!!   Thanks to Dr Marwin for the great surgery, the staff at NYU Langone for taking such good care of me,  Pro PT in Garden City, Long Island; they got me back together twice! And to my wife Michelle, who retired two years ago, for sharing this great retirement with me and for all our time together!

Update: October 6, 2016

Finally got in a decent run yesterday.  Just 30 minutes of big rolling hills, but it felt good again.  Quads feel much better, knees still a little funky and the hip and glute muscles are finally starting to feel better.  Today after a good stretching routine, I’ll get out for a 40 mile bike ride.  I usually alternate between run/swim and stretch and stretch/bike, 7 days a week.  When building up my run I go 2 days run/ 1 bike.  I had six weeks for the build up to this California trip and I built my long run up to 2 hours through rolling hills.  I was confident that I could go 2 hours to 2:15 at Big Sur Half.  That race is big rolling hills, but that race was cancelled by the fire in the area.  We found the Berkeley Trail Half and signed up, but this was a whole different race; long steep climbs with steep pounding downhills.  It beat the crap out of me.  I ran/hiked in 2 hours 50 minutes and I beat the second place guy in 60 to 69 by and hour and a half!  It was brutal.

In three weeks I have a 2-12-2 duathlon; much more like what I like to do.  I should be feeling ready to race again by then.

My retirement has been awesome thanks to these hips.  If it wasn’t for HR, I’d be sitting, probably in a wheelchair, watching TV all day.  Instead my wife and I travel all over, mostly to short distance triathlons.  Hawaii, California, Florida, South Carolina, lots of local races.  We are having a ball. This long run/hike was way out of my usual racing.  Took me 12 days to recover.  Yesterday my wife and I did a 40 mile bicycle ride through the mountains.  I had no legs at all.  It was one of the slowest rides I’ve ever done on my favorite route.  Today I ran 40 minutes and finally felt back to my old self.  Swam in the afternoon.  At 66 I am finally giving in to my wife’s demands; she’s making me get a snowblower!

Update:  September 29, 2016

This passed Saturday, I ran the Berkeley Trail Half-Marathon in California.  It was brutal, it was beautiful.  5800 ft of climbing and descending.  The pounding on the downhills left my whole body very sore, but mostly in my quads.  My glutes were worn out after.  Even my biceps were killing me.  My left side has always been a little weaker than my right and I could feel it in the muscles.  But these fake hips came shining through.

It’s been almost 5 years and my fake hips have been nothing but excellent!!

Update:  July 8, 2015

I’m a 3.5 year bilateral veteran and I have been enjoying the hippy life.  Running 3 to 4 days a week, cycling, swimming.  These new hip joints have allowed me to return to triathlon and running with great success.  This spring I finished first in my age group in one of the toughest multisport races in the country, American Ziffingen;  5 mile mountain train run with four climbs, 29 mile road bike with three brutal climbs, 5 mile run, 29 bike, 5 run.  Three weeks later I went to Oahu and competed in an ocean swim race from Sunset Beach to Bonzai Pipeline.  I finished mid pack but it was a great day.  Life is really good with these new hips!

Now I was diagnosed with mild ostopenia in my forearms and lower back.  They usually test your hips, but there was no point in that.  The doctor prescribed Fosimax.  When I checked the side effect I found the ”spontanious femur fractures” is one of the side effects, yikes!

”Femur Fractures

For those taking Fosamax, perhaps the most frustrating side effect is the drug’s propensity to cause fractures of what is one of the strongest bones in the body – the femur. These low-energy fractures, also called stress fractures, often happen when patients least expect it. Some patients reported breaking bones while they were doing normal, everyday tasks such as walking or sitting. Merck said the fractures usually come after weeks or months of groin or hip pain. Researchers are still trying to determine why Fosamax is linked to bone breaks, especially in patients taking the drug for five years or longer. Many scientists theorize the drug shuts down the body’s bone-renewing process and creates more brittle bones.”

Update:  November 14, 2014

Tomorrow will be three years tomorrow since my bilateral HR at NYU Hospital for Joint Disease with Dr. Scott Marwin.  It’s been a great three years.  If I didn’t remember the surgery, I wouldn’t even know I have them.  I run three or four days a week and it all feels great.  Had a great year of short course triathlon and ran a very hilly 15k trail race a week ago.  It left my knees sore but my hips felt fine.  It was the longest run I’ve done in almost 10 years.  Before my new hips, I thought I’ve never run like that again.  I retired when I had my surgery and live couldn’t be any better.  It gets better every day!

I have lurked in from time to time over the years and I always advise anyone with hip issues to come here for information.  Thank you, Pat, for keeping this sight going.  It is a service to all of us.  And thanks to everyone who posts here.  Keep up the good work everybody.

This surgery was so worth it.  My first hip doctor told me to take it easy and learn how to relax.  Dr Marwin told me to go run.  I did and I’ll keep doing it until I can’t do it any more!

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Jim’s Original Story

I’m a 61 year old heavy construction carpenter and I’m having a very hard time doing my job. I’ve had it great for a long time. Working hard, training hard. Racing Triathlons including Ironman, running marathon’s and racing the mountain bike. Today I went out on the road bike and couldn’t even average 15 mph. I’m loosing all my strength and I want to get back to what I’m used to doing.

I ran for almost thirty years until arthritis in my right hip stopped me two years ago. In the past two years I’ve been racing the mountain bike, avoiding running and feeling good. Now, over the past month both my hips seem to be getting worse every day. I’m thinking that I’ll need surgery soon. Once I’m all healed I hope to resume running at a lower level say up to distances of 5 miles to 10K and I plan to focus mostly on long distance swimming.

November 3, 2011

In 12 days I’m having bilaterals with Dr. Marwin. He uses a direct lateral aproach with a anterior dislocation. When I talked to him, he told me that 80% of the surgeons in the U.S. do posterior because that’s what they learned. He said that he learned posterior first and then anterior. He said the direct lateral solved some of the problems with the operation giving better results. He also said that he loves resurfacing because his pateints have such good results. After my meeting with Dr. Marwin, I checked all over the web and found one article interviewing the top surgeons about their approach. Most had very good reasons why the did it their way, but they said that you should choose a surgeon based on his skill, not his approach.

November 18, 2011

This morning I walked about 25 ft further with the walker. This time the focus on on being smooth and steady without the stops to move the walker. It really worked nicely, just like walking with a shipping cart. Also cut out the long term pain medication. Now I only have the on demand which I’m going to limit to right before PT

November 23, 2011

Today was my final day of PT At Rusk. I’m going home in the morning. It has been amazing. I’m 8 days out of surgery. 1 day after surgery they had me up and walking, only 20ft with a walker and it was stiff. Today, I’m walking with One Cane as much as I want, I was out in the hall kicking the soccer ball back and forth with the therapist with no hands holding on to anything, I rode the bicycle for the third time and I even Ran slowly on the treadmill for a few strides until the PT stopped me and made me walk. I never thought this could have worked out so well to this point. I still have a ton of work to do, but I have all the time in the world. This is probably the last post in this thread. I’ll continue to post in the main forum for some time in the future. I’ll have a lot to tell about what an older guy can do with two resurfaced hips.

November 27, 2011

I’m worried that some people will read what an easy time I’ve had going bilateral both at once and get the idea that this is easy. I might have made it appear that way but it’s not. Here are a few things to think about:

1. Most doctors won’t do both hips together so don’t plan on it.

2. There is a significantly higher pain level. I had very good pain management in the hospital and I have a very high pain threshold, but I don’t think everyone should go through it.

3. You will only have one sleeping position. It’s very hard to sleep all night when you can’t roll to either side.
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4. You literately won’t have a leg to stand on. Every time you go into you go into or out of a chair or the bed or toilet you will only have your arms to to lift or lower your weight. Make sure you can handle that.

I just think that my posts below might give the wrong idea that that a bilateral surgery is easy. It’s not and you should really think about and be sure that you are prepared before you plunge right in.

December 7, 2011

I’m only at 3 weeks since my one day bilateral surgery. I still have a lot of tightness but I really have no pain to speak of. I can feel where the implants are and I had an unhappy groin muscle for a couple of days but that worked right out. I’ve never waddled. From the first day walking in the hospital, the PT told me to stand tall, look at something down the hall and focus on not moving side to side. I left the hospital with only a cane and I’m just starting to give up the cane in the house. Walking outside tires my muscles and I usually have to work hard to get back up my two front steps after my daily ten to twenty minute walk outside with the cane.

December 12, 2011

I got a flotation belt and took it to the pool yesterday. It was like a miracle. I walked in the shallow end and it was like I never had a problem. I even slowly jogged with my feet on the pool floor and it felt great. I went to the deep water and jogged in place for twenty minutes. At first it felt more like pedalling a bicycle than running, then I got it more like running, then switched to vertical kicking, back to running, cycling, whatever. It all felt great and it was getting my heart-rate up a little. I did this for twenty minutes then I went back to the shallow water and walked and jogged for another ten minutes. Then, a short swimming set with the pull buoy and I was finished.

December 17, 2011

On day 32 after surgery I walked 2.4 miles in 1:02:00 on the trail by my house.

December 27, 2011

Today is my six week anniversary. I just did a 5 mile walk on a rolling paved bikepath. No cane, no limp, no waddling. The bikepath has mile markers every .25 miles and my first mile was 20.45. After that I only looked at the seconds on my watch and I was surprised when I finished in 1:37:32 that my pace was 19:30. Yippie!

Right now I’m sitting home with the ice on both hips and I’m feeling absolutely Great!

January 24, 2012

I’ve been a heavy construction carpenter in and around NYC for the past 40 years. I’ve been a runner and triathlete for the past 30 years.

I had bilateral BHR by Dr Scott Marwin on Nov 15, 2011. Dr Marwin told me right off the bat that my heavy construction careerer was over. He also told me that I can start back running in 6 months. Seems contradictory at first until you realize how easy running is on your body compared to that kind of work.

It’s five months since my last day at work and ten weeks since my surgery. I never thought about quitting work, but I’m pretty happy about it and very busy working my my rehab.

January 26, 2012

Tuesday was my 10 week anniversary, so this morning, as I started my walk, I decided I needed a new benchmark. I walked one hour out and one hour back for about 6.75 miles. I was feeling great the whole way with none of the muscle fatigue and achiness from my 5 mile walk at 6 weeks. I did get stiff and didn’t realize it until I dropped a glove at around 5 miles and had to bend over to pick it up. Walking felt great and I kept up a good pace.

I finished up with PT at 7 weeks and started at a gym for the first time in my life and now go there 3 times a week starting out on an ellipticalal trainer, first time also, for 22 minutes right now and then moving on to a complete strength workout. It’s all feeling good.

My bicycle is lagging behind but I am getting in a few easy outdoor rides and at the pool I’m just starting to get rid of the pull buoy and learn how to swim again after two and a half years of not being able to kick so I’m really feeling great.

This recovery has been like a miracle. I never thought I’d be feeling so good so soon and I’m looking forward to bigger and better things to come.

February 7, 2012

I was planning to have a rocking report for you, I had my two best bicycle rides last week, a great walk through the hills in the woods near my house and I was working hard on the elliptical trainer. All this left me pretty sore over the weekend and this week is devoted to backing up and starting over. I’m taking it easier, staying off the bicycle, going easy on the elliptical and even keeping my walks a little shorter.

I’ve also gone on a serious diet. I put on quite a bit of weight between May, when my hips finally gave out and November when I had my surgery, especially between Sept, when I had shoulder surgery and stopped working, and November. I found a great app, My Fitness Pal, that lets you add the food you eat and subtract your activities you burn. I’m having fun with it and I’ll be back at my racing weight in time to start running in May.

March 14, 2012

To celebrate 16 weeks today I went for my first 30 mile road bike ride on the new hips. I took it easy: 2:09:34 and everything feels great. Right now I’m sitting here with the ice, which I still do almost every afternoon. I stretch every morning and I’m feeling nice and loose. Most of the time my right side feels like there was never anything wrong. My left is just a little behind; sometimes I can still feel that something was done. No pain though. Oh, I got a slight pain in the left groin muscle once when I twisted funny. Strength is coming back slowly and I couldn’t be happier with my progress so far.

Workouts:

stretching and core; every morning

Walk, swim, road bike, gym; 2 of those every day

54 days until I can run again!

April 14, 2012

I’m at five months and I’ve been putting this off for a while, but I’m starting to feel stronger on the road bike so since my wife was going out for a short ride this afternoon I pumped up my tires, pumped up my shocks and joined her. Nice and easy, staying to the flat single track near my house, it felt great. I’ll start back and little by little it will all come back. It sure felt great to be back in the woods.

April 23, 2012

My surgeon, Dr Scott Marwin in NYC, has been the most liberal of all the doctors I’ve heard of around here. He had me on the stationary bike on day 7, working on the hospital stairs with one crutch the first week,, told me to throw away the cane at 3 weeks, ride outside on both the road bike and mountain bike at 3 weeks, but when I asked him how soon to start running, he said after your six month check-up. I asked ”no sooner” ”no, no sooner, you can run after six months”. That’s two weeks away and my hips are feeling very nearly fully recovered. I’ll be wearing running clothes when I go for the appointment and I’ll run right across the street on the grass in a huge county park. I feel like running fitness will be my problem, not my hips!

May 1, 2012

I’m feeling very good with the workouts I’m doing now and I see Dr Marwin for my 6 month check-up next week so yesterday at the gym I snuck over from the elyptical to the treadmill. I figure that I have to teach my legs how to run again and the treadmill is probably the best place to learn. It took 2 minutes to get to 12 minute pace, then I ”ran” for 2 minutes. It felt pretty clunky. 2 minutes walking then 2 minutes at 10 minute pace, it felt a little better. 2 minutes walking then 2 minutes at 9:30 pace, it felt so good I did another minute and it felt great. Then 4 minutes walking to cool down.

I’ve got to tell you, those were the best 7 minutes of this whole recovery!

May 29, 2012

I’ve been waiting for this, today while ripping through a turn my back wheel slid out and when I corrected and caught it, I rode right into a tree, crashing hard and landing on my hip. No pain, no damage, no problem. In the past I would push all the time on the mountain bike and I’d go down a lot. Over the past few weeks I knew I wasn’t pushing hard enough, today I was. Now, once again I know that I’m not made of glass and I can keep pushing this thing.

June 1, 2012

I ice after everything, but I’ve got to tell you that I feel like the only thing I lack is fitness. My right side feels like there was never anything wrong and my left is just a little behind it. I feel fatigue in the left buttock muscles, but no pain or soreness. I’ve been running (slowly) almost every day this month, alternating between the treadmill where I do 20 minutes increasing turnover, yesterday I got it down to 8:07 per mile for the last 4 minutes, and running on the trail at a steady rate. It all feels good, cycling is about where I expect it to be; improving every week, and my swimming is lagging behind; I’m working on getting rid of the pull buoy but I haven’t kicked in three years so that is going to be the hardest thing.

June 8, 2012

I’m only at seven months post op and I have no issues at all. In fact right this week my left side has caught up to the right and I feel like nothing was ever wrong. I’m feeling really great and pushing this body pretty hard every day. I’m also getting ready for my yearly physical exam.

July 17, 2012

I just passed my 8 month anniversary so today I pushed it a little harder on the road bike. It’s hot out there in New York today and my wife and I got out the door at 6:15, heading for Long Island’s hilly North Shore for lot’s of short steep climbing. At 52 miles we circled past our house and she went in giving me an almost full water bottle. I kept going for another 20 mile loop where I drained that bottle and the half that I had left before arriving home. Today’s eight month celebration was 72 hilly miles in 4:46:00 and after a cold shower and 4 bags of ice on the hips I’m feeling great!

July 30, 2012

For months now I’ve been in the fast lane of the Recovery Expressway. I’ve been rolling and the line graph has been practically a straight line upward. Now we all know that things can’t go like that forever and something had to get in the way. I think it started with last weeks faster running. My hip muscles were sore on Friday after Thursday’s run, but good sore like I had had a good workout. Friday I went to the gym and the pool but Saturday morning my hips were still sore. No problem, I changed the route of Saturday’s road bike ride from the mountains to the hills around the reservoir and planned to take it easy. Ahh, the best laid plans. After the first half hour, the rain started and then came pouring down. I spent two and a half hours riding through the heaviest rain of my cycling career. My left side was pretty sore after the ride and very sore yesterday. I’m back on the anti-infantries, icing and using the heat pad, resting it and just going to the gym and pool until it feels back to 100%. It can’t take that long.

August 3, 2012

I went to the gym, ran on the treadmill; 30 minutes easy then did my full weight workout with the leg work a little lighter. When I got home I remembered that I had to get over to the park. We ripped it for two hours and I feel great. Right now I’m icing the hips, cooling off and watching woman’s beach volleyball. Life is good around here!