June 6, 2010

I’m about to do my LBHR with Dr. Philip Schmitt in metro Detroit. He’s done about 700 BHRs so far, and according to his office he’s got a great success rate – only 6 failures/revisions.

I apparently was born with femoracetabular impingement & have arthritis (10y+ at 41 y.o), and over the last year or so it’s degraded on the left side to where I can’t easily lift the leg up stairs, or do the other stuff ya’ll know full well about. It got down to bone-on-bone, and through my anti-inflammatories & light pain meds, it’s been pretty tolerable, so to speak. So this Friday, 6/11/2010, I’ll have the left hip done, followed on 8/13 by the right one. The main reason for not doing both at once was that Dr. Schmitt goes in through the side (lateral?) rather than posterior approaches, and he didn’t want to “roll me up on the stitches” to do the right side. He also practices at a suburban hospital that’s not very convenient for my wife & kids to visit (~40 miles from the house). Once a month, he does surgery at a hospital closer to my house (~4 miles), so that’s what I’m doing. Going in, he’s saying I’ll be out of work/driving for 3 weeks. I’ll be back at work for 5 weeks, then out for 3 with the right side. Looking forward to getting some relief. I’ve been working on a lot of stuff the last two weekends (shrub removals, lawn, oil changes, etc) to try and get that all done before I start rehabbing. As the Bud Lite (IIRC) commercial says, “here we go…” Peace, -Jim

July 9, 2010

4 weeks out from BHR #1, and recovery’s been incredible. I’ve been walking unassisted for ~2wks now, back to work this week, and feeling great. Muscles are weak, which in some ways is surprising but other ways not so much. After all, I didn’t use the left leg muscles all that much in the last year due to RoM issues. Even the incision scarring is receding nicely. I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Schmitt from Commerce Twp, MI. Stability’s really good, except for climbing stairs – that’s when I really notice the weakness. I’m looking forward to getting the other one done on 8/13 and finishing up my return to being a semi-normal human being. 

Sept. 6, 2010

2nd one down – now a full-fledged bilateral hippy! My right leg’s recovery was much more difficult over the first 2 weeks than the left one was. Not sure why, and Dr. Schmitt (aka “The Wizard” according to my wife) said every leg is different. The right was much more painful at the outset, and swelling took longer to go down, even though the bruising wasn’t nearly as bad. At this point, I’m ready to return to work tomorrow, with only a slight limp from stiffness still on the right side, and using PT to knock that out. Happy Happy Joy Joy!