John’s Hip Resurfacing with Dr. Gross 2008

December 7, 2008

Happy to be on the other side of the resurfacing surgery. Experience with Dr. Gross was excellent, small hospital catered to hip patients, food was, well hospital food, but not too bad.

Tips to those that follow:

1) Stay at the Residence Inn, better than the Marriott. We stayed at M Courtyard before and during (my wife) and we moved into the Residence Inn on discharge.

2) If possible, stay a few days post discharge. I am glad I did not have to do anything
yesterday than do my walks, exercises and watch movies. We live in Toronto and the prospect of going back to the ice and snow just was not appealing (actually still isn’t)

3) Order a lazy boy through Eric at the front desk. $36 for min 2-week rental well worth it, even if we are only here 3-4 days. Makes it much easier to sleep and get up and down.
Actually slept well last night.

4) Take the meds they offer…and take them for a few days post op. KarenZ warned me not to skip meds day 2 and I took her advice thankfully. If you get too painful it hurts your progress and puts you behind the curve. Plenty of time to get off the meds later.

5) Bring sweat pants with snaps on each leg seam. These make it easier to dress and to apply the ice machine.

6) Go slow, Dr. Gross tells you, the therapists tell you, so do it. I know we all feel like we are the exceptions to the rule, but the reality is we probably are not…..so take it easy and in the long run, we probably all end up at the same place.

I was up in the air on the cemented/uncemented decision until I met with Dr. G in his office. He is just so logical, detailed and convinced that uncemented in better that I was happy to go that way.

I guess I was mostly impressed my Dr. G, however he makes good points:

1) Total hip replacement does not use cement
2) Even cemented only uses cement on the femer side
3) actually seeing the hardware in itself is convincing
4) he has done over 400 u/c with no difference in outcomes…..
5) if bone growth is good, it could last for life
6) there is always excess cement, and where does that go?
one less foreign substance in your body

February 16, 2009

I am from the GTA, but went down to Columbia and had Dr. Gross do a hip resurfacing on me Dec. 4/08.
He told me I had FAI, no one here in Canada had told me that, and he was able to handle that issue quite easily during the surgery. I have heard that OHIP has paid for FAI treatment in Colorado, so if you are having trouble you may consider that route. I do not think you need to treat the FAI separately as with the right surgeon it can be handled during the resufacing surgery. I am feeling great and would stronly recommend Dr. Gross.