Katie’s Hip Resurfacing with Dr. Mont 2009
Katie’s Hip Resurfacing with Dr. Mont 2009
January 21, 2009
I had 2 arthroscopic surgeries to repair a labral tear and then open surgery for FAI. The recovery was a beast but I sent my films to Dr Gross and he didn’t see any deterioration of the joint, so I thought it was my best course since it preserved all of my bone. That was 2.5 years ago.
In January of this year, I stood up and almost fell over. I had been doing some PT for tendinosis of my hamstring (which was probably the REAL problem when I had surgeries #2 and #3) and after about 2 months of trying to see if we could fix this new problem without invasive measures, she agreed that it was mechanical and at some point, I would probably need resurfacing or replacement.
I sent my notebook of surgical reports, x-rays, etc. to Dr Mont. He first recommended a cortizone injection which he did and then wanted to wait and see how it worked. Full relief lasted less than 2 weeks. I had surgery on June 11 and I feel better than I have in years. ;D He found bone spurs/osteophytes all around the head of my femur. If you look up bone spurs on WebMD, it says that they often develop in response to the body’s attempt to heal itself. I think, and it’s only my opinion, that my body was not happy with the other attempts to fix what was going on and when I started to have problems in Jan, it was because of this.
I think surgery to repair FAI may work for some but for me, it was a waste of a lot of my time and energy and I wound up in worse shape than before.
10 days post-op with resurfacing, I have NO pain. I haven’t take any pain meds since day 4 and that was Tylenol. Every surgeon has a different recovery protocol and with Mont, the restrictions are in place for 5 weeks. That’s a piece of cake compared to my last surgery which required 6 weeks of crutches. Today, I’m walking with 1 crutch and can stand on both feet with no assistance. Sleep is still the most difficult issue but I hear that’s common and I’m hoping I will be able to sleep on my side in the next week or so.
I traveled from the Denver area to see Mont and thought that would make it harder. Ultimately, the hardest thing about it was getting in and out of the car at both airports. The flight attendants took good care of me and security was a breeze.