DannyR
new member
It has been a long long year. This is my third hip surgery in 9 months. I completed a half iron man November 2006 and could never stretch out my left groin. Long story short, I had an arthroscopy in March to repair my labrum which did not work but revealed osteoarthritis. Late June, I had a Peri Acetabular Osteotmy hoping to delay hip replacement for up to 10 years. Tomorrow I will wake up with no pain in a joint that quickly became bone on bone.
Tips I've learned over this trek.
1. Find a surgeon you can trust. Don't use the insurance mill, you know the one who is dictating while listening to you. Stay away from those with the glossy photos of all the body builders they've operated on.
2. Find out who will be assisting him, is it a Physicians Assistant (PA) or another Orthopedic Surgeon. I chose between a Doctor doing 200 hips a year and one doing 600. I went with the Surgeon doing less operations hoping my case would be a little more important. I was given the choice of being the first case or 7th case. Thanks to Josephine's post I chose being the first case of the day avoiding any possible cross contamination from 7 previous surgeries.
3. Don't try to change the surgeon's hip selection because of what you've read. All the major hip manufacturers (listed in this web site) are FDA approved and excellent choices. The data on Metal hips causing other problems has not been proven. Typically by the time we are 75, there is so much metal in our blood stream that ultimately it will be difficult to correlate the hip implant with cancer or kidney failure. The poly hips are excellent as well. I'm using a metal hip because that is what my Surgeon is familiar with and the fit is more important than the prosthetic.
4. If you need a Doctor, call the hip manufacturer. Stryker and Encore both will respond via e-mail with surgeons that use their hip. You will get the doctors attention if you tell him you were recommended to him by the manufacturer.
5. Make sure the hospital is a good orthopedic center. Again, the hip manufacturers make this info available.
Say a prayer.
![[Bonesmart.org] THR tomorrow 12/12 Can not wait!!!!](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='240' height='240' viewBox%3D'0 0 240 240'%2F%3E "[Bonesmart.org] THR tomorrow 12/12 Can not wait!!!!")
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Tips I've learned over this trek.
1. Find a surgeon you can trust. Don't use the insurance mill, you know the one who is dictating while listening to you. Stay away from those with the glossy photos of all the body builders they've operated on.
2. Find out who will be assisting him, is it a Physicians Assistant (PA) or another Orthopedic Surgeon. I chose between a Doctor doing 200 hips a year and one doing 600. I went with the Surgeon doing less operations hoping my case would be a little more important. I was given the choice of being the first case or 7th case. Thanks to Josephine's post I chose being the first case of the day avoiding any possible cross contamination from 7 previous surgeries.
3. Don't try to change the surgeon's hip selection because of what you've read. All the major hip manufacturers (listed in this web site) are FDA approved and excellent choices. The data on Metal hips causing other problems has not been proven. Typically by the time we are 75, there is so much metal in our blood stream that ultimately it will be difficult to correlate the hip implant with cancer or kidney failure. The poly hips are excellent as well. I'm using a metal hip because that is what my Surgeon is familiar with and the fit is more important than the prosthetic.
4. If you need a Doctor, call the hip manufacturer. Stryker and Encore both will respond via e-mail with surgeons that use their hip. You will get the doctors attention if you tell him you were recommended to him by the manufacturer.
5. Make sure the hospital is a good orthopedic center. Again, the hip manufacturers make this info available.
Say a prayer.
United States
