The First of Two Hip Replacements

Today, I undergo the first of two total hip replacements.  My left hip gets replaced today.  If everything goes as scheduled, my right hip will be replaced on April 8.  I have to tell you, with all the pain I've been experiencing, I'm ready.

I've known for some time that I was going to have to get hip replacements.  About 10 years ago I slipped on some steps and tore some muscles in my leg.  The orthopedic doctor that looked at my x-rays said, "Do your hips hurt?"

Backing up a bit, I used to play a lot of basketball up to the age of 35.  When I'd finish playing for the day, my hips would hurt to the point where I'd have to take ibuprofen or a muscle relaxer to help relieve the pain.  I told the doctor, "Yeah, they used to hurt a lot when I'd play basketball."

"Look here," he said as he pointed to the X-Ray showing some gnarly looking things protruding from my hip joints.  "You've got bone spurs in your hip.  You're going to have to get hip replacements by the time you're 50."  

I made it past 50, but it wasn't long before I began to notice a large drop in mobility, especially in my left hip.  I was having trouble putting on socks and shoes.  I couldn't crouch any longer, and I couldn't bend to pick things up very well.  I knew it wasn't long before the hip replacement would come into play.  

Beforehand, I went and got a physical and my doctor wanted me to go through a total heart test, since I'd never had one before.  And that resulted in an angiogram, which found that I had a healthy heart, little to no blockage in my arteries and full blood flow throughout my body.  You can read about that here.

With a clean bill of health, I went to see the noted local orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ralph Congdon.  I've known Dr. C. for a number of years as his son, Craig, ran an audio/video store here in the Quad's for a few years before selling out and moving to Denver.  In fact, the Congdon's were kind enough to offer their Wisconsin north woods cabin for our honeymoon when Cindy and I got married nearly 14 years ago.  (Cabin is a loose term - the place is nicer than our house!) Dr. C. told me that he was turning me over to a colleague, Dr. Joe Martin, who was a joint replacement specialist. 

Dr. Martin saw me a few days later and ran me through some tests.  He looked at the X-rays and said, "Did you use to play a lot of court sports when you were younger?  Tennis, racquetball?"

I said that I used to play some racquetball, but I used to play a lot of basketball when I was young and in shape.  He said, "Ah!  Well, the deterioration in your hips shows that there was a lot of side to side movement."  And there is a lot of side to side movement in basketball.

Dr. Martin cautioned that he didn't want to replace the hip so soon because I was a "young" guy and he didn't know if the hip replacement would last my lifetime.  And at that point, he was just talking about my left hip only.  He said, "The last thing we want to do is have to go in and replace your hip again in 20 years." 

I went back to see him another time in the fall and he was still cautioning in getting the hip replacement at my age.  "It's your call, however," he said.  "If it gets to a point that it's getting to be too much pain, or when it begins to wake you up when you're sleeping, then it's time to replace the hip.  But my recommendation is to wait." 

In the meantime, I began to notice a loss of motion and reduced flexibility in my right leg.  I thought, "Uh, oh.  My right hip is beginning to show the same signs."

In early December, I was reading an article in the Quad City Times about Dr. John Hoffman who worked at Orthopedic Specialists in Davenport.  The article was about a 52-year-old guy who had a total hip replacement in December of 2007 and another total hip replacement in January of 2008.  Five months later, this guy was playing men's league soccer.  Well, that certainly piqued my interest - not because I was looking to play soccer after my hip surgery, but because the guy did TWO replacement surgeries in a month!

I decided to call Dr. Hoffman and make an appointment, primarily for a second opinion.  I went in three days before Christmas and met with Dr. Hoffman and his assistant, Aaron Schulze.  We talked for a while and Dr. Hoffman did some flex tests on me.  He said, "My goodness, you're so stiff in that left leg!"

He was going to contact Dr. Martin's office for X-Rays, but decided to go ahead and take some for himself.  As I was in talking with Aaron after the X-Ray procedure, Dr. Hoffman came in and put the slides on the lighted screen.  He said, "If you hadn't told me that your left hip hurt more than your right, from looking at these X-Rays I would bet a million dollars it was your right hip that needed to go first."  

He said he detected a cyst in the left hip joint and said, "We need to get that taken care of as soon as we can."

Suddenly, what started out as a second opinion became the start of the full blown procedure. 

Dr. Hoffman explained that he only did the procedure on Wednesday's and I looked at a calendar on his wall.  I said, "How about January 21?"

Dr. Hoffman said, "You know, I just finished doing a television interview with Channel 6 where they were asking me about all the broken bones and dislocated joints because of people falling on the heavy ice we've had."  He explained that I'm going to have to use a walker, then a cane to get around after my surgeries.  He said, "You're going to have to get over to physical therapy and I'd feel much better if you went out when there wasn't a lot of ice and snow.  I don't think this stuff is going to be melting anytime soon."

He was right - we didn't lose our ice or snow from December until mid-February.  

The first thing he said was, "You've got to lose weight."  Now, I'd been splurging on food and drink since I'd gotten the clean bill of health over a year ago and when I stepped on the scales I was completely surprised at my weight.  Let's say it was eye-popping.  He said, "You need to lose 50 to 75 pounds before the surgery."  He talked about bariatric procedures, but that's more for the morbidly obese.  I don't think I quite qualify as that - yet.  He talked about simple diets, including the Atkins diet.  But in order for the hip replacement to work, I had to lose weight, plain and simple.  

Dr. Hoffman left the room and a few minutes later one of his nurses comes into the room.  She said, "Dr. Hoffman wants to get you a cortisone shot in your hip to help with the pain."  She looked through her calendar and said, "How about January 7th?"

I said I was going to be out of town for a week during that time (Las Vegas).  She left for a moment and then came back into the exam room.  She said, "What are you doing at 9:45 tomorrow morning?"

A few moments later, another nurse comes in and said, "OK, I'm here to schedule you for your replacements."  I thought it was sort of odd, considering that Dr. Hoffman was telling me I had to lose 50 to 75 pounds before the procedures.  The what was really odd was that she proposed March 4 as the first surgery date.  

I said, "Wait a minute.  A few minutes ago, Dr. Hoffman was saying that I needed to lose 50 to 75 pounds before the surgery.  And I don't think I can drop that much weight in a little over two months."

The nurse sort of panicked and said, "He said that?  Really?"  I told her he had and she left the room.  

A few more moments passed and Dr. Hoffman and the nurse re-entered the room.  I said, "I guess I'm sort of confused.  You're telling me that I have to lose all this weight, but she's trying to schedule me for my surgery on March 4."  

Dr. Hoffman said, "Well, yes.  Theoretically, we'd like for you to lose the weight - eventually.  It's going to do nothing but help you with your recovery.  But we can go ahead and do the surgery as long as you keep losing weight."

So she went ahead and scheduled me in for March 4 and April 8.  Both were tentative in lieu of pre-op tests, but I passed those with flying colors and now I'm ready.

Actually, the cortisone shot was sort of an interesting segment in all of this.  I had to go over two days before Christmas to the Radiology Group in Davenport for the shot.  They put you on a table, mark where they are going to insert the needle, numb you up and then shoot the cortisone into the joint.  I thought they were going to go in from the side, but no.  They go in from the front, near the groin.  Yow!

Dr. Poor, the radiologist who administered the shot, poked the hypodermic needle into me after numbing me up and promptly hit a nerve.  I said, "I've got a tingling in my leg!"  He pulled the needle out and said, "OK, well, I've hit a nerve."  He tried again.  Same thing, major tingling in my leg.  He pulled it out, moved it a bit and tried it again.  Still tingling.  Finally, on the FOURTH try he got in OK.  The only problem was that the needle he used WASN'T LONG ENOUGH!!!  Shit!!!

So, Dr. Poor and the attending nurse were over looking through a drawer for a longer needle.  I overheard him say, "I need the longest needle possible."

The nurse said, "Well, I've got a five inch needle here."

I about came unglued when I heard that.  I said, "Hey, I can hear you guys over here!  I don't know if I really need to hear all this!" 

The procedure began again.  Through all of this, Dr. Poor was asking what I did for a living and when he found out that I was in audio/video sales and he focused on talking about that.  But he would intersperse it with some "play-by-play" of the procedure.  It went something like this - "Yeah, I just bought some new speakers down in Peoria.  I had some old speakers that I bought from an old store years ago.  OK, we're goin' in.  And they had run their course. You might feel a little heat in your leg.  And my wife didn't want to have big speakers.  Almost there..."

I was shaking because I just don't like needles.  In fact, my leg was shaking so much that the nurse had to hold on to it to keep it still.  Finally I said, "Listen, I really don't need a play-by-play here, Doc."

He said, "Oh, well, we're done here."  That was that.  He told me that I'd feel some discomfort in the joint for a couple three days, but after Christmas I should feel fine.  He was right - on Christmas Day I thought I was going to shoot out of my skin a couple of times from the pain.  But the cortisone kicked in and worked very well.  For a month.  I lost the cortisone the last week of January.  I declined to get another shot because I knew I could hold off for a few more weeks before the surgery. 

So beginning at 1 p.m. today, I get a new left hip.  A lot of people have expressed how sorry they were to hear that I was going to have the replacement and I've been saying, "No, no!  Be happy for me!  This damn hip hurts like hell!  I WANT to get it replaced!" 

I'll be on a walker for a few days and then a cane for the days up to the second surgery.  Then it's the same thing all over again in April.  I *hope* to be somewhat back to normal by June and fully recovered by this fall.  But I won't be traveling for three months and during that time I may have to put Road Tips into a semi-dormant stage sometime this spring.  I'll see how that goes, but I will have periodic updates as to my condition.  Plus I need to get caught up on some places I've visited over the past few months. 

Oh!  And I almost forgot - I've lost 20 pounds so far.  My goal was to lose 25 by the first procedure.  And that's completely on diet and with no exercise.  I'd like to lose another 50 to 75 pounds.  And physical therapy and a lot of walking in the coming months to strengthen the hip joints will help.  So I have that going for me.

Comments

[burph]

Good luck Bill. Basketball my ass !! I think it is from all of that porn star like pelvic thrusting.

[burph]

Des would like your old hip to put on the mantle if possible. Thanks

[Dirk]

Good luck Will, and keep us posted.