Constructing a Hip

Several people have asked me privately if I've found a surgeon for my hip and such. The answer, as a good lawyer will always tell you, is that its complicated. I sent a few orthopedist friends of mine my x-rays. Before seeing the x-rays, there was hope of possibly not doing a total hip replacement, instead doing an osteotomy, where they basically break your pelvic bone and realign the hip socket, or as I said to David, like realigning the wheels on a car so that they will wear evenly. It is still major surgery and the recovery is even harder than total hip replacement, but the benefit is that it saves the natural hip joint and may prolong replacement for hopefully another 20 years.

Unfortunately, the arthritis in the hip joint in my case is too far gone to do this kind of surgery and a total hip replacement is needed, or I need a new tire because the tread is gone. I have found a surgeon--thank you to my mom, who got the opinions of 3 independent people, plus my dr's, plus my friend Brent. The only thing is that the first open appointment is October 27th, so but unless there is a cancellation, I'm waiting until then. I have more research to do since there are metal v. ceramic replacement joints and benefits and detriments to each. On the economic front, I'm thinking that a company that makes these things is not a bad investment, since more joint replacements are going to be done with the aging of the baby boomers (and for people like Floyd Landis and I that have to have them done in our 30's)

I considered doing another blog about my hip, surgery, and recovery, potentially called Constructing a Hip, but I decided that I'll periodically post things in this blog here instead of having multiple blogs.