Hippy hippy shake
I'm slated to go into the hospital next week for replacement of my right hip due to degenerative arthritis.
I'm 50, in reasonably good shape and health and my wife is a bodywork professional (she's a European Rolfing Association certified Rolfer, if anyone's interested). I am more flexible than average and have been fairly active (martial arts 2-3 times a week, hiking or biking almost every weekend, 1-2 times a week in the gym as well) until this past year when the hip has really gone gimpy; steadily increasing pain and occasional failure to operate properly. I'm on daily pain meds (Metamizol 3 times a day) now and walking with a cane.
The doc will take off the head of the femur and remove the socket of my pelvis. Then the surgery will replace the head with a titanium allow ball, set on a shaft that will extend into the thighbone itself. The new acetabulum(?) will socket into a stainless steel cup attached to my pelvis.
I'll be in the hospital for about a 7-10 days (physical therapy starts the first day post-op), followed up with 2-3 weeks of in-patient rehab and 2 more of outpatient rehab.
The surgeon is highly recommended, probably one of the top 10 in Europe according to my GP) and the clinic (at Bad Abbach) if affiliated with the University of Regensburg and is supposed to be one of the best around.
I'm not particularly anxious about the surgery (it'll be my third major operation in 20-some-odd years), but my wife is very, very stressed. She's never had to deal with anything quite like this before (we've been together about 7 years).
I AM looking forward to not having the pain anymore and being able to get back on with my life.
I should have 'puter access at the hospital and rehab clinic and I'll post updates from time to time.
I'm 50, in reasonably good shape and health and my wife is a bodywork professional (she's a European Rolfing Association certified Rolfer, if anyone's interested). I am more flexible than average and have been fairly active (martial arts 2-3 times a week, hiking or biking almost every weekend, 1-2 times a week in the gym as well) until this past year when the hip has really gone gimpy; steadily increasing pain and occasional failure to operate properly. I'm on daily pain meds (Metamizol 3 times a day) now and walking with a cane.
The doc will take off the head of the femur and remove the socket of my pelvis. Then the surgery will replace the head with a titanium allow ball, set on a shaft that will extend into the thighbone itself. The new acetabulum(?) will socket into a stainless steel cup attached to my pelvis.
I'll be in the hospital for about a 7-10 days (physical therapy starts the first day post-op), followed up with 2-3 weeks of in-patient rehab and 2 more of outpatient rehab.
The surgeon is highly recommended, probably one of the top 10 in Europe according to my GP) and the clinic (at Bad Abbach) if affiliated with the University of Regensburg and is supposed to be one of the best around.
I'm not particularly anxious about the surgery (it'll be my third major operation in 20-some-odd years), but my wife is very, very stressed. She's never had to deal with anything quite like this before (we've been together about 7 years).
I AM looking forward to not having the pain anymore and being able to get back on with my life.
I should have 'puter access at the hospital and rehab clinic and I'll post updates from time to time.
posted by Carolus Hereticus | 4:24 PM
2 Comments:
After getting some commentary out of my system, I think one "very" is sufficient. Our GP here in Eschenbach was so breezy and confident, the orthopedist I am Rolfing seems so confident, that I have really taken it as "Doctor's orders" to be breezy and confident. If they were concerned, bless Deutsche Ehrlichkeit (German Honesty), they would have said so.
Meanwhile, I'm looking for a copy of "Singin' in the Rain" for us to enjoy next week...
It's not a stainless steel cup, it will be a ceramic cup, into which a cobalt alloy ball will fit, drilled into the upper femur after the greater trochanter has been sawed off. As both the acetabulum and the greater trochanter are at this time dysfunctional (as in rotten and arthritic) this is a Good Thing.
I'm still trying to figure out what muscles they work through and what they do with the joint capsule!
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