Re: Resurfacing for CHD?

[Guest guest]

Hi Colette,

I'm glad your pain has gone now with the resurfacing. I feel stuck

between a rock and a hard place at the moment having to make a

decision between a PAO or resurfacing, my OS says I'm eligible for

both but I need to go for a CT scan soon to assess further. I don't

want to 'miss my window of opportunity' as it were. The cartilage in

my right hip is in pretty good nick (which makes me wonder where on

earth the pain comes from) but I do have a cyst on the bone and I

guess in some people the degenerative changes can occur very very

rapidly, as it seems to have with yourself? I'm worried if that

happens to me and I miss my opportunity. I limp with the dysplasia,

which was noticeable since I was very small, my hips sort of 'swing'

oddly at I walk and I'm very self conscious of this. The pain has

become more severe over the last 4 yrs, it jars a lot and I've been

back to the physio a lot to stop crepitace (clicking as you walk).

How aware of the new joint are you? Odd question, is it heavy?

Ooooh, I just need to take a chill pill!! Need to relax, little

scared by all this, but information is better than no information.

BTW - I'm from Scotland, but Boston has always been my favourite

city that I'd love to relocate too, a lot of my friends live there.

Once I get my hip 'fixed'!

Take care of you,

Becky

> Hi, Becky.

> I had CHD in both hips and was treated for it as a child in the

late

> 1950's, in the Children's Hospital in Boston (Mass.). A lot of

> surgery, and that famous cast, ensured that I lived perfectly

> normally until the age of 46. Which is pretty good going (and my

> other hip is still fine).

>

> In my 46th year my left hip started seizing up and deteriorated at

> an incredible rate: there was only one year between learning that

my

> stiffness was caused by osteoarthritis till the surgery itself,

and

> by that stage I was longing for the knife due to the constant

pain.

>

> De Smet (Gent) didn't envisage any particular problem and did my

> resurfacing in September of 2003. He has done a number of

patients

> with less than perfect sockets and it shows. I'm delighted with

> the result for a number of reasons: the joy of being released from

> pain as of day one, walking without a limp (I'd developed a huge

> limp over that last year) and, last but not least, he really

> improved on that scar which I had on that hip for the past 44

years,

> tidied it up nicely and the new scar is a lot less obvious than

the

> old one was!

>

> Colette