Left BHR with De Smet on August 10!

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone!

I've been reading your posts in here for a few months now and I must

say that this is a truly FANTASTIC Group! It felt particularly great

for me to see how many other people are in a similar situation as

mine. Reading all your stories reinforced my decision to go for BHR

surgery on my left hip as soon as possible. I was born with a certain

degree of displasia in my jeft hip. Aside from never having enjoyed

full flexibility in that hip, I had a fairly normal life, at least

until my early forties. Having had two doctors as parents (although

neither of them an orthopaedic specialist), I was clearly told from

the beginning that, somewhere in the future, my displasia would most

likely cause arthrosis in my left hip. However, since my hereditary

problem allowed me to avoid the 1 year draft into the military

service (back then mandatory in my Country, once you turned 18!) I

always felt that, if arthrosis would come, I should just regard it as

a " late-price " I had to pay for having been able not too waste 1 year

of my youth in such a senseless thing like the military service:) I

just somehow thought that the problem would not hit me until my

sixties, ore even later... But things definitely went faster than

that. I am know 48 years old and have been experiencing significant

pain in my left hip for about the past two years. Since last fall,

things became bed anough for me to have to start taking anti-

inflamatory drugs every single day. X Rays showed that the cartilage

in my left hip was practically gone. That was when I started

considering the surgery option. However, I must say that I was almost

immdiately put off by the idea of having a THR done at my ....young

(LOL) age! So, I started looking around for alternatives to THR.

Although I am Italian (born and grew up in Rome) I've been working

and living in Brussels, Belgium for the past 9 years. So, one of the

decision I had to make was if I should have my surgery done here in

Belgium, or in my mother Country, Italy. So I started browsing the

net looking for hip surgeons in both Countries... and that's how I

stumbled on Dr. De Smet's ANCA clinic site! I found it quite amazing

that a Belgian doctor would use the ITALIAN WORD for HIP ( " ANCA " ) for

his clinic's name, and that alone already gave me a good feeling

about the guy:) Then I talked to a cousin of mine in Italy, who is a

young orthopaedic surgeon himself. When I mentioned De Smet to him,

he said: " De Smet? He's s MYTH! If you want to go for BHR, he's

definitely one of the best surgeons to do it with, cause he's already

performed that surgery on over 1.000 patients! " I felt really lucky

to be actually living, by pure chance, just a mere 45 minutes car

ride away from De Smet:)) So, at the end of March, I called and asked

for an appointment with him. I went to his clinic last Monday, May

24. He examined me (and my X-Rays) and finally said that BHR is the

right kind of surgery for me. His only doubt is if my displastic

acetabulus will, or will not, need the BHR " cup " to be fixed with an

additional screw. My answer was: " I'm already screwed up enough as it

is... so one extra screw won't be a problem for me! " (HAHA). Well,

the date for my BHR surgery is AUGUST 10. I will enter the Gent

Hospital on August 9 and should be able to go back home the following

Friday, August 13:)) If, by any chance, there's anyone in here who is

(or will be) scheduled for surgery with De Smet in my same week (9-13

Aug.) PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CONTACT ME (either with a post, or even by

sending me an email to: PMdrums@... ). Please excuse me if this

post was too long, but after having been silent for a few months,

just reading everybodyelse's posts, I felt that my time had come to

contribute with my own story. My best wishes and regards to everyone

in here!!

Al (an Italian in Brussels:)

P.S. My nickname is " PMdrums " because... yes, I play the drums! And

another of the (many) reasons for which I judt can't wait for my left

hip to be fixed up, is also so that i can regain total and painless

control ...of the HI-HAT!!! )