Ghent Diary

[Guest guest]

Dear Fellow Surface-Hippys:

For those of you who are interested I will send you a copy of my " Diary " written

during my

stay in Ghent when my right hip was resurfaced last November. It's almost 50

pages long

so it's best if I send it as an attachment rather than " throw " it out to the

hippy world and

bog down all your download times. Also I consider it a " work in progress " in

the sense

that if I get feedback from fellow hippys I may add it to the document, not to

change the

story so much as to add information to the endnotes that have been added

specifically to

provide information.

It is a story, first and foremost, although biographical, and I am offering it

as a story. This

is NOT something I intend to publish or I hope to publish. The diary was

written because

it was an intense experience and I enjoy writing such things, especially if they

happen to

me. Also, I thought that sharing it with fellow hippys may be of value because

I know that

if someone else had written a diary I would have wanted to read it.

If you want a copy of the diary sent to you as an attached document please

contact me at:

chengek@.... This is a word document by the way. If you don't have

word, as

for a text formatted file so that you can open it.

By the way, Dr. De Smet has read the diary and has given his blessing on the

distribution.

I'm including the introductory paragraphs for you as a lead in.

Regards to all,

Tom Simpson

San Francisco

Diary of a Surface-hippy (Intro Only)

I was first diagnosed with osteo-arthritis of the right hip in 1987 by an

orthopedist at the

hospital where I worked in San Francisco as a neonatologist. He told me to stop

all

running and impact sports immediately. I wasn't willing to accept that fate at

the age of

41 and sought a second opinion. Dr. Jim Garrick, a nationally recognized sports

medicine

specialist and orthopedic surgeon, recommended physical therapy and

anti-inflammatory

agents. He thought I could delay surgery for years, but he couldn't predict how

long. From

1987 until early 2002 I continued to participate in sports, particularly soccer,

using

diclofenac, an effective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) to mitigate

the pain.

There were many days and nights I wondered why and how I'd continue on the

pathway

Dr. Garrick laid out for me. The pain was constant and after physical activity

my hip

throbbed, sometimes keeping me up at night. Nevertheless, I haven't regretted

the

conservative approach he recommended and I hoped that somehow I would never have

to

resort to surgery. But there's a cost to everything, especially when it comes

to drugs, and

almost two years ago I began having very significant tinnitus in my left ear.

It's a hissing

sound that never goes away. I believe that the diclofenac had something to do

with

causing the tinnitus and I'm certain it made it worse. So I stopped using

NSAIDS and

began to look for options. After a fair amount of research, both scientific and

non-

scientific, that included reading many letters of surface-hippys, I decided to

get my hip

resurfaced. I chose Dr. Koen DeSmet of Ghent Belgium because he has done more

than

anyone else and because of the many positive letters on the Yahoo Group site:

surfacehippy .

The following " diary " is an account of my surgical experience from the day I

arrived in

Ghent up until the day I left Ghent. The account may be of interest and possibly

benefit to

other individuals who are considering resurfacing as an option for moving on

with their

lives.

This is not intended as a blue-print for resurfacing candidates. It's just one

individual's

account. Even though I am a medical doctor I do not intend my story as medical

advice.

I'm just one person with a lifestyle-altering medical problem, who happens to be

a

physician, who had to make the decision that so many have had to make so that

they can

move beyond a disabling condition.

Dr. Koen DeSmet resurfaced my right hip on November 19th, 2003, at Jan Palfijn

Hospital,

in Ghent Belgium.

Tom Simpson

120 Magellan Ave

San Francisco, Ca 94116

Tel: 4155641016

Fax: 4157596928

Email: chengek@...

Email: tom@...