Dad sporting a killer stach and me sporting a kick ass cast

Finally I reached the day of my hip surgery and what a relief it was to begin a new journey. A journey of recovery, rest, and rehabilitation. I have done this twice before, once when I was a newborn my deformed femoral head and pelvis were not recognized until I began to take my first steps. Physically it was impossible for me to walk as a toddler, with practically no hip socket and a gnarled femoral head my left leg was dislocated and with every step I would fall on my left side. The doctors were quick to diagnose the situation and performed an hip-osteotomy which is a reshaping of the pelvis bone to form a socket to house the femoral head, however the femoral head was not smoothed out so over the course of 30 years these ridges, bumps, dips, and imperfections wore away at the socket, which eventually caused the stage 5 arthritis, pain, discomfort, and overall limitations in the joint that made me such an excellent candidate to receive a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing. It was difficult for my parents to have their first born in nearly a full body cast for 6months but they somehow managed, and after the cast was removed my dad would regularly take me swimming to rebuild strength in my legs.

The second time I have done rehab was for a torn left labrum in my shoulder, this operation was also done at HSS, in May of 2009 by Dr Craig. While this was an outpatient procedure, meaning I left the hospital the same day, it did require me to rehab for several months, and while doing so I exceeded the PT’s expectations by following the guide-lines to recovery. I plan on applying all this knowledge and experience to my current rehab, and today is my first day back at home. I will write more and provide many photos and videos of my progress, my next post PART2 will describe in detail the actual surgery and the first overnight at HSS.