Mood:
on fireYEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well all those years of not giving in, all this time putting up with the pain (especially backpacking through the Smokies......Ow), all these years of taking my mother in-law's nutritional advice, all these years working constructionand just plain refusing to let this thing called arthritis slow me down have paid off!
Dr Bose greeted me in his office with a big smile and said,"It's even better than I thought it would be. There's plenty of good solid bone left for resurfacing!" (Rob, you already knew that , huh?) He proceeded to show me the templates he uses on the new full scale (not a PDF file) x-ray to match the new hip with the good one and more good news. A 60mm size matches my good hip perfectly, I also think it's the largest one they make. That's good news because everything that's good about resurfacing gets even better with a bigger size, more surface area, more thick film lubrication, more bearing, harder to dislocate. He went on to say that it would take the same amount of force trauma to dislocate this hip resurf as a normal hip (hello moguls again), also from doing annual bone density scans post-op they have found bone beneath or downstream gets more dense with time.
Heard enough good news yet? But wait there's more!
All the white stuff on the right off the joint (osteophytes, see picture below) are a GOOD sign. That means, especially on the pelvic (acetabular) side that the body only responds that way because of there being good bone (When you're bone on bone like me) on the opposite side (femoral/leg) "It's all good baby!".
Oh but wait, there's more!
In order to install a 60 mm BHR you have to grind off a total of 12 mm off the top of the femur, well guess who's already done that? Huh? That's right! that's right! you guessed it, ME (with His enabling grace!) so that really good dense bone is right there to where he would grind anyhow, that means not only have I/God guaged his procedure for him, lol but I come out of the OR with Identical length legs. Can I hear a Hallelujah! Coincidence? I think not!
So basically as far as the ortho side of things, we're about to turn the clock back to June 30 1981 the day befor the accident. And all I got to say is............"on your left" ..........(what is courteously said when overtaking a slower cyclist)
Good night Gracie!!!!!!!
Hey i'm fading fast here.....hope I can stay awake for dinner and more importantly for meeting the doc. I'll try to post the results of the consultation yet tonight, but if I get the same grief trying to get here again you probably won't here from me untill Thursday. Pictured here is Jansi yet another of the excellent staff of the fifth floor crew, she practically fed me my dinner, something I'm not used to but truly appreciated just the same.
Regency Towers
Well here it is thanksgiving 2006. In two days I'll be leaving Detroit Metro-Airport for Chennai India. The image here is the reason for the trip. After twenty plus years of arthritis slowly taking over my hip it is time to turn back the clock. Thanks to a very skilled surgeon, Vijay Bose, and the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing prosthetic heretofore (BHR), I'll be rid of this extremely deformed hip joint. Hallelujah! On Wednesday the 29th of November this mess will be machined down to accept a 1.5 pound marvel of biomedical engineering known as the BHR. A cobalt chromium, mirror polished to within two microns, bone conserving, miracle that will liberate me from the constant pain of bone on bone arthritis. 