A couple of things need blogging about these days. First of all I am getting my left hip replaced on December 17th. It has been bothering me for some time now and I was finally referred to a surgeon in September. I was hoping that he would do a procedure known as a "Birmingham" which is not a full replacement of the hip but does involve capping the existing bone. It has the advantage of being stronger and also allowing for an extra surgery if one is required.
This particular surgeon, Dr. Burnell, did not want to do a Birmingham on me because there have been concerns recently that the metal on metal nature of this device causes fine metal pieces to get into the system where their long term effects are not well known. Makes sense.
So he said that I would get a total replacement of my left hip and that my right hip would have to be done too. He actually told me that "your hips suck." The right hip would be done about three months after the first. The problem was that his waiting list was 10-11 months. How disappointing.
He actually gave me the names of two other surgeons to try if I didn't think I could wait. I did check on them but it would require up to three months just to be assessed and then their wait time for surgery would be as much as 5-6 months after that.
