And the Information Just Keeps Coming!

So here it is. It seems it's all about how the surgeon goes in to replace your hip. There is an entry referred to as Lateral - more or less the side of the hip area and there is an entry referred to as Posterior - more or less further back I guess!  Surgeon, I assume, have their favourite way of doing things - just as we might have our favourite ways of doing things as long as the final result is the same or close to it. In this case, there seems to be nobody saying the final result is any difference in the long term. The long term is really just not the short term! The short term is maybe 6 months. So the differences are in those first 6 months, and more specifically it seems the biggest differences are in the first 6 weeks or so. With the lateral entry, the patient will be putting very light weight on the hip (walking) with a few days of the operation; gradually increasing the amount of weight according to both time and healing results. With the posterior entry, there are 6 weeks of NO weight bearing at all. So... here is the dilema; finding a surgeon you like and trust, and finding out that the posterior entry is being used and that means 6 weeks on crutches - no cheating - no weight bearing. Do you go find another surgeon who does the other entry? Will you trust or like them as much? Is 6 weeks too much to ask for 15 years of using your new hip - properly installed and looked after by a good surgeon? But maybe there is just as good a surgeon that will have you walking in a week; and even getting rid of your cane by 4 weeks!

All sounds easy until you realize these are questions that surgeons either don't want to answer, or don't have time to answer, or don't even get posed to them by their receptionists whom you had to leave the questions with.

So I have the calls out to three surgeons:

what is your post operative weight bearing protocol for 1. resurfacing and 2. full hip replacement.

As we speak, one has returned my email. His protocol is 6 weeks no weight bearing for either of the operations - must be the posterior approach. He never specified that it was the posterior approach that requires the 6 weeks, but that assumption is based on a few articles I read, and the fact that he is, for sure, using the posterior approach.

Is the 6 weeks non weight bearing that big a deal?

well.. I live alone and i have stairs.. In addition I am self employed and getting back to work helps pay bills - one way I can be back in 2 weeks, maybe 3 at the outside... with a cane - the other way.. it's 6 weeks before I can even begin to put weight on that side.. then perhaps a couple more until I could do my job properly with a cane.

Ok.. so what about a surgeon who is good, and has the protocol that gets me back on my feet quickly? I think there might be one - still waiting for a response - but he is in Ottawa; and that brings with it a whole other bunch or logistic problems both before and after the operation.

It could be he has the same post operative protocol; only his answer will tell me that.

The third surgeon, in Toronto, can only do the full hip replacement - another decision yet to be fully decided upon - and I think has the quick recovery protocol - although no response yet from him either.

The system grinds along, with me, the impatient patient, barely holding on mentally. Shouldn't be this much of a struggle in my mind, but this is without any exception, the scariest thing I have ever gone through - and I haven't even gone through anything yet!

So go my days - deciding.. changing my mind - getting more information - getting more questions - asking more questions - and not getting all the answers as quickly as I would like. But even when I get all the answers - will I be able to make a clean decision? 

I will keep you informed!