One Hip Book

So you’re considering having that aching bad hip replaced with an artificial one. Well, you’ve found the right book if you’re looking for someone whose faced and emerged from the ordeal  In fact, you and I likely have much in common, whether it is osteoarthritis or some other disease that has left considering a mini-incision replacement.

I understand all the thoughts and personal concerns you are having, perhaps better than even your surgeon or anyone close to you. I’ve lived the many worrisome moments. And because I understand them so well, I decided I had to write this account with you in mind.

I am a journalist, a person whose purpose in his life and career is to explain to others what I feel, see and discover. Following my experiences with this surgery, I knew I would write of everything surrounding it in the hope I might help others know they are normal in their concerns and to separate fact from fear and anxiety.

“One Hip Book,” is based solely on my adventure, so to speak, with the Zimmer Corporation’s MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery) technique. The good news you’ll discover, as you read deeper into these words, is that if I were to face the ordeal of a hip replacement again, I would do so without a shred of worry or fear. In fact, let’s begin by talking about that fear.

The late Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded us in 1932 that we, “have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Before his untimely death, singer John Denver also wrote how all our fears - even at their most intense - at their most, mean nothing. Reassuring words, indeed. But when you’re facing the replacement of a God-given hip with robotic devices forged of metal, ceramic or plastic - and when you know your leg is about to be amputated before being restored, I understand that fear and anxiety become a natural part of the process.

If this scenario fits your circumstances - if you’re considering having a diseased hip replaced and feeling apprehensive over the uncertainty of it all, then this book is a must - read. Hopefully it will help bring peace to a troubled mind. Believe me, I know how dire it sounds just to hear a doctor utter the words “total hip replacement.”

There is such stark finality to such a sobering phrase that it makes many of us want to turn tail and grab for extra doses of our preferred anti-inflammatory.