Why a "blog" ??
This is my first "blog" (web log). I haven't been a blogger before, or visited other people's blogs, prior to visiting someone's blog who notified our "surface hippy" discussion group about it (Rus Kappius). I went to Rus's blog on nearly a daily basis while he was in India(indiahippy.blogspot.com) and found it entertaining and helpful in preparing me for my surgery/adventure. I concluded a blog would be an ideal way for me to communicate with family and friends, and be something to show my great-grandkids when I'm 90 and going strong on my resurfaced hip. They will probably say, "Gee, back in the old days they didn't know how to grow cartilage from stem cells, did they?"
Why India??
1. Dr. Bose...Dr. Bose...Dr. Bose. His reputation, and his helpful, professional responses to my email queries pulled me to India. His very reasonable fees didn't hurt matters, either - half of de-Smet's in Begium (also a superb surgeon), and approx. 20% of the experienced U.S. surgeons (ok, 25% with plane fare), which total perhaps 12 (my favorites are Amstutz, Mont and Gross).
2. I have a fascination with India, and actually I wouldn't mind contributing to their economy in any small way I can. It seems like lesser dollars (which make lots of rupees) go a longer way in India.
3. I enjoy 21 hour plane trips and 100 degree average temperature in July......yea, right!
4. I want to be clear on this - I would have gone to India regardless, but two years ago I stumbled upon (ok, searched low and high for) a female companion who intersects smoothly with jagged Gary. This woman's full first name is Sakuntala (sounds Indian, huh). Saku is not from India, and has never been there, but hails from nearby Sri Lanka. Her ethnicity is Tamil (from the region in South India I'm travelling to). The Tamils are a one-third minority in Sri Lanka, and her family fled during the on-again, off-again civil war. Saku came to the U.S. in 1989. Whereas Saku would have readily gone to Belgium (other option) with me, I finally got her to confess that she would prefer India after my decision was already made.
Why Hip Resurfacing....and not THR??
Top 3 reasons (in a nutshell)
1. Hip resurfacing allows for more range of motion and potentially enables more physically demanding exercise than a total hip replacement (THR).
2. The body of research results from the most recent wave of hip resurfacing (last 5-8 years) show equal or better success rates compared to the THR, and there are sound theoretical reasons to believe that the current generation of hip surface replacements (HSR's) will outlast THR's before requiring revision.
3. If by some chance my surface hip replacement does fail, either now or 20 years from now, I can then revert to a fresh new THR, something I could not do in the reverse direction, as the femur head gets amputated with a THR, so there would be nothing to resurface.
