9th April 2009
It is 23 days since my Hip Replacement in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India on 18th Mar 2009 at http://www.hipresurfacingcenter.com/. I can feel the recovering strength in my Left thigh muscles. I walked around the park with elbow crutch on my right side today. I am delighted after 3 years limping around with the last 12 months worse after I took my son James to visit prospective colleges in US in March 2008.
When I graduated in medicine in 1984, during the stone age, one of my professors said " I can assure you half of what we taught you will be wrong in the next 10 years. Unfortunate I don't know which half will be false." Until the late 1990's conventional wisdom was that the under 60's who suffer from hip arthritis were treated conservatively because Total Hip Replacement operation done will need a revision- repeat surgery after 10-15 years. This is no longer true the methods of operation has improved and Hip Resurfacing invented by Derek McMinn( designed the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing in Birmingham, Great Britain and released it for use in the UK in July 1997 ).This method preserves more bone and even if another operation required is not so troublesome.
I did some research after consulting my orthopaedic surgeon Dr Ng Khai Oon from Metro Specialist Hospital http://www.hospitalmetro.com. He joined my hospital after being in Australia for Fellowship in Joint Reconstruction. A good site to go to research this topic is http://www.surfacehippyinfo.com/ put up by a patient volunteer advocate Vicky Marlow, very informative and helpful.
I emailed various doctors in India and Bangkok and settled on Dr G Bala at Coimbatore http://www.hipresurfacingcenter.com because he was quick to answer his emails and seem like a straightforward guy when I talked to him. On 15 Mar 2009 I flew to Coimbatore. After reading the testimonials of so many patients who had successfully recovered from hip operations, I was just relieved to be finally going to have one myself rather than scared. I was just so sick and tired of hobbling around and not being very mobile for past 3 years.
I prayed to God seeing that my children are still in college and school but God gave me peace about taking this step. The few days before I left for India I was very touch the many friends and relatives that visited me and emailed me. I learnt how much people's concern and care mean to the sick person.
Arriving in an Indian Trust Hospital is an education in itself-I was concerned about the dustiness and basic conditions of the hospital on arrival at midnight. The next day I met an Indian national in the next room, who was brought by his cousin,a medical person all the way from New Delhi for this operation. The felt Dr Bala was the best guy to do this operation. This brought back my confidence.
My operation on 18th Mar 2009, Dr Bala was unable to do hip resurfacing so a total hip replacement was done with a metal on metal prostheses inserted. I was alerted by all the doctors I had corresponded with , I may not be able to have hip resurfacing due to the bone cyst formation and weakness due prolonged limping and non weight bearing.Anyway the new prosthesis is supposed to last a lifetime so Okay. The operation and recovery was mainly uneventful, that is for another blog. I just want to add the Indian nurses and the people whom my wife and I came into contact with were very professional and very caring. 
The physiotherapist Saravanan helping me 2 day post op with a walking frame.Dr Bala treated Sanjay from Delhi, my wife and me to a buffet dinner at the Residency Hotel, the biggest hotel in Coimbatore.
Dr Bala is the handsome man with the orange shirt.
