Katherine, 59, is retired and lives an active life in Mexico. When it became clear that she needed a new hip, she learned about a new technique that allows for a much faster recovery.
A friend who is a physical therapist in the Upper Valley, and had a hip resurfacing done at DHMC, recommended that Katherine talk to Dr. Ivan Tomek. "At the time I thought, 'All the way from Mexico? Come all the way up here? Can I go any farther to go get surgery?'"
But the more she learned about the surgery and Dr. Tomek's approach, the better she felt.
"With the anterior approach, no muscles are cut. I'm not a doctor—I don't know a lot about it—but I thought, 'No muscles cut means faster recovery'—and that was one of my goals, to get up and about as quickly as possible.
"Here at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Deb Jadczak, the nurse-coordinator for the Ortho department was wonderful. She was willing to take my Skype phone calls, she was willing to email me... Dr. Tomek was extremely knowledgeable, as I said; very patient. He was able to answer my questions in the way I needed to have them answered.
"I've been out of surgery only two weeks and two days... Two days after my surgery, I came home with just one crutch. I came up two flights of stairs with just one crutch. By the third day the PT came to the house and had me walking with no aids—no walker, no crutch, anything. The fourth day I went out to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream...
"I have been absolutely, totally amazed at how quickly I was up and about and, not only that, how little pain I had... I want to do everything I haven't been able to do. I don't want my life hindered by the kind of pain that I was experiencing before."
For more information about hip replacement at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, visit [ Ссылка ].
