Hip Talk at Surface Hippy

It's great to hear long term updates, thanks for sharing!  I'm just days from my 1yr anniversary, so far so good.  Also agreed, this site has been very helpful!

Congratulations on your 24th Anniversary!  And Thank You so much for sharing your story and update.  I am happy my website was helpful to you.  That's why I have kept it running and updated for 20 years.  Not many other ways to find out about hip resurfacing.  I wish you the very best for both hips and hope to see an update again sometime.  Pat 

Sept. 10, 2025 is the 24 year anniversary of my hip resurfacing done by Dr. Gross and Lee Webb at age 40. 2nd hip was done 10 years later by Dr. Gross also. If you think about the date, I woke up the next morning to watch the twin towers go down from my hospital room. It was an interesting 2 weeks in South Carolina before I made it back to Ohio.

I've had pretty much zero issues with the resurfacings. I'm able to get out of my office job and work around my small farm with no issues, baling hay, cutting firewood, etc. I moved from free weight strength training to kettlebells last Christmas for a change. I have no issues with goblet squats, swings, front squats, all very deep.

I had the operation done based in information found on the original surfacehippy site. If it weren't for that, I would likely have worn out 1 or both hips by now with conventional replacements.

I took a chance and it turned out to be the right decision.

Anyone have any experience with Dr. Huff in Portland, OR? I see he's part of the polymotion trial.

There are some successful long term BHR patients here, hopefully they will chime in.  I'm only 10 months into my own BHR (metal on metal) and so far so good, it has been a real life changer.  To oversimplify what my doctor said, they've figured out the bugs and modern BHR implants are good.  The parts float on a layer of fluid from your body, similar to how oil in an engine works, so the metal should not be rubbing while you're moving unless something was done wrong.  My personal fear about ceramic would be cracking or chipping.  One thing I would look into, that I did not see until after my own surgery, is robotic assisted surgery.  The blurb I saw made it sound like a CNC type of thing that would be much more precise than a human could be, which in theory would improve odds of an ideal outcome.  My surgery was already done so I didn't look that much into it, but to me personally this would be worth looking more into. 

Hello everyone,

I'm finally scheduled for surgery in September for metal on metal Birmingham hip resurfacing. I'm coping fine but I've had to really easy off on sports and social life at the tender age of 36, so I do need this.

However, with the Recerf ceramic on ceramic implant being approved I feel like I'm signed up for obsolete technology, and it's causing me genuine panic. I had resigned to the fact it wouldn't be approved any time soon and now it's here on time but I'm out of luck as it's not been given the green light by the NHS.

My surgeon literally had the CoC implant on his desk and can give it to me if I pay out of pocket for the entire surgery (god knows how much, it's £14000 to go private just with the old implant I think), but if I go MoM it's free.

My surgeon said he wouldn't recommend it anyway as it's not got the years of proven efficacy the Birmingham hip has for active large young men like me... he'd only push for it if I was a woman facing regular full hip replacement, but I can't help but feel he's just being nice, not fully honest.

Honestly, am I fine to proceed? or am I better really pushing for CoC, even if that means delaying or paying... Any help or reassurance would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have a gym membership. I just do stuff non-stop around the house like use a manual reel mower on my 3/4 AC yard three times a week and stupid things like that LOL.  I'm averaging like 15k steps a day in July getting the activity like a caveman haha.

Thanks for the info.  Yes my Dr. had me on more of a conservative plan, but the last couple of months I've been really turning up the mountain biking and it feels great.  It's good to know the clicking/clunking thing went away for you, that's the only thing that has me concerned about longevity of the implant.  Mine comes and goes but seems to be trending away so hopefully I'll follow your trajectory.  It does feel like the soft tissues aren't holding the parts together firmly enough to me too.  Are you doing any weight lifting with your legs at this point (squats, RDLs, etc.)? 

I really do not feel that at all anymore. I will say I really felt like I "caught a gear" with progress from 10 months on. It's really when things began to feel more normal for me.  I also ramped up the activity and started pushing my recovery as far at more exertion and activity.  Remember that my right side is at 18 months now so it's a bit ahead of you. I still have a little more crankiness in the left that's at a year from time to time.

If I recall, you've been on a more conservative plan from your doctor, maybe that causes it to be a bit delayed but you are close.  I think that clunking and shifting is directly related to muscle and tissue strength coming back and holding everything together.

Hope it keeps improving for you!

Congrats on the almost 1 year!  I just hit 10 months myself. 

Regarding this: 

Quote from: BSarchet on October 30, 2024, 05:42:33 PMI get a little bit of shifting / clicking particularly when if shifting side to side or when I’m bending over and messing with something on the ground.  I don’t get it much other than those times. 

But I’m just writing it off as normal at this point. I think I just assume that I still have a ways to go on strengthening all my stabilizer muscles to make that continue to lessen.

Are you still feeling this?  Is it on both sides?  This is almost exactly what I'm feeling!  Riding my bike, walking, running, etc.. the hip is spectacular, but when bending over such as loading the clothes washer, or vacuuming, those things that have you bent plus moving left and right make it feel like it's clicking or clunking; zero sound, zero pain, just feels like it's a tad loose.  My only fear is hurting the implant.  Did your doctor say anything about it?  I see my doctor in 2 months for the 1 year checkup.