Andy Furman: I’ve really missed you but had a slight setback thanks to a hip replacement

I’ve missed you.

Really, I have.

I’ve missed talking to you – meeting you and most of all writing about your interesting – and sometimes strange – life experiences.

For me – it’s been just a brief setback.

I had hip replacement surgery on the 9th of May.

If interested it was my left one – I had a new right one inserted several years ago, so I wanted a proper match.

Dr. Edward V. Lim is an orthopedist in Cincinnati and he and the great people with Christ Hospital did the damage – I mean, the procedure.

As for Dr. Lim, he received his medical degree from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

As an added bonus I still have his autograph on my left hip.

During my rehab and down time, I did some research on the procedure.

Hip replacement surgery, or hip arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure in which an orthopaedic surgeon removes the diseased parts of the hip joint and replaced them with new, artificial parts.

These artificial parts mimic the function of the normal hip joint.

You may need hip replacement surgery if you have a disease, such as:

• Arthritis, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis or
• Osteonecrosis, which happens when parts of a bone die due to diseased blood supply.

You may also need hip replacement surgery if you fracture (break) your hip from an injury, such as a fall, or from a bone disease.

The hip joint is a ball and socket joint and is one of the largest joints in the body. The upper end of the femur (thigh bone) meets the pelvis (hip bone) to create the joint. The “ball” at the end of the femur is called the femoral head and fits into the “socket” (the acetabulum) in the pelvis.

And, of course, the goals of hip replacement surgery include:

• Relieve pain from the damaged or diseased hip joint,
• Improve the function of the hip joint,
• Increase mobility.

Hip replacement surgery is one of the most successful operations in all of medicine.

Since the early 1960s, improvements in joint replacement surgical techniques and technology have greatly increased the effectiveness of total hip replacement. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 450,000 total hip replacements are performed each year in the United States.

Maybe now I’ll be a better dancer – not!

Andy Furman is a reporter for the NKyTribune — and while he missed us (and you), we missed him as well and are happy to see he is on the road (or dance floor) to recovery.