Ron LBHR Dr Craig Thomas 3/3/11 **VIDEO**
Here is a video of Ron dancing at only 10 days post op from Left Hip Resurfacing by Dr. Craig Thomas
My Name is Ronald J. Fisher. I am a life long Washingtonian born and raised here in our Nations Capitol. On March 3 2011 at Providence Hospital in Washington D.C. Dr Craig Thomas surgically performed a Left Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Procedure on me and this is my story.
I have always been a very athletic individual, however during high school for some reason I stopped growing. I was not big enough to play any of the regular sports, football, baseball, or basketball. As a child growing up I was very good in all of these sports but I finished high school at 5’2’’ and 120pds. So I played golf in high school, I lettered in golf and was captain of the golf team.
I joined the Navy after high school and as I had also done some boxing I was TAD (Temporary Assigned Duty) to the boxing team. I toured the country boxing and representing our US Navy. While in the Navy, I grew to 5’9’ 160 lbs, however the Navy coach encouraged me to lose weight and I fought a 139 lbs. I was disappointed when our country boycotted the 1980 Olympics: I thought I had lost my opportunity to be famous. I went to college after the Navy, receiving a degree in Radiology and I been working in some area of Radiology since.
In 1991 I took my first swing dance class, I loved it, becoming a certified swing dance instructor and competition enthusiast. I formed my own group and dance team (Dance Elite) and we competed on the national swing dance circuit.
It was in 2007 that I first noticed pain in my left hip when I sprinted. Dr Joly took x-rays,said I had some mild arthritic changes in the hip, put me on Becton and told me not to sprint. While social dancing in November 2008 at a Black Tie event I felt a painful pop in the left hip and I was unable to move. I was escorted to my seat and I sat for about 45mins, felt better, and I went right back out on the dance floor. After repeating this sequence about three more times I shut it down and I didn’t dance for about a week. I went to work and asked one of the Radiologist to give me a fluoroscopy guided cortisone injection in my left hip. He suggested an MRI first so I walked over and had the MRI, and was surprised to find I had a stress fracture of the left hip with blood in the joint space. I shut down for about two weeks, in hopes of letting the fracture heal, before going back to working out and dancing with periodic pain in the hip.
February 2010 saw me meet Dr Peter Bruno whose diagnosis was Left hip Disphasia with advanced arthritis. He told me a total hip replacement was in my future. We would schedule the surgery when I could no longer stand the pain. He also said that physical therapy would provide me with some comfort. I scheduled a physical therapist appointment to obtain exercises that were specific to the hip. I did this and kept dancing and working out. However I shut down the running.
Playing golf in August 2010, the pain had become so great that I’d become willing to have the total hip replacement. Because of the ASR scare, I began to look for the very best orthopedic surgeons, the best in their field. I studied the Anderson clinic website where I found an alternative to total hip replacement, the hip re-surfacing procedure.
I was intrigued with the benefits of the resurfacing procedure. I made an appointment with Dr. William Hamilton to discuss the hip resurfacing procedure. Dr Hamilton informed me that he didn’t do hip resurfacings…that the results of the total hip and hip resurfacing was the same. He tried to convince me to have the total hip replacement…going so far as to schedule the surgery. I was to go home, do more research and decide later if I still wanted to have the resurfacing procedure. If so, I needed to re-schedule an appointment with his partner, Dr C Anderson Engh Jr.
Two weeks later, I was back to see Dr Engh. His first words to me were, “Mr. Fisher, why don’t you want a total hip replacement?” I gave him the benefits I’d read on the internet, about returning to a very active life style, and resuming all the athletic activities I’d done before I was waylayed with the arthritis. He told me that I’d be able to do all of those things with his particular brand of total hip replacement. I told him frankly that I did not want him to cut the top of my femur off and replace it with a metal spike. He then agreed to talk about resurfacing, scheduling the hip resurfacing surgery 3 months later.
At this time, I was still dancing, and playing golf regularly, although it was becoming more and more difficult. I used my expertise in the medical field to research the resurfacing websites and the surface hippy talk groups. When I read that it took more surgical skill to do a resurfacing procedure than to do the total hip replacement, I began to question the choice I made. I felt that if I were going to choose a surgeon to do this procedure, he needed to be passionate about the procedure. So I began to look at all of the top resurfacing physicians. I found none in the Washington DC Area. After making appointments and sending out feelers to several of the top physicians outside of the Washington Area, I found a Dr Michael Mont at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. However, as good as Dr Mont’s credentials were, he had many patient complaints listed on the hip forums throughout the internet.
I then found a Dr. Craig Thomas, of the Rankin Sports Medicine Group. A disciple of Dr Mont, he’d gone to England and trained with Dr McMinn as well as Dr Schmalzried in California. He was passionate about the hip resurfacing procedure. Although I kept my appointment with Dr Anderson, I also made an appointment to see Dr Thomas.
Dr Thomas informed me that he’d been doing hip resurfacings since before FDA approval in 2006. He would use a BHR, the posterior approach, would sew the capsule if I wanted, and reattach all my muscles. His bedside manner was great. He told me I didn’t have to make a decision then, gave me his cell phone and told me to call him back with my decision. I was convinced then I’d found my surgeon.
On March 3rd, 2011, I entered Providence Hospital and had a LBHR with Dr Craig Thomas, who also realigned my dysphasic left hip in the process.
I am now in recovery.
DanceElite0
Ronald Fisher
LBHR Dr Craig Thomas March 3rd, 2011