Scheduled for Conserve Plus in March and Nervous

January 23, 2004

I am scheduled for the Conserve Plus in Vancouver Washington in

March with Dr Sparling. I am a physician in Emergency Medicine and

know Dr Sparling and have alot of confidence in him but am still

very nervous about taking such a big step and no turning back kind

of thinking. I hate to ramble but I would LOVE to hear what

anyone's experience is with this device. Is it very similar to the

BHR? Is your activity level improved? Can you do all that you

expected? I can't think of stopping things such as backpacking WITH

my own pack, snowboarding with my kids, golfing, etc.

My range of motion now sucks and I can't tie my shoe. I can walk,

somedays without a limp. I can golf still with a 2 handicap but my

hip pops and snaps and after hitting balls my hip aches and it's

back to limping. I can't run even 10 yards without an ache. I can

still snowboard aggressively without alot of pain until afterwards

then it's back to a significant limp. I'm really tired of this and I

am believing, by reading the BHR literature and Peggy 's book

that I will be improved in both my ramnge of motion and my abililty

to do MORE.

Has that been people's experience? The closer I get to surgery the

more nervous I get.

I'm sure everyone's concern is " how long will this thing last

without failure " . No one wants the conventional procedure at a young

age. I am only 46.

Please, any responses or advice. Thanks,

Todd Eggen

January 23, 2004

Dear Todd:

The archives, and other websites will answer all your questions. Try this,

for example:

http://www.hip-clinic.com/assets/downloads/BHRlagomaggiore.pdf

http://www.wmt.com/Patients/hip/resurfacing.asp

http://www.jri-oh.com/hipsurgery/Hip.asp

http://www.salemorthopedic.com/

http://members.tripod.com/totallyhip1/links/links.htm

I had Sparling examine me, and he was Doc #6. His office tried 3x to get my

insurance approved, and I ended up w/ Dr. Boyd. Boyd is excellent. I am

VERY glad to hear your high rec. of Sparling, since he is so close. I would

have used him, if the insurance would have worked...but have NO regrets w/

Boyd. I guess we all *love* our own surgeons.

The Corin, Birmingham, , etc. devices ARE slightly different. I am

guessing from my research, that the slight differences may matter less than

the surgeon.

uses a sintered bead backing, to provide better boney ingrowth and

this heat treatment affects the metal-crystal size. It MAY cause more

crystal tear-out at the metal-metal bearing interface over 50-500 years

time. We do not know. The Birmingham uses a mechanical cast backing with

mineral-absorbable structure to provide better boney ingrowth. Again, this

may be a non-issue as the failures seem to be at the PMMA mono-polymer grout

interface between bone and prosthetic.

Surgeon skill/experience is a huge factor, as the above websites will state.

this is where DeSmet comes in. His résumé is impeccable!!! He has said

there seems to be a step function/breakthrough at about the 100+ operations

level. Sparling is now at 120+

The JRI website has a list of patients, and our/KBrew... archives have a

couple at the 9 year point. Experiences seem pretty good, and certainly the

best ones exceed the normal THR history.

My surgery was 12/18/03. I am happy. Ask me again in 20 years!

Dave

C+

Edmonds, WA

>

> Reply-To: surfacehippy

> Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 19:28:16 -0000

> To: surfacehippy

> Subject: Scheduled for Conserve Plus in March and Nervous

>

> I am scheduled for the Conserve Plus in Vancouver Washington in

> March with Dr Sparling. I am a physician in Emergency Medicine and

> know Dr Sparling and have alot of confidence in him but am still

> very nervous about taking such a big step and no turning back kind

> of thinking. I hate to ramble but I would LOVE to hear what

> anyone's experience is with this device. Is it very similar to the

> BHR? Is your activity level improved? Can you do all that you

> expected? I can't think of stopping things such as backpacking WITH

> my own pack, snowboarding with my kids, golfing, etc.

> My range of motion now sucks and I can't tie my shoe. I can walk,

> somedays without a limp. I can golf still with a 2 handicap but my

> hip pops and snaps and after hitting balls my hip aches and it's

> back to limping. I can't run even 10 yards without an ache. I can

> still snowboard aggressively without alot of pain until afterwards

> then it's back to a significant limp. I'm really tired of this and I

> am believing, by reading the BHR literature and Peggy 's book

> that I will be improved in both my ramnge of motion and my abililty

> to do MORE.

> Has that been people's experience? The closer I get to surgery the

> more nervous I get.

> I'm sure everyone's concern is " how long will this thing last

> without failure " . No one wants the conventional procedure at a young

> age. I am only 46.

> Please, any responses or advice. Thanks,

> Todd Eggen

>

January 24, 2004

Thanks for the information. I have not been informed about any

insurance issues by Dr Sparling but I guess that I had better check.

Keep in touch

> Dear Todd:

> The archives, and other websites will answer all your questions.

Try this,

> for example:

>

> http://www.hip-clinic.com/assets/downloads/BHRlagomaggiore.pdf

>

> http://www.wmt.com/Patients/hip/resurfacing.asp

>

> http://www.jri-oh.com/hipsurgery/Hip.asp

>

> http://www.salemorthopedic.com/

>

> http://members.tripod.com/totallyhip1/links/links.htm

>

> I had Sparling examine me, and he was Doc #6. His office tried 3x

to get my

> insurance approved, and I ended up w/ Dr. Boyd. Boyd is

excellent. I am

> VERY glad to hear your high rec. of Sparling, since he is so

close. I would

> have used him, if the insurance would have worked...but have NO

regrets w/

> Boyd. I guess we all *love* our own surgeons.

>

> The Corin, Birmingham, , etc. devices ARE slightly

different. I am

> guessing from my research, that the slight differences may matter

less than

> the surgeon.

>

> uses a sintered bead backing, to provide better boney

ingrowth and

> this heat treatment affects the metal-crystal size. It MAY cause

more

> crystal tear-out at the metal-metal bearing interface over 50-500

years

> time. We do not know. The Birmingham uses a mechanical cast

backing with

> mineral-absorbable structure to provide better boney ingrowth.

Again, this

> may be a non-issue as the failures seem to be at the PMMA mono-

polymer grout

> interface between bone and prosthetic.

>

> Surgeon skill/experience is a huge factor, as the above websites

will state.

> this is where DeSmet comes in. His résumé is impeccable!!! He has

said

> there seems to be a step function/breakthrough at about the 100+

operations

> level. Sparling is now at 120+

>

> The JRI website has a list of patients, and our/KBrew... archives

have a

> couple at the 9 year point. Experiences seem pretty good, and

certainly the

> best ones exceed the normal THR history.

>

> My surgery was 12/18/03. I am happy. Ask me again in 20 years!

>

> Dave

> C+

> Edmonds, WA

>

> > From: " toddeggen "

> > Reply-To: surfacehippy

> > Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 19:28:16 -0000

> > To: surfacehippy

> > Subject: Scheduled for Conserve Plus in March and

Nervous

> >

> > I am scheduled for the Conserve Plus in Vancouver Washington in

> > March with Dr Sparling. I am a physician in Emergency Medicine and

> > know Dr Sparling and have alot of confidence in him but am still

> > very nervous about taking such a big step and no turning back kind

> > of thinking. I hate to ramble but I would LOVE to hear what

> > anyone's experience is with this device. Is it very similar to the

> > BHR? Is your activity level improved? Can you do all that you

> > expected? I can't think of stopping things such as backpacking

WITH

> > my own pack, snowboarding with my kids, golfing, etc.

> > My range of motion now sucks and I can't tie my shoe. I can walk,

> > somedays without a limp. I can golf still with a 2 handicap but my

> > hip pops and snaps and after hitting balls my hip aches and it's

> > back to limping. I can't run even 10 yards without an ache. I can

> > still snowboard aggressively without alot of pain until

afterwards

> > then it's back to a significant limp. I'm really tired of this

and I

> > am believing, by reading the BHR literature and Peggy 's

book

> > that I will be improved in both my ramnge of motion and my

abililty

> > to do MORE.

> > Has that been people's experience? The closer I get to surgery the

> > more nervous I get.

> > I'm sure everyone's concern is " how long will this thing last

> > without failure " . No one wants the conventional procedure at a

young

> > age. I am only 46.

> > Please, any responses or advice. Thanks,

> > Todd Eggen

> >

January 24, 2004

Hi Todd

If you read through the archives, you will find that lots of people have

returned successfully to high impact sports, including martial arts, soccer,

downhill skiing, surfing, rock climbing etc. Only bungee jumping and skydiving

are no-nos.

Sharry