South Carolina
Hip Preservation Center

Hi everyone – I wanted to give you all an update as to some of my activities since surgery on April 30, 2007.

As you know, I went skiing (downhill) in February 2008 and felt like my old self. I had skied in pain in 2005 and 2006, not at all in 2007. Now I was skiing like I did 10 years ago!

This summer I have been riding my jet ski, swimming, lifting weights and do pretty much anything I want.  

After Dr. Gross cleared me to play baseball (hardball) at my one year check-up (April 2008), I started to do some running on grass.  I also started throwing and hitting with great results.  I just now (September 24, 2008) finished playing in our summer baseball league (July – September).  We tied for the league championship.

I run the bases, play the outfield and run down fly balls and line drives. I hit both right-handed and left-handed. I am a former Division I baseball player and had played after college until I was unable to play because of my hip arthritis.  I really missed playing. Now, I can play again and I FEEL GREAT!

My story is very similar to that of many of other patients. I was an avid runner for many years and developed severe arthritis in my right hip by my mid-forties. After waiting a few years and giving up just about all my outside activities, I decided that surgery was inevitable.

I spent a lot of time on the Internet exploring hip resurfacing and various surgeons and decided on Dr. Gross. My local surgeons in the Pittsburgh area either didn't recommend resurfacing or had very little experience. After talking with Dr. Gross on the phone, I was sure I did the right thing.

I am in the process of completing my 4-year follow up after you and Dr. Gross resurfaced my left hip (June 2004). At the time of my surgery, my youngest son, Jack, was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia. He has now been declared "cured!"

This past August I rode in a charity bike ride called the Pan Mass Challenge and raised over $13,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute / Jimmy Fund Clinic (the hospital that saved his life). I am enclosing a photo of Jack and myself.

- Jim
Resurfaced Left Hip
June 2004

My life has been centered on being a professional sports instructor for almost forty years; teaching high-level snow skiing eight hours a day, seven days a week, for going on forty winters; and teaching high-level windsurfing many hours a day in Hawaii for over 25 summers.

After hundreds of hours of research and a few orthopedic consultations, I discovered and visited Dr. Gross and Lee Webb in 2007. I was extremely impressed by their degree of caring, their striving for the highest level of perfection, and their unending patience and dedication to what is best for their patients. I decided that they were my team when the time was right. My research made me confident in the uncemented Biomet resurfacing procedure developed by Dr. Gross.

Please include this picture as part of my 5-year follow up for hip-resurfacing surgery. I am on the right with my youngest daughter, Cassie, on the bottom left.

We are skiing black diamond runs at Moonlight Basin in the grand state of Montana.

From the time I was a small child, I’ve loved being around and riding horses. A few years ago, that had to be given up, along with many other physical activities due to severe osteoarthritis in my right hip.

Upon realizing that the joint needed replacement, I began looking for options—Mayo Clinic and local orthopaedic surgeons to name a few. Thankfully, a colleague at my agency told me about her father, who traveled from Colorado in 2005 to Columbia, SC for hip resurfacing with Dr. Gross.

I immediately looked up the website, read everything and viewed the videos, then contacted Lee.

Thank you hardly expresses my feelings and gratitude toward Dr. Gross, Lee Webb, the office and hospital staff. I had always been a very active person. Riding 2,000 miles each summer on my road bike, golfing, downhill skiing, rollerblading marathons and working out at the gym 5 to 6 days a week defined my life.

My 45th birthday marked the beginning of my struggle with osteoarthritis in my right hip and over the next five years all of these activities were slowly taken away from me as my hip deteriorated.

For 10 years, I struggled with the aftermath of a corticosteroid-induced AVN episode in my left hip, leaving me with bone-on-bone severe pain and large cysts within the femoral head. I'd been an active triathlete since 1985 and had completed the Canada Ironman 6 months before a cortisone injection for poison oak led to early AVN and the total loss of cartilage in my left hip. (My right hip has remained completely healthy).

Triathlon, running, XC skiing, backpacking are all essential for my psychology and happiness, and a standard "total hip" was too depressing to think about. I dropped my research in astronomy and spent hundreds of hours learning everything at the University of California San Francisco Medical Libary about bone, cartilage, hips, hip surgery, and AVN.

I wanted to let you know a few success stories since I had my hip resurfaced by Dr. Gross. In August of 2006, approx. 1 year after surgery, I met my goal of climbing my first Colorado 14 thousand foot peak called “Grey’s Peak”. 1 week later I got pregnant and we are expecting our first child in May. For years, I could not consider having a baby due to the chronic and constant pain that I was living with.

Mike from Florida poses with his catch on the opening day of lobster season. Mike had hip resurfacing one year ago and dove for two hours to bag this bunch.