Ruth M. - Total Knee and Total Hip Replacement Recipient
"Now I'm the fun grandma!" laughs Ruth. "That's what I want to be - the one who can chase after my grandson and do fun things with him." But not so long ago, Ruth struggled to even walk.
Ruth had a pronounced limp due to the pain in her hip and knee. She commuted daily from her home in Connecticut into Manhattan for work, and remembers clinging onto the handrails in Grand Central Station to pull herself up the stairs.
"People had to pass me because I was so slow and in agonizing pain. I used to get to work exhausted just from the commute." When her grandson was born, "I finally said, this is crazy, I can't even play with my grandson."
That's when Ruth's rheumatologist recommended a hip and knee replacement surgeon. "When I met him he was very knowledgeable," Ruth remembers. They scheduled a hip replacement for January 2008 and a knee replacement for exactly 6 weeks later, in February. She was 56.
"My recovery was amazing. The other patients at rehab told me that I was their inspiration." Ruth says she and her grandson actually learned to walk together.
"He was just starting to learn and I was just re-learning how to walk properly - heel, toe, heel, toe. I hadn't been able to do that in four years." After about eight weeks, Ruth was walking normally, again. People who haven't seen her in a while are amazed when they see her walking without limping. "It's been night and day," she says.
Ruth took an early retirement and is going to care for her grandson during the day until he begins preschool. "Now I can pick up my grandson, I can pull him around the yard, I can chase after the ball with him - I'm the fun grandma! It's great."
She and her family have a Disneyworld vacation planned for this December. "There was no way I could have done that before," says Ruth. Then she laughs and jokes, "You've had your two surgeries and what are you doing now? I'm going to Disneyworld!"
Tom C. - BIRMINGHAM HIPT Resurfacing System Recipient
Tom has always led an active life. He's worked as a delivery driver for 24 years, hopping in and out of trucks and carrying packages. For years he was runner - he ran the NY marathon twice. And he is a black belt in Tae Kwan Do.
But about 10 years ago, at age 43, Tom broke down at mile 17 of the Hartford Marathon. He powered through to the finish, but he had to walk some.
"Something's not right," he thought. An X-ray revealed arthritis in his hip. His doctor said that if Tom were in his 50s or 60s, he'd recommend a hip replacement. But it was too early, at the time.
Over the next ten years, Tom noticed his flexibility slowly decreasing and his Tae Kwan Do kicks getting lower. "When you're a black belt and you're trying to show a child how to do a side kick, and you can't even do one, that's frustrating." Running was a struggle, too, "By the end, I couldn't even run a quarter of a mile. The two big things I liked to do, I couldn't really do anymore."
That's when a friend who worked at Tom's doctor's office mentioned a new doctor at the practice. The doctor was offering a brand new technique called hip resurfacing. Tom remembered reading about resurfacing a few years earlier, before it was approved in the US. "I remember my wife saying, 'you know, if you can hold on, this sounds like you."
Then he met a martial artist who had his hip resurfaced. The two "swapped war stories," and what he heard gave Tom hope that hip resurfacing could help him enjoy his favorite activities again. Tom met with the new doctor and scheduled surgery for August 2007, at age 53.
Tom was practicing Tae Kwan Do again by October 2007, two months after his surgery. He started slowly, at first, just doing light kicks in the air. But he noticed an improvement every month. "At a year, I really saw the difference. Now I've got the flexibility back. I can rotate my hips." He's also running again. "I go out about three times a week and run two or three miles. And I run on the treadmill at the gym."
Tom's physical recovery is remarkable. But he stresses that the surgery has repaired more than just his hip. When he couldn't do what he wanted to, it was mentally frustrating as well as physically frustrating. To him, "the biggest thing" now is having his quality of life back.
"Now I'm the fun grandma!" laughs Ruth. "That's what I want to be - the one who can chase after my grandson and do fun things with him." But not so long ago, Ruth struggled to even walk.
Tom has always led an active life. He's worked as a delivery driver for 24 years, hopping in and out of trucks and carrying packages. For years he was runner - he ran the NY marathon twice. And he is a black belt in Tae Kwan Do. 
