Marchele Maranto

I was 12 and i had a limp and so my mom took me to the doctor and i complained of pain and we came over here to a doctor and had to wear a brace for 18 months i had a disease called perthes and it's the ball in your hip joint that um it's supposed to be hard but mine was soft and back then you had to be off of it and keep the weight off and let it heal so for 18 months i wore this beautiful brace and boot that tall and then when i wasn't wearing the brace i had to wear crutches and the doctor told my mom back then that i would probably have to have a hip replacement later on because arthritis well i'm a nurse and i worked the hospital 12 hour shifts and the pain had started back and it was a lot in my back also not only my hips so i knew it was time to do something you live with something and you think it's going to go away you know and you know i just kept putting it off and putting it off but you know after so many years i just thought i was tired of it she came to me and i recommended a hip replacement and the way i do hip replacements is i do the anterior approach and I've been doing the anterior approach for over a decade now i make an incision on the front of the thigh and it goes between muscles instead of cutting through muscles which is what the lateral and the posterior approach do the beauty of that is i think people hurt a lot less but also there's no precautions after surgery once i go between the muscles we get to the top of the femur then we cut off the top of the femur the top of the femur is shaped like this and we cut this off here and then you have the socket we ream that socket a perfect say 55 millimeter diameter and then we put a 56 millimeter cup into that socket then we put plastic into that metal cup and then on the femur we put a stem down the femur with a ball on it and that stem is also press fit it's very tight and that is what articulates with the socket so you have metal or porcelain on plastic and it's almost frictionless and so that's why people have such relief right away it couldn't have been any easier i went in that morning and was home that night i had physical therapy at the house for a couple weeks they came a couple times had a walker i didn't use that for about a week i mean it was really no pain at all it was a great surgery i don't wear out as easily on into the day as i did you know i'd have to take breaks and kind of rest but you know i'm good to go now i don't have any complaints i think dr littlejohn's a great doctor it was a very easy procedure i would just highly recommend him to anybody he's very knowledgeable and you know i just had all faith in him and i didn't have one problem and it was the easiest surgery i've ever done i'll put it that way so and you know i may have to have another one down the road and i'll sure go back and ask him to do it