Birmingham Hip resurfacing at Florida Hospital Celebration Health was Joe Cashwell’s ticket back to an active lifestyle

Joe Cashwell, 43, is a big, strong guy with a muscular 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound frame. Demanding sports and outdoor activities have always been part of his life. Playing football, riding motorcycles and dirt bikes, and wrestling around with his two sons, ages 14 and 3, have kept him fit and active. So has his career as owner of two businesses—a construction business and home theater installation. In 2007, he started experiencing some unusual symptoms. At first they were fairly minor. Joe felt some discomfort and pain in his right hip if he rode his motorcycle for more than 90 minutes. Then he noticed he couldn’t sleep on his side because he couldn’t get his knees to touch. Chronic hip pain came next, including a stabbing pain that he would feel when he twisted his body. Able to chuckle about it now, Joe notes that when that sudden pain occurred, “I would be vocal!” Walking through the mall, he would sometimes let out a howl that would make heads turn. Joe knew it was time to seek medical help. His primary care physician suggested he see a specialist. That is how he came to know David Dore, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at Florida Hospital Celebration Health. After studying Joe’s X-rays, Dr. Dore told Joe that he had significant cartilage deterioration in his right hip. “My right hip was bone to bone,” Joe recalls. “I had worn through the cartilage on my hip from being very active my whole life.” That was the good news. The bad news was that the left hip was almost as worn as the right. Only surgery—or rather two separate surgeries—would restore the pain-free mobility Joe had been gradually losing. Dr. Dore suggested hip resurfacing, a less radical alternative to total hip replacement. (See sidebar, page 3) Joe was depressed at first. “The first thing that flew through my mind was that my life with my 14-year-old and my 3-year-old was over.” He assumed he would never be able to recover the same degree of mobility he had enjoyed, and that he would have to adjust to a reduced quality of life. But Joe wasn’t ready to let hip cartilage deterioration slow him down. As he learned more about the procedure and its excellent prognosis, Joe cheered up. Surgery on Joe’s right hip was scheduled for February 10. Prior to surgery, Joe attended a half-day training class that told him what to expect from the surgical experience and the post-surgical recovery period. He also learned how to perform the rehabilitative exercises he would need to do after the surgery. The instructors also encouraged him to practice the physical therapy in advance. Joe and the other class participants were given material that answered many of the most commonly asked joint resurfacing questions. They also were given the cell phone number of the joint replacement care coordinator. Recovery from the hip resurfacing procedure is generally smooth, and

Celebration’s rehab services help all patients progress as quickly as they can. Typically, patients return directly home within three days instead of transitioning to a rehab facility. Because of his good physical condition and his determination, the pace of Joe’s recovery was unusually fast. The morning after the procedure he was helped out of bed to sit in a recliner. He was given a walker and brought to a 300-foot oval corridor designed for rehabilitating hip surgery patients. By walking this corridor, he was able

to measure his progress in laps. Other physical therapy included ankle lifts, partial squats, and other range-ofmotion exercises. Joe’s first surgery took place on a Tuesday. After walking about 3,000 feet, he walked out of the hospital with a walker on Thursday morning. At home, he continued his rehab exercises twice a day, concentrating on learning how to get in and out of bed without assistance, while steadily increasing his

walking. “Every day, I got noticeably better,” Joe says. “The better I felt, the more motivated I was to continue working hard at my rehab.” Joe’s surgeon, Dr. Dore, performed the same hip resurfacing procedure on his other hip on June 2. By four weeks after the first surgery and three weeks after the second surgery, Joe was back at work, resuming most of his regular activities. At 14 weeks after his second surgery, he ran two miles. Both of his hips are now, as he puts it, “out of restriction.” Full contact sports are not

recommended, but he has resumed normal daily activities. “I am 100 percent as of right now.” Joe’s recovery was unusually fast. This was due in part to his excellent physical condition, as well as his dedication in attending the group training sessions both prior to and after his surgery. Joe praises Celebration Health and its stellar staff for their role in giving him his life back. “From probably the worst thing

that’s ever happened to me, it turned out to be one of the best experiences in my life,” says Joe. “And I have never met a group of people like this in my entire life.”