My THR Experience Both past and present
In 1966 my hip was literally blown into 164 pieces. If you picture
a hard boiled egg and drop it, you will have the picture of what happened when the mortar concussion threw me some 60 feet
into a tree. Upon awakening from a seven day coma, I found myself at Triplet Army Medical
Center in Honolulu, not in Viet
Nam. I had no memory of what happened, other than a fierce fire-fight with the NVA and one
of my team members, Ed Platt getting blown up in front of me from the mortar round. I was in more pain than I had every experienced.
I was in a Roosevelt bed, the type that turns 360, usually used for burn victims. My thigh was constricted
with something you could describe as a vice. It was vacuum traction, which was keeping the shattered hip in place. I was with
that devise for four months. The Orthopedic surgeon said that I was put back together, but bone spurs would cause me pain,
but that would get better with time. He also said that I would probably need to have a total hip replacement in 20 years.
He said that technology was just not there in 1966.
22 Years Later
In 1986, yes 20 years later I started experiencing pain in the
bad hip. I was lucky, as my wifes aunt was the head nurse for Dr. Horace Jenkins, a top orthopedic surgeon in California.
I had my first appointment with Dr. Jenkins in 1986. He looked at the new X-Rays and said that my hip was falling apart. He
said he would like to do a total left hip arthroplasty, but he said that I would be able to get another year out of the old
hip. About six months later, I was back and in pain. The next series of X-Rays showed further deterioration. He prescribed
a ½ inch heel lift, which helped for the next six months. The pain was getting so bad that I was living on Vicoden and not
really able to get much sleep. I knew time was getting short. Dr. Jenkins scheduled me for surgery in 1988. Since me was a
family friend, he came over with Coreen, my wifes aunt and his head nurse for dinner. He had a video tape with him. He asked
if I had any single malt scotch whisky and had an hour of time to watch the video and have a drink. Well, of course I did.
We settled in with our Talisker and rolled the tape. He told me to be quiet as he was going to explain everything I would
be watching. It was an entire tape of a THR arthroplasty. He went through step by step what he was doing and why. It was a
bone chilling experience. Since I was a fully qualified field medic, he wasnt talking over me head. He said that was exactly
what he would be doing to me. I had already ready made up my mind.
Glendale Memorial Hospital
In 1988, the insurance companies still allowed you to stay in
the hospital the night before surgery and also paid for the private room. I remember being in a small pre-surgery room, with
my wife Dolly at my side. She slept in the chair for the night. Around 5:00 am the
adventure started. In walks the male nurse with the razor and jokes that he promises not to cut off my manhood. That was accomplished
and next into the room was Dr. Aaron Rapport. He was the anesthesiologist. Strange, I went to Cal-State Northridge with him
in 1969. He and I talked about old times and then told me what kind of anesthesia he would be using. Next in was Dr. Jenkins.
To describe Dr. Jenkins would be a Santa Claus without the beard. He stood 63, weighed about 275 and had a perpetual smile
on his face. He said that we would get started in a couple of minutes, but he had to change into his astronauts suit. I was
wheeled into the OR with Dolly holding my hand a kissing me with the look of everything going to be fine. Aaron already had
the IV in place. He started telling a joke and the next thing I knew, some four hours later was some of the most severe pain
I have ever experienced. It made the original Viet Nam wound
feel like a scraped knee in comparison. He asked how I would like a nice large dose of morphine. It was already injected as
he was asking. The pain went to the background nicely. He did finish the punch line to the joke and send me off to my room.
He said we would hang out that evening after his last surgery. Dolly was awaiting my arrival in my private room. It was loaded
with flowers from just about everyone I knew. I was doing the afternoon show at KRTH radio at the time. My morning guy, Al
Conners let the cat out of the bag and told everyone why I would not be doing my afternoon show for a few weeks. He gave the
hospital I was in and said to send some cards and letters to cheer me up. Well, the flowers and bags full of cards brightened
my day. That lasted about an hour and then the pain was back with a vengeance. I called the nurse and she said the doctors
orders were for morphine every four hours and it had only been three hours since my last injection. I told her to get Dr.
Jenkins or Dr. Rapport on the phone right now and deal with this pain. About ten minutes later, she arrived to give me the
injection, right into the IV. All was well until about three hours later. Same story, new nurse and the four hour rule still
in place. She said it had only been 2.5 hours and there was nothing she could do about it. There I was suffering like a wounded
wildcat. I said get the doctor on the phone right now. She said he was in surgery and then would be on rounds. He will see
you then. I hurt so badly and was so pissed off that I didnt know what to do. This was around 9:00pm.
I got the injection about 90 minutes later. At 11:30pm, in strolls Dr. Jenkins. He asked how I was doing. I told him about the medication orders and he immediately
said he would adjust those on an as needed basis. He said that everything went very well in the OR with me. He said he gave
me a 26mm stainless ball, affixed into the medullar canal with a four inch titanium stem. He said it was cemented. The cup
was poly, inserted into a titanium cup, with cement. He said that the cement was hard enough during the surgery to place 100%
weight on it. He said that with the invasive procedure, he wanted to let the
tissue heal for a week before I tried to walk un-assisted. I was amazed. He said that the cement they use hardened in 60 seconds,
so when they inserted the stem, it better be properly positioned, or there could be some very serious problems. Obviously,
with me, everything went fine. I had the drain in the incision, didnt have a catheter and had the abduction pillow in place.
I asked him how long for the abduction pillow. He said three weeks should do it, and then use the pillow between my legs and
that I could sleep on either side.
Damn the Morphine
Morphine is a wonderful drug, but it is an opiate, highly addictive
and very much a depressant and will cause sever constipation. All of that was found out by me, very soon. I went into a deep
depression on day three. I was watching ESPN and motocross racing was on. I found myself crying like a baby. My wife asked
what was wrong. I said that I just realized that I could never be able to race again. She said that I had not raced motorcycles
since 1976. She said that there was a very nice 1974 FLH Harley Davidson motorcycle in our garage, just waiting for me. That
snapped me out of that, real quickly. I was still not in any state to receive visitors. I simply wanted no one but Dolly in
the room. I remember seeing Master Chief Don Bowland at the door with a banana split in his hand. Don was our Navy Seal, assigned
to my team in Viet Nam in the 1960s. I had lost total contact
with him over the years. Evidently he kept up with me, since he listened to my afternoon show regularly. He was retired out
of the Navy, but was one of my oldest and dearest friends. I turned him away.
I still regret that to this day. After I got home, about two weeks from that point, Don and Betsy came to the house, him carrying
another banana split, telling me if I threw it at him, he would break my other hip.
Going Home
I was finally time for me to go home. I remember I was driving
a 1973 Cadillac at the time. I was assisted into the back seat with all of the pillow support needed. It seemed like every
bump was like being on a stage coach. We were about 20 minutes from the hospital, right below the Hollywood
sign, in the hills. There were lots of winding roads. We finally arrived. I got myself out of the car, on a walker and remember
how scared I was going up the three steps to get to the front door. I did it and immediately had all of my energy zapped and
got into bed, my bed, for the first time in about 10 days. I looked out the bedroom door and there were my three daughters
lined up like baby ducks, waiting to come in. They saw how much pain I was in and kidded me and welcomed me home. Amanda,
the little one, at that time being 6 years old asked if she could sleep with me just to make sure Daddy was okay. I hugged
and kissed all three of them, bringing tears to my eyes. I knew everything was going to be fine. They understood the severity
of my surgery and were there for my every whim. The only real problem I had was severe muscle cramps, being just like a Charley
Horse, but taking it to about 100 times worse. We called Dr. Jenkins and he ordered flexeril, a muscle relaxant for me. Dolly
picked that up and the cramps went away. I spend the next two days in bed, only getting up for the bathroom and to shower.
Thank God that we had a back bathroom, which was fixed for me. It had a real shower and the raised toilet seat. It was at
the other end of the house, so with a 3500 square foot home, that was quite a trek, but what the heck, I needed the exercise.
My program director, Phil Hall from KRTH came over to see me. I said that is would be about
another month before I could go back into the radio station. He said that he had a plan. He had a high end voice line ordered
for my bedroom and Jim Blakeley, the chief engineer was on his way over with something special. Blakeley arrived with two
other engineers. They had a full remote set up, on a hospital stand, all the knobs and buttons you would need to control a
747. Along with it was a very expensive microphone. Phil said that I would be doing my afternoon show from my bed, starting
on Monday. This was Friday, when he was there. He said that he would have the program logs and music lists sent my messenger
everyday. He had my producer, Edith Machado in the studio to run the board and Jim would be there every afternoon with me.
This was the first time a major market personality had every done an afternoon show from his bedroom. It made the front page
of Radio & Records and Billboard, which are our trade publications.
Monday Arrived
Dear Edith arrived at my house around 8:30
am on that debut Monday. She looked at all the equipment and marveled at what Jim had done. We did a line test
on the microphone and all of the controls, along with the talk back function. Everything was 100%. Since Edith had been my
producer for three years, she knew my every move before I made it. Jim Blakeley arrived at about 1:30 pm. Edith had already
gone back to the KRTH studio.
He tested the line, again, gave his approval. At 2:30 pm Edith and I started our communication, my telling her that I would always cue her with Smokin
Oldies on KRTH AM-930. Roger that was all she said. Of course I had KRTH in my
headphones. There was Corbett Brattin, doing the three oclock
news. Then the big announcer voice game into the headphones. And now Ladies and Gentlemen, its more Smokin Oldies with Buck
Buchanan. Edith rolled Buddy Holly and Thatll be the Day and we were off to the races. No one every told
the audience I was doing the show from my bedroom. They wanted to see if anyone noticed. At the end of the show, Phil
Hall called and said that he listened to the whole show and couldnt tell that I was anywhere but my regular
studio. He said that I should let everyone know the next day that it was live from Bucks bedroom. I Okayed that. Blakeley,
a big guy with very few words just smiled and said great job and he would see me tomorrow. Edith arrived at the house at about
8:00 pm with a bottle of Champaign.
She said the show was slick and I was at my best. She had also managed to get all of my live characters on the line, patched
in to me at the house, so the bits remained exactly the same. Edith, Dolly and I drank the Champaign,
but a little drunk, joked around and Edith asked if she could sleep on the couch, as she was not in any condition to drive.
The Cruise
Prior to my going into surgery, Phil Hall,
our program director said that Norway Cruise Lines wanted me to host a Smokin Oldies Cruise to the Caribbean.
They had hired a flock of 50s artists; The Platters, Jay and the Americans, The Four Aces and the comedian Soupy Sales for
entertainment. Phil asked when I would be able to do that. I called Dr. Jenkins
and he said that I should be fine at about the 12 week point. I gave that information to Phil. The deal was struck. We would
be cruising the Caribbean on September 9th of 1988. I was still doing the show from my bedroom
when I did the first live commercial, announcing the cruise. I was the number one oldies jock in town at the time, but I had
no idea how much interest that cruise would generate. Within seven days, we had 350 full paid audience members chomping at
the bit to get out on the water with me. Success was the name of the game, which did much for my recovery. One the dark side,
Dr. Jenkins said that the cruise was fine, but he didnt want me to fly because of possible deep vein thrombosis. He told me
to drive. Since Dolly, my wife was a teacher, she couldnt go with me. I said that was not a problem and said it might be a
fun trip for Rhonda, then 12 years old. Rhonda was my ship mate. Now, I dont think that Dolly was worried about 350 fans,
some being single women attacking me, but Rhonda would make sure that never entered into the picture. A very smart wife is all I can say.
Physical Therapy
Dr. Jenkins ordered PT for me at Glendale Memorial at the three
week post-op period. He said I could drive myself and I was doing fine. Due to the upcoming cruise, I told Dolly that the
1973 Cadillac had 290,000 miles on her and she was ready to be put out to pasture. Lexus had just come out with the LS400,
which was one hell of an automobile. It wouldnt be ready for the public for a few months. I say with the owner of Glendale
Lexus and told him about my upcoming cruise and the drive across the country. I told him if he could pull some strings with
Lexus Motor Company, I would give him live plugs for the car and his dealership twice an afternoon, as I would call in reports
from my trip going to Florida and coming home. He said he would see what he could do. I then got introduced to my physical
therapy team. It was great and was really helping in speeding my recovery. That lasted about two weeks, with PT being four
times week. The beginning of the third week, I didnt see a person I knew in PT. Evidently the entire staff had been fired,
only to be replaced by a new group. The problem with that is that no one on staff had ever dealt with a total hip patient
before. I immediately call Dr. Jenkins. He said that shouldnt go back, do my exercises at home.
Off and Running
There I was, six weeks out of surgery, being able to do 100% weight
bearing and loaded for bear. Dr. Jenkins said that he wanted me to continue to do my radio show from my bedroom for another
two weeks, just to be sure that I had a little more time for the tissue to heal. That I did, the radio show from the bedroom,
but I still sneaked out to the garage and threw my leg over that 1976 FLH Harley Davidson. Got it up from the kick stand and
all was well. I didnt ride it, as my wife would have simply packed up and moved to her mothers house. At nine weeks, I got a call from Glendale Lexus. The owner said that if I made good on my promise to talk
about my new car while winding down the highways and byways, Lexus Motors would supply me with the first Lexus 400 in the
western United States. Of course I had to pay for it, but
I got the beauty. The owner said that the only one they could get was dark Jade Green with saddle leather. That was exactly
what I wanted. I took Ole Betsy, the 1973 Coupe Deville to the dealership, said my goodbyes and was as excited about my new
car as a kid with a new bicycle.
On the Road
Rhonda and I packed the car. I could tell by the look on her face
that she was just not too excited about driving all the way from one end of the country to the other. I had a little surprise
for her. I had purchased an 8mm video player. I had my producer transfer all of her favorite videos to 8mm cassettes. I presented
it to her in the car. There were 35 movies, along with the cigarette lighter adapter and a set of head phones. She brightened
up light someone had turned on a light bulb. The next morning we hit the road. The Lexus was the finest car I had ever owned,
or driven and it was a joy. As soon as we got into the desert, I looked in the rearview mirror and there was Rhonda, headphones
on, lying on a pillow, watching some kid movie. The first day got us into El Paso, Texas.
Day two put us into Houston, Texas. Boy, can that kid eat.
She wasnt into hamburgers, or any of the typical kid food, but wanted steak, or shrimp, or something else kids her age would
turn their noses up at. I guess that is why she is a chef in a five-star restaurant. I asked her how she was enjoying the
scenery. She looked puzzled, as she had seen nothing, heard nothing but the 8mm video player. Well, so much for pointing out
the sights. Day three was put us in Jacksonville, Florida.
It was night time. I kept Rhonda in the car while I went into register. The motel had a little restaurant and bar associated
with it. The owner was great, looked like a Viet Nam veteran.
Beside me was a simply drop-dead gorgeous blond, about 30. She came over to me and placed her hand on mine and said when I
checked in to let her buy me a drink in the bar. Oh man, here we go. I was sure I was getting hit on by the local prostitute,
but came to find out that the guy at the front counter was her father. She said they didnt have hardly any customers, as it
was Wednesday night. Oh, temptation is a terrible thing. I then knew that Dolly was very right about sending Rhonda along
with me. I told the blond that I had my daughter in the car and wouldnt be able to take her up on her invitation. I have never
told Rhonda or her mother about that episode, even though Rhonda is now 25 and her mother and I have been divorced. Day four
placed us in Miami at our pre-arranged hotel. Miami Beach
was on the other side of the causeway. She had no idea what to expect, but that night, she couldnt get enough of Miami
Beach and the excitement. I guess she didnt have any more movies to watch.
The Big Days are Here
The morning found us in a taxicab with a Cuban driver whose accent
was so thick; I thought that I was riding with the head of a drug cartel. I had recently watched Scarface and he sounded just
like one of those characters. There she was; The SS. Norway in all her splendor. She used to be the SS. France and was used
toward the end of WWII to transport troops to Europe. She was the largest cruise ship in the Caribbean,
weighing in at 96 thousand tons. That is about the weight of an aircraft carrier. Walking up the gang plank, we were greeted
by a sign, simply saying; Welcome Buck Buchanan and 350 of his loyal listeners to the Smokin
Oldies Cruise. Well, I was impressed. We were one of the first people on the ship and the plane, carrying my listeners would
not be boarding for another three hours. When we were taken to our stateroom, there was a huge fresh fruit arrangement, along
with three bottles of liquor, which if I remember were, Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Absolute Vodka and Bombay Gin.
The small refrigerator was totally stocked with every kind of soda Rhonda could want, along with all those wonderful munchie
items. The stateroom was huge. It had two queen sized beds, but they were separated by a large sitting room. The stateroom
had a balcony, which you could sit outside and watch the ocean rush past the ship. There was a knock on the cabin door. It
was Beverly and her boyfriend Bud. Beverly was one of the publicity ladies from
the radio station. She told me that they had planned a little get together in my honor in the stateroom at 5:00pm. She said I should get unpacked and put on something nice, as my listeners would be arriving
in about 45 minutes. I got cleaned up and took Rhonda, with Beverly and Bud to the gang plank. Here they came, four buses
full of listeners, all converging on me like a herd of stampeding horses. The photographer was there and took pictures of
me and every listener, be that single of a couple. I dont ever remember seeing a happier bunch of people than those. We all
agreed to have dinner at the late sitting, around 10:00pm and then we could have
some drinks and socialize. So it started. It was about 4:30pm when I finally greeted
everyone and wandered down to our stateroom. I was totally blown away. There
was a full spread of fresh veggies, cracked crab, all the shrimp you could eat and bottles of Dom Perignon. Beverly
arrived with the Captain, the Purser, the head of activities and about 20 of the entertainers. There was Rhonda, totally blown
away, just as I was. The Platters were there, along with the Four Aces, Jay Black of Jay and the Americans and Soupy Sales.
It was one hell of a party. It went on right up to the place that the late night dining call sounded. We broke the party up
and had four tables set-up especially for me and as many listeners that would fit. The Captain asked me to come up to the
front of the dining room and introduced me to the whole darned room. Now, the SS. Norway does not only hold 350 people, but
more like 1300. I can imagine that about 950 people had no idea who I was and why I was being introduced. The Captain then
called up all of the entertainers. We took our bows and sat down for dinner. Well, that night, we ended up in the various
bars, lounges and casino until the wee-hours of the morning. Rhonda was simply falling asleep at the table, so I took her
down to the stateroom. I expected it to be a mess, after the party, but it was spotless and the beds were turned down with
mints on each pillow. She literally fell into bed with the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face. She told me she loved
me and thank you for everything. Before she drifted off to sleep, I got the head steward in the room. I told him to guard
the cabin with his life as that was my little girl in there and I had to get back up to my group. All was well. Beverly, the
publicity lady was with me, every move I made. She was the best, always taking my cue when I wanted to move to another table
with other listeners. The whole cruise was that way. I had a special dinner with the Captain, not at his table, but in his
cabin with his head engineer and purser. He asked Rhonda if she wanted to see what made the ship work. Rhonda was ready to
go. The Captain gave us a personal escorted tour of the bridge, engine room and communications set-up. It was all pretty amazing,
as amazing as the cockpit of a 747. I was required to do three reports a day to the radio station about the trip. That was
done from the Captains cabin. Let it be said that the cruise was the best thing I had experienced in many a year. Rhonda decided
to fly back to LA with the group, so I was left to drive back across the country alone.
The Hip The Cruise The Drive
One would have imagined that I was in pain from all the miles
on the road, after just having a total hip replacement 10 weeks ago, but that was not the case. I had no pain; I mean NO pain
at any point. I had even gotten to the place that I forgot that I had an artificial hip. That is how well the whole thing
went. Thank the good Lord for that and blessings to Dr. Jenkins.
2002 The Hip is Showing Wear
KRTH Radio has been sold in 1993, so I entered into a brand new
profession in 1996. I joined EarthLink Network, a brand new Internet Service Provider in Pasadena,
California. I was their senior technical support manager, managing about 1200 technical
support agents. In January of 2002, I was asked to become Senior Manager of MultiMedia for the company. We started out with
one call center in Pasadena, but by that time, we had merged with the Atlanta
based ISP, Mindspring. This brought our customer base to over five million customers.
We now had 8 call centers, ranging from to San Jose, to Sacramento,
Roseville, Pasadena, Phoenix,
Dallas, Atlanta and finally Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. One of the biggest problems
any company faces is something called churn. It simply means keeping customers and not let them leave your business for another. With so many Internet Service Providers out there, especially AOL, our churn rate
was at about seven percent. That was costing the company big time dollars. What would we do about it? Mike
Ihde, Vice President of Sales and I sat down for a strategy session on night. We thought that it might be
a viable option to have churn rallies at all the call centers. We would open up with a MTV style video, give out great prizes
and then launch into ideas about controlling churn. It was then that I was made Senior Manager of MultiMedia. I was going
to produce 42 rallies a year, all across the nation. That was to mean two months on the road, two months off and then do it
all again. I was on my feet with a video camera, dressing sets, editing video tape and coordinating the rallies, which was
a real big responsibility. There we went, trekking across the country, call center to call center, with my crew of 12. My
video and audio guys took all the equipment in a 12 passenger van, along with a 12 foot trailer all over the United
States. I logged more than 40,000 miles in 2002. The
rallies were a huge success, dropping our churn rate to the lowest point in the corporations history. That meant more rallies,
dont spare the expense, and just get out there, which we did.
Enter a Failing Prosthetic
In 2001, I knew that my hip was starting to fail. I was getting
pain in the joint area, but did nothing about it. My original orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Horace Jenkins had retired and I let
it go. Well, with all the production time and lugging sets around and being on the airplane more than being off, things got
worse. My cardiologist saw me for my regular 6 month checkup and I told him about my hip. I had no idea who to see about it.
He immediately said Dr. Phillip Merritt was my man. Dr. Merritt had replaced his 82 year old mothers hip and was one of the
best in the country. I got my referral and saw Dr. Merritt in early 2002. He took a series of X-Rays and said that my old
hip had deteriorated to the place that it is going to give me constant pain, not going to get better, only worse. He said
that I needed to have a revision as soon as possible. I told him about my profession and that I was going to be back on the
road for a couple of months and couldnt do anything about it at this point. He said that the hip was going to dislocate if
I didnt use a cane 100 percent of the time and he couldnt make promises that it still wouldnt happen. I was coming back off
the road 01-28-03. He wanted to do the surgery the day I returned, but
I still put it off. We settled on 03-10-03 to have the revision done.
Mike Ihde, now my boss put me on leave on 01-28-03,
with full pay and not taking away any of my sick days or vacation. He told me to work from home, but to give the hip a rest
until surgery. That is exactly what I did. As you know, I am a big time Harley Davidson fan, riding most every weekend. What
sort of sealed the deal with Dr. Merritt was in November of 2002. I was going to take the bike out for a ride with the attitude
of the hell with pain. As soon as I mounted the bike and got beast off the kick stand, I knew I could never do that again,
at least until I had my surgery. It was the true reality check I needed.
Revision THR Arthroplasty
The morning of 03-10-03,
at about 4:30am, my ex-wife arrived at my apartment. She and I are still best friends,
even though we had been divorced for more than three years. Off we went to Glendale
Adventist Medical Center
for my surgery. Of course, I had been there to donate my blood, get the pre-op physical and find my way around. I got to the
surgery check in at about 5:30am, just as they opened the doors. My surgery was
scheduled for 7:30am. They did all their pre-op work, blood pressure, EKG and started
the IV. Dr. Merritt walked into the room and said that I was going to have an
epidural, along with general anesthesia. He said that the epidural would block the pain for about 48 hours after surgery.
It all sounded good to me. I couldnt wait to get started. From previous appointments with him, I knew what kind of prosthetic
he was going to use and that bone grafts would be necessary. He exited, only to be replaced by a striking Indian woman, with
salt and pepper hair and a huge smile. She was the anesthesiologist. She had worked on Dr. Merritts operating staff for a
decade. She told me what she was going to do. I was already aware, so there were not many questions. She said she was going
to give me something to relax me before performing the epidural. She injected valium into the IV and off I went. Dolly kissed
me goodbye, just as she had in 1988 and said she would be waiting for me. God bless that lady. I remember going into the OR,
or what I thought was the OR, as it was that entire ugly green tile. The anesthesiologist was gowned, scrubbed and masked.
I was moved onto a table, asked to bend over as far as I could and she started placing the epidural needles in my lower spine.
It was when that was done and was lifted to the gurney was to be the last thing I remember. Two hours later, I awakened in
the recovery room, with my hip hurting like the dickens. What was strange is that my right side was numb, which was my good
side. The anesthesiologist said that there had been a problem with the epidural and it numbed the wrong side. I was immediately
given morphine which worked immediately. I do remember getting into my room, a private one, than God and there was Dolly waiting
for me. I asked her how long my surgery was and she said it had been 90 minutes and another hour in recovery. Heck, it wasnt
even 1:00pm. The nurse explained that I had a PCA pump, which contained morphine
and I could use it every 10 minutes. The morphine, from the recovery room was wearing off, so I hit the button and immediately
got relief. By, this sure was not like the first go-around. I was pain-free. I had a good dinner that evening, if you call
vegetarian food a good dinner. Glendale Adventist is exactly that, Adventist and does not serve any meat. Oh well, I would
deal with it. This time, there was no drain and I had a catheter. I guess that meant no getting out of bed. Dolly said her
goodbyes and shortly after, Dr. Merritt came in. He said that they had used a 36mm ceramic head, a four inch titanium stem,
cemented, new cross-linked poly liner, titanium cup, affixed by three pelvic screws. He also said that he had used 30cc of
bone graft material as the acetabulum had deteriorated pretty badly. He said that the surgery went better than he expected.
He said that I would be in the hospital for four days and then seven days in the rehab ward to get me started on a physical
therapy program. With the morphine, a lot of the next three days were pretty
hazy. I remember all the flowers. I also remember friends and employees dropping in, but I cant tell you that I remember any
of the conversations. All three of my daughters came to see me, along with Dolly. Day four found me without the PCA pump and
taking Oxycodone for pain management. I was given 10mg of Ambien to help me to sleep. The surgical pain was really almost
gone. They removed the catheter on day two and I was able to use a urinal. That
was something I didnt want to go through again. The removal scared me worse than the surgery. Day four found me being transferred
to the rehab ward. No more private room for me. I had three room mates. One guy was an older Vietnamese gentleman who spoke
very little English and was recovering from a stroke. One of the other guys had a double knee replacement, done by Dr. Merritt.
He was in his late 60s and a great guy, a former teacher, so we had lots to talk about. Then there was the third guy. He had
broken his neck, was in a halo constrictor and simply was not lucid. He was tied down to the bed, as he kept trying to get
up, which would have had dire consequences. He would launch into strings of profanity and kept trying to loosen his restraints.
I would call the nurse and she would give him a sedative in his IV and that calmed him down, at least for a while. At that
point, I was able to get out of bed and use a walker. They also brought me a wheel chair, which I would sit in and ambulate
around the hall ways. The older gentleman who was not lucid was wreaking havoc in the room. He was moaning, swearing and screaming,
no allowing anyone to get the badly needed rest. I called the nurse and she gave him something in his IV at about 1:00am and he calmed down for the rest of the night. Well, let me say until around 5:00am and
he was back to the old routine. I had my breakfast and got into the wheel chair as soon as I could and got the heck out of
the room. There was a large screen TV in the waiting area, just to the left of the nurses station. I told them to let the
PT therapist know where I was. It was two time a day for PT and two times a day for vocational therapy. The sun was setting
and I was getting very tired. I wheeled myself back into the room, got in bed, only to have this non-lucid patient start raising
hell, once again, just like clock-work. I called the nurse and said if this guy was not moved out of the room for the night,
I was going to call my doctor and the chief of nursing. I guess that did it. His bed was taken from the room at about 9:00pm and he was moved into the hallway, right next to the nurses station. Thanks the good
Lord for that. It was a blissful night. The next day, the gentlemans family came in and had him transferred to a convalescent
facility in Northern California. Replacing him was another double knee patient. This guy was about
75 and had a heart attack in the rehab ward a week before I arrived. They did a quadruple bypass on him then and there. The
guy was great, no heart pain and did those excruciating knee exercises without complaint. The machines are very painful and
no fun at all. So there was the older Mexican man and the older Italian man, both machines going and the Vietnamese guy was
sleeping most of the time. Let the fun begin. My friend Gracie arrived to see me, carrying a dozen hand made tamales. My mouth
is watering just thinking about them. We got the LVN to heat them up and I shared them with my roomies. It was the best of
the best, until the next night. The older Italian mans family arrived with a full pan of lasagna, which was to be shared among
all of us. Another culinary delight especially compared to the vegetarian diet we all had to endure. My PT was going well,
as was the vocational therapy. Dr. Merritt said that he was going to release me the next day. He had me on 25 percent weight
restrictions for 8 weeks, to let the graft start hardening up. There was faithful little Dolly waiting to take me home.
Scared to Death
I have to admit I was scared to death to go home, be alone in
my one bedroom apartment, with no one there in case of emergencies. Sure, I have great neighbors, but they can be there all
the time. Dolly said not to worry as there was a surprise awaiting me at home. That
didnt do much to ease my fears, but when I got home, the surprise was the best one I have gotten in a long time. My dear friend
Scott, from EarthLink had taken 10 days off to be with me. He did everything. He cooked, he cleaned, and he emptied my urinal,
did the laundry and was just a joy to be around. I couldnt have done it without him. When the time came for him to go back
to work, I was pretty well settled in. I used a walker, but had enough micro-wave stuff to keep me well fed. I was able to
carry a large container of iced water, or juice in a plastic grocery bag to my lounger. That was pretty much my place of residence
for many weeks. I had my six week appointment with Dr. Merritt. Scott was kind
enough to drive me. The doctor told me that I could go to 50 percent weight bearing and used crutches for a week, then to
75 percent with one crutch and a week after that, 100% weight bearing and a cane. He also started me with physical therapy
on 05-01-03.
PT Horror Stories
Everything was fine for the first couple of weeks. I knew my bad
leg was getting stronger by the day. I also was experiencing some real IT band pain. It seemed that Jem; the therapist knew
exactly what to do. Deep tissue massage was the answer. This guy hurt me bad enough to make me shout for him to stop. It was
as if he had lost his hearing. He didnt stop. When he finally did, I was in worse pain than before. He said he would ice it
down and I would be good a new in a couple of days. When I got home, I was in such excruciating pain that I took two Vicoden
to stop the pain. It dulled it, but sleep was something that I couldnt do in the bed, only the lounger chair. The next day
was worse. I looked at my operated leg and it was black and blue from the incision to the knee. I was back on the walker,
taking Vicoden and knew that I had to call Dr. Merritt. Dr. Merritt, who had given me permission to drive at the six week
point was there waiting for me. He took one look at the leg and said: Oh my God, why in heaven would he have done that. I
had a series of films taken and the joint was in tact. He said me would contact the therapist and give him a good talking
to along with his supervisor. He told me to rest for a week before going back to PT. He said that no real harm had been done
to the surgical site, but that the IT band would take at least a week to calm down. It was back to the lounger. A week later
found me back with Jem, the therapist. He all but fell over himself in apologizing to me. I simply told him that when I said
stop, he should have stopped as he was really hurting me. He then said that he was trained in deep tissue massage, but would
not do it again with me. I knew I had a personality problem with the guy. I then
had my twelve week check-up with Dr. Merritt and he said that I appeared to have gained a lot of strength in the operated
leg and I was progressing nicely. He said the IT band pain would be with me for a while, as the surgery stretched it with
the lengthening of the leg, but it would calm down. I popped the question. When would I be able to ride my Harley again? He
said it looked like it would be a nice sunny, warm Saturday and I should give myself a couple of hours on the bike. He said
if anything happened, he would be there to fix it. Saturday was a joy, I put about 52 miles on the bike, put it back in the
garage and said finally things are turning around. I of course bragged about this to Jem, the therapist and he seemed angry.
He didnt say much, but finally he said that I was no longer to use my cane and the next time he saw me, lose the cane. I did,
only to have the IT band flare up again. My macho didnt allow me to say I wouldnt do that, so I went along with his program.
That weekend, I rode about 140 miles on the bike, with no problems. I showed up for PT on Monday. Of course I told Jem about
the ride. He once again seemed angry. He didnt say much, but said that we were going to close the PT session with a new exercise,
since I was able to ride 140 miles on my motorcycle. He said we were going to do abduction exercises with a six pound ankle
weight. He had me roll on my good side, placed the weight around the ankle and had me do three repetitions of 10 with the
weight. It almost killed me, but I got through it. The next day, I couldnt even get out of bed with severe pain. I finally
got back on the walker and on the phone with Dr. Merritt. I guess he was probably getting tired of hearing from me, but he
said to come in immediately. He said that was it. He was going to have that therapist fired as the abduction routine could
have really caused some serious damage to the joint. Another set of films were taken, but the joint was fine, but there was
a lot of clouding in the X-Ray. He said that was from all the torn muscle fibers being torn loose. He said that it would take
at least two weeks of rest to get back to the point of using a cane again. He also said that he was sending me to a new PT
therapist, Dr. Joseph Luk, who was rated as one of the best in the state. He said the only
reason he didnt have me with Joseph Luk from the beginning was that he was totally booked
up. He had me with Joseph Luk after the two weeks had passed. I knew as soon as I saw Joseph
and spend 90 minutes with him personally for assessment he was the right guy. He had been in practice fore more than 20 years.
He knew every orthopedic guy in the Los Angeles area. He knew them, not only by
reputation, but personally. He was one of Dr. Horace Jenkins best friends. If you remember, Dr. Jenkins was my first orthopedic
surgeon who had since retired. He said that Dr. Merritt was internationally respected
as one of the top ten revision orthopedic surgeons in the country. He was cutting edge, all the way. Joseph
Luk got me into an exercise program, which was mild reconditioning, and physical manipulation, three times
a week. He did his job. At my last appointment with him, he did his final assessment of my physical condition. I got very
honest with him. I told him that I could not walk more than 60 feet without the IT band flaring up, causing me to use the
cane. It simply hadnt calmed down, nor did I feel it will in the very near future. He said that was exactly what he had noticed,
along with some lower spine problems due to 15 years of improper gait and the old prosthetic failing. He said that I had about
75 percent strength in my operated leg, but that the psoas was at about 60 percent. He said that may be all we could get from
that muscle. I told him, which is the first time I have told anyone this that I hurt all the time when I walk, do suffer lower
back sciatic pain daily, but have accepted it as a way of life. The pain is surely different than the prosthetic break down.
He agreed, but he said that when I see Dr. Merritt 09-04-03, to let him
know exactly what was going on and keep the macho attitude in my back pocket. He said Dr. Merritt would be straight with me.
I saw Dr. Phillip Merritt this morning. He ordered a new set of
X-Rays and I do have to say that I was amazed at how much change there was in the hip joint. The bone strength was very present
on the X-Ray. Also, if you remember, I had a 30cc bone graft in the acetabulum. At the eight week X-Ray, you could really
see where the grafting had taken place. On this current set of X-Rays, taken 09-04-03,
there was no evidence of grafting. Sure, there were the three affixing screws into the pelvis, but Dr. Merritt said they would
do nothing, but stay there, as they were no longer needed. As you remember, I am having some pretty severe IT band pain, along
with lower back pain. Dr. Merritt said that was very common in a revision, as with the previous 15 years of deterioration,
the IT Band had shrunk and would probably take over a year for me to be completely relieved of that pain. He also said the
Psoas, being the inner thigh tendon would never give me more than about 65 percent abduction. I laughed and said that I sure
wouldnt be sitting Indian style unless I was captured by a bunch of Apaches.
Since I have been pretty good in staying in contact with Dr. Merritt,
he did deliver me some news that I pretty well knew was coming. He said that my life with a video camera, or using a boom
microphone in multi-hour video sessions had to come to an end. He said I would never be able to spend that much time on my
bad hip, as it was just too much weight and to strenuous for me to tolerate. He said that sitting editing video, or any of
my other multimedia duties were fine, but I really needed to be sitting in my profession. Well, I have been working since
I was 13 years old and I guess I feel I deserve a break. I have my long term disability and am going to use it. Oh, he did say that anytime I wanted to ride my Harley Davidson was just fine with him. So, it seems that
I am about as good as I am going to get. Sure, I will give it a year for the IT band to calm down and let the lower back heal.
I really am as happy as I ever have been in my life.
Oh, there have been many discussions about the IT Band, as to
whether it is a muscle, tendon or ligament. Dr. Merritt said it was technically a muscle, acting as a tendon and ligament
at the same time. There is nothing else in the human body like it. Also, I asked Dr. Merritt why he chose to give me ceramic
on cross-linked poly, versus ceramic on ceramic. He said that with revision arthroplasty, ceramic on ceramic would give me
about 10 percent less ball to socket affixation. He ended up saying that I had a 35 year hip, versus the 50-year. Life is
good with me.
God bless your days.
