The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
To be clear, I completely shattered the hip. The way it happened was like when Charlie Brown goes to kick the football and Lucy pulls it away from him - he goes flying through the air horizontally and lands flat on his back. In my case, I lost concentration for a second when I saw some leaves in front of me coming down off a bowl wall. I stepped off the board awkwardly but my foot slipped on the leaves and the board shot out from under me. I was completely airborne sideways and when I came down I landed on my side with all my weight on concrete. Snap!
This pic is of the first repair from Nov. 2018. The idea behind this repair was to avoid replacement because the Dr. thought I was too young for it. (I was 48 at the time) It was actually an experimental procedure and I was one of only a handful of people in the world that had it done.
It was fine for a while but after a couple years it felt like I had pulled a muscle in the joint that wouldn't stretch out. Over time it became really uncomfortable and I was constantly aware of it - I knew there was something wrong. After limping around for almost a year, I went back to my Dr. and he confirmed the necrosis condition. The only way to fix it was replacement.
At one point I considered skipping the replacement but after watching my dad deteriorate into a limping, hunched over mess because of decades-old untreated injuries, I knew I had to get it taken care of.
This is the replacement joint. It's basically a ball joint. The ball is ceramic, the rest of it is Cobalt. That whole inner section of the hip bone is gone now. Kinda gives me the willies to think about that.
In any event, it's pretty much a non-issue now and I can do whatever I want physically. Frankly, I haven't had much drive to skate in the last few years but that's more due to the fact I'm out of shape than anything else.
To better put this in perspective, here are two images illustrating the two hip surgeries I've had.
To be clear, I completely shattered the hip. The way it happened was like when Charlie Brown goes to kick the football and Lucy pulls it away from him - he goes flying through the air horizontally and lands flat on his back. In my case, I lost concentration for a second when I saw some leaves in front of me coming down off a bowl wall. I stepped off the board awkwardly but my foot slipped on the leaves and the board shot out from under me. I was completely airborne sideways and when I came down I landed on my side with all my weight on concrete. Snap!
This pic is of the first repair from Nov. 2018. The idea behind this repair was to avoid replacement because the Dr. thought I was too young for it. (I was 48 at the time) It was actually an experimental procedure and I was one of only a handful of people in the world that had it done.
It was fine for a while but after a couple years it felt like I had pulled a muscle in the joint that wouldn't stretch out. Over time it became really uncomfortable and I was constantly aware of it - I knew there was something wrong. After limping around for almost a year, I went back to my Dr. and he confirmed the necrosis condition. The only way to fix it was replacement.
At one point I considered skipping the replacement but after watching my dad deteriorate into a limping, hunched over mess because of decades-old untreated injuries, I knew I had to get it taken care of.
This is the replacement joint. It's basically a ball joint. The ball is ceramic, the rest of it is Cobalt. That whole inner section of the hip bone is gone now. Kinda gives me the willies to think about that.
In any event, it's pretty much a non-issue now and I can do whatever I want physically. Frankly, I haven't had much drive to skate in the last few years but that's more due to the fact I'm out of shape than anything else.