Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The start of my second blog

This blog is a direct continuation of

since it will also be about my experiences rock climbing after having artificial hip joints installed. The previous blog documents my first year getting back to climbing after revision surgery. Briefly: about four years ago (in May of 2010) I had my left hip resurfaced in Argentina by Dr. Sixto Vilicich, who botched the job, terribly. After a difficult year and a half, I decided to have revision surgery with Dr. Koen De Smet in Ghent, Belgium. Koen fixed me up with a ceramic on ceramic THR that looks like this:

My left hip after revision surgery

Currently, I'm about two-and-half years post-op and this revision surgery has worked out quite well for my particular needs. My previous blog details the first 13 months after having the THR installed.

About seven months ago I decided to return to Dr. Koen De Smet and have my right hip resurfaced. My right hip now looks like this:

My right hip has been resurfaced 


My new surgery is working out quite nicely, as well, This means I am no longer just someone with a revision who has managed to get back to climbing but that I'm also in the rather unique position of being someone who climbs with two different kinds of implants: a THR and an HR. This is one of the main reasons I've decided to start a new blog. The title of my old blog doesn't even fit anymore, Another reason is that my mood has changed since those early days after revision, and I now feel like I will be able to continue rock climbing for some time without being inhibited, in any important way, by my hip surgeries. When I started the previous blog, I wasn't sure just how far my revision surgery would take me, in terms of sustainable climbing capacity. Right now I can honestly say that my hips are doing better than they have for years (eight years? ten years?). So I expect that this blog will be mainly about rock climbing. I'm stoked, as they say, and climbing has once again become a major focus in my life. Looking around and seeing where many of my peers are, in terms of their lives, I can honestly say that my fascination with climbing isn't a bad thing. I believe people really need (at least I do) activities they love, even if it's something as ostensibly ludricous as climbing on rocks.


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