OrthoEdge Total Joint Replacement: “There’s almost nothing I can’t do.”

In 2017 Jim Headington received a new hip.  Everything seemed to be going fine until he was feeling the recovery was taking too long and he was still experiencing pain.

An X-ray 8 months after surgery showed more than normal bone growth around the implant.

“Apparently only the lucky few get this,” Jim said. He explained that only one to two percent of hi replacement patients will experience moderate to severe bone growth.

Jim, a long time Dotson employee, has always been active.  He is an avid hunter, enjoys sports, hiking and walking.

Jim Headington wasn’t able to hunt because of the pain in his hip. Two years later, Jim is doing all the activites he used to enjoy before hip pain slowed him down.

“My quality of life was terrible,” he said about the pain from the extra bone growth following the hip replacement. “I was 61 years old and couldn’t walk a city block.”

Jim said he also walked with a limp, had difficulty sleeping because of the pain in his hip and took 10-12 ibuprofen a day to help with pain.

With the encouragement and support from his wife, Jim made and appointment to see Dr. Kyle Swanson at the Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic to see if he could help.

“He looked at the X-rays and said, ‘I can get most of that bone growth out.’”

Almost 2 years to the date of his first hip replacement, Jim arrived at River’s Edge Hospital to get his hip fixed.

“I had not heard of this place before I had hip surgery,” he said. “The care here is excellent.”

Today, just over two years later, Jim is back to normal. “There’s almost nothing I can’t do.  I’m not very good at the Electric Slide yet,” he said with a laugh.

What Jim can do now is walk 2 or more miles 5 days a week, sleep through the night with no hip pain and only takes ibuprofen if he has a headache.

Now that he is pain free, he is looking forward to retirement, traveling and hiking with his wife, hunting and doing all the things they have talked about doing in retirement.

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