June, 2011. Oviedo resident Lorrie Sibley, a devoted wife and mother of one, wakes up in severe pain. It has hurt like this for awhile, but today is different. Today is worse. Still, she has things to do so she attributes her aches to a lower back problem and struggles through her day. And another. And another. The days turned to weeks and soon the pain became debilitating. When she visited her general practitioner, a simple X-ray revealed shocking news: her back was fine, but her hip had begun to literally disintegrate. Ultimately, her physician referred her to Orlando Orthopaedic Center and thus began her road to recovery.
Lorrie Sibley can now enjoy activities she never thought she would be able to do again, such as golf or tennis with her daughter, prior to her life-changing anterior hip replacement surgery.
Sibley met with Eric G. Bonenberger, M.D., a board certified orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in joint replacement; knee, hip and shoulder surgery; sports medicine and arthroscopy. He told her the best treatment option for someone with a condition like hers was to undergo an anterior hip replacement surgery.
“I was obviously shocked, but after the initial shock wore off, they were able to tell me they would fix it, so that’s all I wanted to hear,” she says. “That’s all that mattered to me because it had gotten to where I wasn’t walking – I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything.”
On Surgery day, even before the operation began, Sibley says she felt a sense of relief just knowing the possibilities that waited when she would open her eyes after surgery.
After Bonenberger and his team performed the minimally invasive procedure, Sibley woke up without pain, with her husband and daughter by her side. Using a walker, she was immediately able to stand and put weight on her hip. A smile crept across her face. Because of the surgery’s success, she was able to return home two days later, where she received home care on a walker for a week, followed by a week with a cane. Two weeks after the surgery, she no longer needed pain medication, and three weeks after surgery, she was walking without the cane.
“You have to get your balance back and your muscles strong again; you haven’t used them in a while,” she cautions. “But the feeling of walking again without pain is indescribable. I was miserable before the surgery and now just walking around my block is so fulfilling.”
Bonenberger, who has taught this hip replacement technique to other physicians in the past, was pleased to hear that the surgery had such a positive impact on Sibley’s life.
“As a surgeon, I am always happy to hear from patients about how the procedure changed their lives,” says Bonenberger. “Helping a patient like Ms. Sibley recover from an incapacitating condition is one of the main reasons I became a doctor.”
Six months after the surgery, Sibley feels that her anterior approach hip replacement has reopened several possibilities in her life.
“I have my life, my family, back,” she says. “It sounds small but now that I can really hit a basket of tennis balls to my daughter, it’s a huge difference for me. I can serve to her over and over and volley in all different directions. I can drive. I can shop. I have my life back to do with it what I want.”
Because of the positive impact the surgery had on Sibley’s quality of life, she recommends the procedure to others who experience the same condition.
“They know what they’re doing at Orlando Orthopaedic Center,” she says. “The doctors here, these guys are awesome. They’ll take care of you and I recommend them to everyone. It’s been a life-changer for me and I couldn’t imagine where I’d be without them.”
See Lorrie’s tell her complete story by visiting www.YouTube.com/OrlandoOrtho today.
Article by Valerie Moses
