Gerald Brown – Hip Replacement Success Story

Off the bench

Sidelined by hip pain, Coach Gerald Brown called for the anterior approach

A dull ache. Soreness in the hips that worsened at bedtime. Sleepless nights. These were the symptoms that gradually intensified over 2½ years and eventually led Gerald Brown, 56, to hip replacement surgery.

The pain became so unbearable two months before his surgery that Gerald, then a high school football coach in Colleyville, began coaching games on crutches.

Search for a solution

Gerald’s primary care provider suggested a right hip replacement.

“After doing my research and talking with family and friends who’d had hip replacement, I decided on the anterior approach,” Gerald says. From the anterior, or front, of the hip, the surgeon can operate between muscles, while the conventional posterior approach (from
the back) requires cutting muscle.

Gerald interviewed several surgeons in the Arlington–Fort Worth area where he lived and in Dallas before choosing Jason Lowry, MD, orthopedic surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

Preparing for surgery

Thanks to the Joint Academy at Methodist Dallas, Gerald was well-prepared for his surgery. The academy is a free educational workshop that helps ready joint replacement “students” both mentally and physically for not only a joint replacement procedure, but also for how to achieve the best possible surgical outcome and return most quickly to their normal daily activities.

“Attending the Joint Academy made me feel much more comfortable about my upcoming surgery,” Gerald says. “I was looking forward to getting relief.”

Fast healing

His surgery on Dec. 3, 2013, began at 7 a.m., and by 1 p.m. he was walking with a walker. The next day, he was walking up the stairs. Although rehabilitation was offered, he didn’t need it.

“I had an extremely quick recovery,” Gerald says. “It was almost too easy. My friends and family couldn’t believe it.”

Gerald was back to coaching three weeks after surgery and back to normal activity after only five weeks. Three weeks after that, he was biking 10 to 15 miles a day and walking 7 to 10 miles a day around the campus and golf course in his new position as high school golf coach at Colleyville Heritage High School.

He credits Dr. Lowry and the staff for things working out so well.

“The Methodist Dallas staff was wonderful, and Dr. Lowry was congenial, knowledgeable, and patient,” Gerald says. “I made the right choice.”

From the winter 2014 issue of Shine magazine.