John Lomitola

I had noticed a distinct physical decline in my hip movement accompanied by sharp stabbing pain ever since the time I jumped from one level of a muddy vineyard to a lower one (a distance of about 8 ft) in Durnstein, Austria 2003. I tried for years to use muscle strengthening and supplements to mitigate the effects but it simply and slowly got worse and worse. The pain was nearly unbearable until 2013, when I decided to get an evaluation of my situation. At the time, I was living on Aleeve just to get by as my daily job had me on my feet the entire evening from about 2:30 pm - midnight as a Restaurant Manager. One thing led to another and I wound up with several names of reference from HSS. I listened to all the personalized videos of the doctors and read up on their success rates and ratings. I chose Dr. Allejandro Della Valle who I felt had the right demeanor and bedside manner that I needed for me to get through all this. The day came for my operation, and I was the first one in the operating theatre that morning. The only thing I wanted to know was if Dr. Della Valle had had his coffee yet before he started on me. My first recollection after surgery was asking the nurse when was I going to go in. That first night after the surgery, I was able to come off the pain killers and the next day they had me on my feet! I was so elated, that I was ready to kiss Dr. Della Valle had he come to see me at that time. I went through 6 weeks of physical rehab and capped it off with a trip to Maine with my wife 8 weeks after the surgery. It got only better after that with a climb to the summit of Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire (3100ft) followed by Hanging Lake in Glenwood Springs Colorado (7000 ft), Twin Lakes in Aspen (14,000ft), and a hike to see the wild horses in Grand Junction Colorado. I feel the best that I've felt since a teenager; can get in and out of the car without trouble, ride a bike for miles and just walk the beach without any semblance of pain. I'm off all meds and living life on pure food and drink! I will be eternally grateful to Dr Della Valle for his expertise in getting the math right (not lopsided anymore) and caring for me.