Elroy Braswell

For 6 years, I had arthritis in my left hip. I thought the problem was my lower back and the pain radiated to my left hip. I went to a physical therapist and he had me do a few movements and confirmed the problem in my left hip and the pain radiated to my lower back. He told me I would need either one of three things - aggressive PT, a procedure where they would have to go in and clean up the area, or a hip replacement. He recommended I get an x-ray and a few months later I did. I didn't see the x-ray, but my doctor gave me the results and said I had severe left hip arthritis.

I decided to take the low road and try physical therapy. Before I did that I decided to see a surgeon for their opinion rather than try to fix the problem myself. I knew about HSS and their reputation. but I never needed them yet. A friend said that it would take me months to get an appointment, which was discouraging. But after talking to several people that have had replacements done there, I looked them up. I went through the surgeons and found Dr. Johnathan Vigdorchik. I read his bio and I was interested. So I went for a consultation, took x-rays and viewed them. I saw how deformed my left hip was compared to my right hip. They explained that I had severe stage 4 hip arthritis. From the time I went for the initial consultation until the hip replacement was 6 weeks. I was never nervous or experienced anxiety but I was anxious. I just wanted to get it over. From his PA to his manager Lisa to my PT Jack everyone was fantastic. A pleasure to deal with.

Time flies and I didn't realize I was in pain for 6 years. My balance was off when I lifted anything heavy. I had a limp that I tried to hide. I literally hated to stand or walk because each step was painful. But I dealt with it. But the pain was a blessing because it preventing me from backing out of the surgery. I realized I was going to get healed. The pain that I felt Monday morning on the way to HSS was gone Tuesday morning on the way home. Now I was just healing.

Dr. Vigdorchik is AMAZING. Nothing short of AMAZING. He is very unassuming. Very friendly. You would never guess that he was a top surgeon. He used what's called the STAR approach to do my replacement. He also used robotics. The recovery was very fast. I used a walker for 5 days and a cane for a week. I was able to move without any restrictions that other hip replacement procedures put on the recipients. The only pain that I felt from this whole procedure was when the nurses put the IV in my arm. I used 4 painkillers as a precaution just to keep ahead of the pain if there was any (after all it was major surgery), but 2 days after the replacement I realized didn't need them. I experienced discomfort from the incision, but on a scale of 1-10 that was never more than a 4 and by the second week it was down to a 1. Now the lower back pain is gone. This was lifechanging surgery. I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Vigdorchik. Thank you Dr. Vigdorchik! You changed my life.