Kathy Olmsted was no stranger to pain. But after undergoing back surgery, she was alarmed when she noticed discomfort in her hip.

“I was out walking, and I thought, ‘Oh man, it feels like I pulled my groin muscle. What’s going on?’” says Olmsted.  “So I went in to see my back surgeon. And he said, ‘Your back looks good, but I looked at your x-ray and you need hip surgery.’”

As the days passed, Olmstead’s hip pain became more and more debilitating.

“It was so painful I really couldn’t do anything,” says Olmsted.  “I couldn’t go to yoga. I couldn’t go to church. Everything hurt. “

Simple household chores, like cooking and walking the dogs, became impossible.

“I was confined to my house and in pain all the time,” says Olmsted. “And I wasn’t walking correctly.”

A life changing surgery

Olmsted knew that she had to have hip replacement surgery, but she had to choose between two types: the posterior approach and the anterior approach.

After doing some research and consulting with her surgeon, Michael Gruber, M.D., Olmsted decided on the anterior approach.

“The anterior approach is the one that I wanted to choose because the recovery was easier, and it was less invasive to your body,” says Olmsted. “I had been feeling bad for so long it was all about the shorter recovery time, so I could get back to living my life.”  

A new lease on life

“I was so amazed at how I felt as soon as I woke up from the surgery,” says Olmsted. “The next day the physical therapist came to the hospital to get me out of bed and to see what I could do. And she said I didn’t need a walker or a cane.”

Eventually, Olmsted was able to go up and down the stairs with no pain. And less than four months after her surgery, Olmsted went to Ecuador with family and friends.

“I climbed up a mountain,” says Olmsted.  “Two and half miles up a mountain, where four weeks prior to that I couldn’t walk up my steps. I don’t think I have any limitations now. It’s great.”

To learn more about Piedmont’s orthopedic services, click here.  

To watch a video about anterior hip replacement surgery, click on the image below: 

Anterior hip replacement surgery: 

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