It started with a little pressure. I was working out and it felt like my hip needed to pop. Finally it would and normally that was the end of it but this kept coming back. That was in 2003. The pressure became pain. It got so bad that in the summer of 2004 I went to my GP. She said it was a little arthritis. I went to a sports specialist and he said the same thing. He was the first to suggest hip replacement surgery. What?! I was in my mid forties at the time. My mom had hip replacement surgery when she was 75 – get real! But the pain kept getting worse. Finally in either 2006 or 2007 a friend of mine sent me an email about hip resurfacing. It was an article that mentioned Dr. John Clohisy of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. I made an appointment with him and he confirmed what was told to me earlier. I didn’t have the surgery right away. Chalk it up to fear of the unknown. Whatever it was I was skeptical and kept putting it off thinking this thing is going to go away, right? Quite the opposite – the pain became so intense that even simple tasks like walking, climbing stairs, getting into and out of the car became unbearable. My moment of truth came when I was running a 5K with my daughter. Somewhere during mile two my hip inflamed and such pain went through it I thought I was going to have to get a ride to the finish line. That’s when I went back to Dr. Clohisy and made my appointment for hip resurfacing. I had the surgery in the fall of 2011 (OK, I’m a procrastinator – what can I say?). I can’t speak highly enough about Dr. Clohisy and the entire staff before, during and after my surgery. From the check-in on the morning of the surgery until I went home that night, everyone was great. I never felt like a “patient”. I was treated as a human, a person. As a result something that was scary and unfamiliar was made much, much better – almost, dare I say it, enjoyable.