William's Story

Lake:  As long as I can go on my own, I’ll go on my own.

I was born this way.  I don’t know what they called it.  It's a degenerative bone disease.

Brown:  Mr. Lakes deformity started from birth, but they didn’t really manifest themselves maybe until he was five years of age and really started to grow and they left him with deformities through his adolescence that were incompatible with normal function.

Lake:  I never ran, wasn’t runnable; but it didn’t stop me from doing anything.

Brown:  So it's pretty amazing what a determined human being can do even in the phase of gross abnormalities.

Lake:  When I got into my 20s everything was reasonably stable, other than that I did notice I can go to step up on the curb.  If I step on my toe it could make my knee cap go out.  While the knee cap went out I'm stuck there.  You got to call the ambulance or something to get me down there to get it put back together; but beyond that point, you know, I just dealt with that through my formative years like till I got up to 50 where they would start changing parts and once that started everything started straightening up pretty quick.

Brown:  In the generation that Mr. Lake was born into that was the standard thing.  He could have said; oh, I would like to have my hip replaced and he may have seen surgeons who told him you have to wait till your 60 or 70 and that was probably a good advice; but now the component tree is good, so I see people in their 20s or 30s and I will consider doing joint replacements on them to improve their function because they do last 20, 30 years if you keep your muscle strong and you remain active.

Lake:  Dr. Delcamp wanted done both my shoulders and my knee he took the X-rays of the right hip and decided he couldn’t handle it.  So, he sent me to Dr. Brown who takes on the hips and knees that nobody else will attempt to do.

Brown:  The first time I saw Mr. Lake I was shocked first of all that he was as functional as he was.  When I saw his X-rays I realized that there were really severe abnormalities of development that were going to need to be addressed.  So, I initially saw him, I had to order some additional X-rays and said I would have to think about it because would we be able to correct these deformities with what we call off the shelf components that we use in standard hip and knee surgery or were we going to have to design some custom products.

Lake:  I knew that the right hip was next because it was – they were just shocked.  There wasn’t any way around that.

Brown:  The right hip had better motion actually than his deformed left hip, but it hurt more.  So, in the discussion we decided to do his right hip first.  When he wanted his next surgery, his left knee was unstable and painful.  So, usually we would try and correct the hip on the same side before the knee because that really gives you a better chance of recovery, but we let him have input and decide what was bothering him, what was really majorly effecting his function.  So, his left knee was replaced next and then his last most recent surgery was the last joint that hadn’t been addressed and that was his left hip.

Lake:  He is confident right from the word go.  There wasn’t any doubt in his mind, no doubt in his eyes, wasn’t even a consideration.

Brown:  I’ve been doing these type of complex cases for over 25 years since I entered practice.  I think that we took these cases on even then knowing that they would need additional surgeries down the road and the patients understood that and we all knew that that’s where it was going.  Industry has made huge strides with materials and machining that allows these components to maybe last a patient’s life now, which wasn’t available; but the deformities are still there.  It's just now what we can offer them, functions at such a high level and is so durable that we think that we’re really getting them solutions for life.

Lake:  My intentions are taking a motorcycle trip.  I rode bikes almost all my life until like last 15 years, a little bit longer.  The hips would not let me get around a gas tank anymore.  I couldn’t do it and if I did and rode very far at all, I couldn’t hardly walk when I get off of it.  The hips did not like it; but now the way the hips are feeling and I can sit here and spread my knees apart almost two feet tells me I can get around that gas tank.  I not only can get around it, I'm going to get around and I just have to do it that’s all.

Brown:  It's just nice to see a person that you can really positively impact their life.

Lake:  All things being equal.  If the left turns out as good as the right I'm going to be a hard act to keep up with.