Hip Hip Hooray for Dr. LaButti

“Having a hip replacement is the best thing I have ever done in my life,” Hubeli says.

Dr. LaButti, D.O., FAOAO, with Central States Orthopedic Specialists.

Take it from Celia Hubeli: If you are suffering from hip pain, but are fearful of hip replacement surgery, don’t be! “Having a hip replacement isn’t one of the best things I have ever done, it is the best thing I have ever done in my life,” Hubeli says.

Before board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ronald S. LaButti performed replacement surgery on her left hip in 2007, Hubeli felt like she was a “40-something-year-old” in a “70-something-year-old body.” “It wasn’t until after Dr. LaButti operated on my left hip that I knew what a ‘pain-free’ existence really meant. I couldn’t believe what I had been enduring for all those years,” she says.

According to Hubeli, it all started with a gradual encroachment on her once active lifestyle. “People were starting to ask me why I limped. I guess it had been so gradual I hadn’t even noticed,” she says. “All I knew was the discomfort was starting to affect my everyday life. With any sort of activity at all – like running errands, shopping or gardening – I would tire very easily and have to lie down with an icy hot pack.”

At Hubeli’s first meeting with Dr. LaButti in 2005, he pinpointed the source of her discomfort as the onset of joint degeneration in her left hip.

“While hip pain can be caused by direct injury – such as trauma or a sports injury – the most common cause of hip pain is degenerative joint disease, also known as osteoarthritis,” Dr. LaButti says. “In degenerative joint disease, the main problem is deterioration or degeneration of the articular cartilage, which is the cartilage that lines the joint surface. Because of this, the cartilage is easily and quickly eroded until the underlying bone is exposed, ultimately causing ‘bone-on-bone’ friction and pain.”

Since Hubeli’s condition was not yet at the “bone-on-bone” stage and she was only in her mid-40s at the time, her hip replacement surgery didn’t happen until two years later in 2007.

“Dr. LaButti had said I’d know when it was time for surgery, and boy was he right!” Hubeli says. “My condition had progressively gotten worse. What comes to mind as the proverbial ‘turning point’ was a business trip I took that year to Boston. I took a walking tour that was intended to be a fun thing, but resulted in a completely miserable afternoon and totally sleepless night. I was downing aspirin in hopes of relief. Absolutely nothing helped. It was definitely time to see Dr. LaButti, a.k.a. ‘The Hip and Knee Doc!’”

An appointment the following week with Dr. LaButti confirmed Hubeli’s condition had indeed progressed to “bone-on-bone.” Wasting no time whatsoever, Dr. LaButti performed total hip replacement surgery on her left hip at the end of the week – and that was the beginning of the end of Celia Hubeli’s painful condition.

Hubeli spent the next several days recuperating in the hospital. “The entire staff and Dr. LaButti were just wonderful,” she says. “He would check on me early each morning and see how I was doing, and made sure the staff was well-informed as to my progress and the plan for the day. I couldn’t have possibly asked for better care.”

Following Hubeli’s hospital stay, Dr. LaButti and his staff made arrangements for her in-home physical therapy. “Dr. LaButti had done his job; now it was time for me to do mine,” Hubeli says. “I made sure I did all the physical therapy exercises I was supposed to do. I think it is key for anyone considering this type of surgery to follow doctor’s orders and post-op instructions to a ‘T.’ It only makes sense.”

Hubeli continues, “To this day, I am still amazed there is zero pain and that I have complete range of motion in my hip area – and that limp is long gone. It’s been wonderful having a hip that feels and functions like it was intended to! I’m just delighted!” Hip hip hooray, indeed!

For more information about Dr. Ronald LaButti, total hip replacement surgery and/or other surgeries he performs, please visit www.hipandkneedoc.com.

For more information, contact

Dr. Ronald S. LaButti
Central States Orthopedic Specialists

(918) 481-2767

www.hipandkneedoc.com