Hip replacement patients organize a place for comfort
By KRISTIN MAYER Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN SM Santa Monica residents looking for a support network or more information about the hip replacement process can meet like-minded people at a HIP Happy Hour tonight.
The Happy Hours are intended to be a fun way to help post and potential hip-replacement patients gain more insight into the process and realize that they are not alone.
Jodi Seidler, creator of hipsterclub.com, and fellow “hipster” Lynda Jackson founded the supportive HIP Happy Hours.
Seidler, 52, is a single mother of a 17-year-old. She created the online community before she entered her first hip surgery in January. Her hips never fully formed at birth, and she is planning surgery for the other hip this year.
Jackson, 64, is preparing for her third hip replacement this month, this time with a bone graft.
Seidler compared hip replacement surgery to being initiated into a club.
“It’s an emotional experience, as well as physical,” Seidler said.“It’s like a club because no one understands how painful it is. That’s why it’s important to have this support group.”
Seidler and Jackson hosted their first HIP Happy Hour right after Christmas in a meet-and-greet format.
“It was just so amazing,” Seidler said. “It was healing for me before I even had a surgery.”
Support groups provide peace of mind and advice for those who are nervous and don’t know where to begin in their search process for doctors and implant options.
Many patients are not Internet savvy enough to research by themselves.
“It’s scary when you think you’re all alone,” Seidler said. “There’s really nothing out there. You’re really isolated after a hip replacement. When you go out with your walker and you’re young, people are staring.”
Jackson scheduled her hip replacement surgery on Dec. 25, her birthday, so she could walk into the hospital with cake and balloons and “blow their minds.”
She painted a walker for the occasion. Now, she’s started painting canes.
“The thought of walking with a cane at 56 years old was just unacceptable, so I decided to paint my cane to make each step in public a happy one,” Jackson said.
“It brought in the discussion about the fabulous cane and not why I was using the cane. It became a fun situation for me.”
As these Happy Hours grow, Seidler and Jackson will bring in doctors to address the group.
Meetings, which are typically held at private residences, will continue on a monthly basis.
Hip replacement surgery is becoming increasingly common as the baby boomer generation ages.
More than 30 percent of all hip replacements are currently performed on people under 59 years of age.
Seidler belongs to a Yahoo! e-mail group tailored to hip replacement patients.
The group’s 500 members share resources, books and stories.
“It’s so huge it’s crazy,” she said. Seidler said her doctor performed hip surgery on Chuck Norris, Kiefer Sutherland and Jane Kaczmarek from “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Seidler hopes her support groups will help address this growing population of hip replacement patients hoping to restore their quality of life.
“I imagine it will start out with 20 or 30 people, but with the rate the whole replacement thing is going, I imagine it could be very big,” Seidler said.
For more information about tonight’s HIP Happy Hour or to join a support group, send inquiries to call (310) 395-2923.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.