Lisa got me started, telling me how my hip pain is common among baby boomers and that I am still too young (at 60) for "total hip replacement" (THR) as practiced in this country. She told me that a "resurfaced hip replacement" might be better for someone my age--not because THR doesn't end the arthritis pain (it does), but because THR will require another replacement in ten to fifteen years.
Furthermore, THR comes with life-long physical restrictions that don't apply to resurfacing. An avid researcher, Lisa directs me to the online support group for the tribe known as "Surface Hippy." There, she says, I will find everything I need to know:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/surfacehippy/
Several years ago, Lisa established a publishing house called The Writers' Collective. She knows that people with sedentary lifestyles often are overweight. Folks with hip problems often become sedentary, because exercising on land hurts their joints. She set out single-mindedly to lose weight before going abroad for hip resurfacing.
She tried water aerobics--great exercise that imposes no impact on painful joints. But she noticed that most people in her class were not losing weight. She intended to lose a lot before surgery and keep it off.
Lisa researched exercise and the human body. She learned principles to convert fat to muscle mass and to lose weight safely and permanently. She designed her own regimen. Eventually she needed more challenge and added Water Walkers to her repertoire. This speeds up the weight loss while it builds even stronger muscles and increases her bone density.
She achieves amazing results with no special diet except moderation while converting over 55% of her body fat to muscle mass. Lisa has shed 70 pounds to date without ever sacrificing the dark chocolate she eats daily!
After 12 months, Lisa flew to Belgium in September 2006 for hip resurfacing. Initially Blue Cross/Blue Shield refused to pay, calling it "experimental." Lisa appealed their decision, pointing out that the FDA had approved the procedure last May.
She won and now predicts that insurance companies soon will offer incentives to travel abroad, where the cost can be one-third to one-seventh that in the United States, and where surgeons typically have much more experience doing this sophisticated surgery.
Lisa could turn a profit selling snake oil to those who saw her personal transformation. Instead, she contacted the Water Walkers manufacturer and asked them for a discount for hippies like herself who really need them. They agreed--as long as she put the discounted price on her website instead of theirs.
You can read about Lisa's journey and find the link to Water Walkers, including videos showing them in action, at:
http://www.writerscollective.org/whatsNew.htm
Walking on water is not the only thing I learn from the internet.
