David’s Story

My hips had worn down to a painful bone-on-bone grind. I had both of my hips robotically repaired by Dr. David Padden. I had my left hip repaired in June, spent less than a day in he hospital, 23-hours to be exact. My right hip was repaired by Dr. Padden in November of the same year at West Boca Medical Center where he conducted the procedure using the MAKO Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery technology. I am a tennis aficionado and was surprised after the surgery repairs how soon I was able to serve it up back on the court.

The MAKO procedure is really magnificent, Dr. Padden didn’t cut any muscle, and he just goes into the hip and spreads all the tissues and muscle fibers away. I had degenerative arthritis in both of my hips, bone-on-bone, which is very painful. I used to play tennis five-days a week, two hours a day. I’m not big on taking pain pills but I would take Advil just so I could go play tennis. At the end of the day before my hips were repaired, I was in so much pain.

I went to a couple of doctors prior to Dr. Padden and when I went to see him it was a whole new ballgame because most of the doctors I talked to didn’t seem to have the time of day for me. Dr. Padden spent about 45-minutes with me, maybe longer; he explained the whole process to me and how it would be done in terms of hip replacement. He explained my rehab and what I would face coming back off of a robotic hip repair surgery. Dr. Padden gave me a nice pamphlet of what to do, how I would rehab, which  exercises were necessary for  my recovery and post-operative care. I basically started by doing strengthening exercises. 

The first milestone I achieved was an hour of walking a day. I live in a big condominium and people were amazed that they saw me walking. One-week I walked with a walker for maybe four or five days just for my balance.

After I went and saw Dr. Padden, post-operative again, he said with the way I’m walking that I didn’t need the walker any longer. I had a cane, maybe just to practice in my condo but I couldn’t get the knack of it so my balance was good enough, I just started walking on my own.

This was fast in terms of getting back on my feet and rehab. Dr. Padden told me not to play tennis until eight weeks after surgery. The day of my eighth week, two-months to the day; I was out on the tennis court. He told me don’t press it (not to go too hard), I’m very athletic so for me to sit around for any appreciable amount of time is kind of hard.

I was a firefighter for the City of Fort Lauderdale. I’ve been retired for 15-years now but I also umpire baseball, mostly Major League Baseball Spring Training nowadays and I used to umpire high school baseball for 20-years. I also did 15-years of umpiring NCAA Baseball (college baseball). They say umpires do about 400 squats a game. Prior to my surgery, I umpired about five-years with bad hips and it just about killed me. Now, with new hips, I have no problem! I can keep up with those kids.

My daughter is a nurse and it was one of those things where I recovered so fast. I think she came over to my house to assist me once and that was about it. My son is a paramedic and he came over to my house to take a look at my legs. I had a minimal amount of expected swelling; I wore the compression socks and did exactly what I was told to do. Take care of my muscles. put my feet up and don’t turn certain ways. After the surgery, I really only took Advil for any surgical pain for just three days but no opioids. I don’t like taking opioids.

I always tease Dr. Padden and ask him what things shouldn’t I do? He showed me ways not to turn my hip until I was recovered. The second thing he told me was that I can’t do a split anymore which was a bummer because every morning my neighbors and I go to the park and do splits. Dr. Padden is great! Every time I see him, I hug him.

My hips had worn down to a painful bone-on-bone grind. I had both of my hips robotically repaired by Dr. David Padden. I had my left hip repaired in June, spent less than a day in he hospital, 23-hours to be exact. My right hip was repaired by Dr. Padden in November of the same year at West Boca Medical Center where he conducted the procedure using the MAKO Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery technology. I am a tennis aficionado and was surprised after the surgery repairs how soon I was able to serve it up back on the court.

The MAKO procedure is really magnificent, Dr. Padden didn’t cut any muscle, and he just goes into the hip and spreads all the tissues and muscle fibers away. I had degenerative arthritis in both of my hips, bone-on-bone, which is very painful. I used to play tennis five-days a week, two hours a day. I’m not big on taking pain pills but I would take Advil just so I could go play tennis. At the end of the day before my hips were repaired, I was in so much pain.

I went to a couple of doctors prior to Dr. Padden and when I went to see him it was a whole new ballgame because most of the doctors I talked to didn’t seem to have the time of day for me. Dr. Padden spent about 45-minutes with me, maybe longer; he explained the whole process to me and how it would be done in terms of hip replacement. He explained my rehab and what I would face coming back off of a robotic hip repair surgery. Dr. Padden gave me a nice pamphlet of what to do, how I would rehab, which  exercises were necessary for  my recovery and post-operative care. I basically started by doing strengthening exercises.

The first milestone I achieved was an hour of walking a day. I live in a big condominium and people were amazed that they saw me walking. One-week I walked with a walker for maybe four or five days just for my balance.

After I went and saw Dr. Padden, post-operative again, he said with the way I’m walking that I didn’t need the walker any longer. I had a cane, maybe just to practice in my condo but I couldn’t get the knack of it so my balance was good enough, I just started walking on my own.

This was fast in terms of getting back on my feet and rehab. Dr. Padden told me not to play tennis until eight weeks after surgery. The day of my eighth week, two-months to the day; I was out on the tennis court. He told me don’t press it (not to go too hard), I’m very athletic so for me to sit around for any appreciable amount of time is kind of hard.

I was a firefighter for the City of Fort Lauderdale. I’ve been retired for 15-years now but I also umpire baseball, mostly Major League Baseball Spring Training nowadays and I used to umpire high school baseball for 20-years. I also did 15-years of umpiring NCAA Baseball (college baseball). They say umpires do about 400 squats a game. Prior to my surgery, I umpired about five-years with bad hips and it just about killed me. Now, with new hips, I have no problem! I can keep up with those kids.

My daughter is a nurse and it was one of those things where I recovered so fast. I think she came over to my house to assist me once and that was about it. My son is a paramedic and he came over to my house to take a look at my legs. I had a minimal amount of expected swelling; I wore the compression socks and did exactly what I was told to do. Take care of my muscles. put my feet up and don’t turn certain ways. After the surgery, I really only took Advil for any surgical pain for just three days but no opioids. I don’t like taking opioids.

I always tease Dr. Padden and ask him what things shouldn’t I do? He showed me ways not to turn my hip until I was recovered. The second thing he told me was that I can’t do a split anymore which was a bummer because every morning my neighbors and I go to the park and do splits. Dr. Padden is great! Every time I see him, I hug him.