Medical tourism in Gent, Belgium

Gent, Belgium: like Disneyland but for real

My revision surgery with Dr. Koen De Smet took place on Feburary 14th, 2012 in the Jan Palfijn Hospital. That day he did (I believe) six sugeries. People in the hospital told me he likes to save the most difficult surgeries for last. Mine was last. From what I understand, his hip resurfacings were completed in about 45 minutes. My surgery took 90 minutes, so I guess it was a bit more complicated. The next day De Smet did six more surgeries. Holy hip surgery, Batman. After follow-up visits with the patients, he disappeared for a week long vacation.

Seven of us patients were medical tourists who stayed for a rehabilitation period at the Holiday Inn Express. We got along just fine together, seeing each other improve and going out on the town. Our early progress went like this: the day after surgery, in the hospital, we got out of bed, hobbled around on two crutches and sat in a chair. On day two we left the hospital and rode in a taxi-van to the Holiday Inn Express. Our wounds were dressed with waterproof bandages, so I was able to shower in the hotel the second day after surgery. Except for daily visits by a physical therapist and a nurse, we were pretty much free to pass the tiime as we wanted to. By the third day I was walking with one crutch and began gradually increasing the distance quota. We went out on the town, ate in restaurants and drank beer. I stayed in the hotel for 10 days (the other patients left a few days earlier), rehabilitating for the 15 hour flight back to Buenos Aires

My wife Gabriela (Gaby) and I were surprised how much fun this rehabilitation period was. Here are some photos.

Some of De Smet's patients and their spouses out on the town five days after surgery

Gent is pretty at night

My sister and my wife are ready to storm the castle.

A breather in front of the Belgium flag

Downtown Gent

After hundreds of stairs, a view looking down

Tim and the swedes (with their newly resurfaced hips) looking to chow some grub

Some German friends came to visit

Statue points to England in downtown Gent

In Belgium they worship beer

As far as pain went, for about two or three hours after surgery I hurt pretty bad and kept myself busy pumping the morphine button. Later that night I pushed the button a couple more times. After that, I only used pain medication on two seperate occasions, when I didn't even really need it.  

Overall, the rehabilitation when smoothly and I got better every day, with one small glitch. Nine days after the surgery, a small hematoma appeared at the base of my surgical scar. This gave the nurse quite a scare. On day eight I had been very active, walking and so on, but I personally feel the real cause of the problem came from overdoing it with the physical therapist. On day eight we had been working on stepping forward and sideways on the operated leg and then shifting over to balance my full weight on the leg. This felt very hard to me, but I also enjoyed the challenge of getting pushed by the therapist and pushing right back. The next day I felt too weak to repeat the exercise and that afternoon the nurse found the hematoma. When De Smet diagnosed the problem after returning from vacation on Sunday he admonished me for doing too much. I didn't tell him about my antics with th physical therapist. I guess the old "don't squeal" mentality, learned in grade school, runs fairly deep in my psyche. So here's an important safety tip: if you're just nine days after revision surgery don't go balancing full weight on your recently operated leg, even if the physical therapist recommends it. At any rate, since then I haven't had any more set backs and in a few days the hematoma disappeared. Dr. De Smet told me that the usual treatment involves taking antibiotics to avoid infection but since I was already taking a massive dosis for the bone infection, there was nothing else to do. I continued with the walking, although for a few days I eased  back a bit. .