Tim Taylor Hip Resurfacing ...

In the weeks leading up to his surgery, the 13-year NHL veteran, who hopes to be back on the ice and in uniform in February, was told by the surgeon he’d be ready to get back on the golf course within a month of the procedure. That’s something Taylor quickly found out might have been a stretch of the truth as far as he was concerned.

In his first discussion, Taylor talks about why he didn’t feel like walking to the bathroom, let alone picking up a golf club, that his entire right leg was sore after the surgery, and what it was like trying to do normal things around the house.

It’s so tight in my right leg that, as I put my legs and feet together, the left leg is longer than the other one where they did the surgery. But it’s just because that hip is down lower on the right side and it’s just offset.

When Dr. Raterman did the surgery, and this is how he explained it to me after the fact: I was lying on the bed on my left hip, so that they can pull back the right leg and pull it up to my [butt]. As they pull it up to my [butt] he calls four guys in, he calls them his moving team, they come in and grab my leg and as hard as they can, they pop it over. The leg is already cut and the bone pops out and that’s the only way they can do it...

During the first three weeks I had to force myself to get up. Now I’m walking all over the house, going to the computer, watching TV, back to the computer. I’m doing a little more therapy where I’m on a ball and throwing, trying to get more mobility. But now it’s better where I can go workout in the mornings, feel a little bit better. And I think that goes along with your mind as well, you are out and now it feels like I have a purpose.

...The worst part for me is going to be a month-and-half to two month period as I get to that four month time to where I feel great like I can do everything, but I can’t, they are going to have to hold me back and keep me off the ice and everything because the ball, the bone has to go around it and adhere. That takes time...

... This thing is heavy as hell.... I had it in my hands and it’s like 10 pounds. I said to him, the team has approached me about doing some stuff at school and is there any way I could get one of these, maybe show the kids, if he had an extra one or if I could buy one off him. He said I don’t want to buy one of these and asked me how much I thought it cost. I thought maybe $100 or $200, it’s just a piece of steel. He said that the one he bought was $12,500 and that was the deal he got on it. I said I won’t be buying it then. 

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