I am a New Zealander living in Bali Indonesia for the last 20 years. My wife is Balinese and I have a 15 year old son. Just before the year 2000 I developed intense pain in my left groin as a direct result of my obsession with martial arts. I never heeded the warning signs. If I knew what I did now I would have had more respect for the joints I was overworking. Seeking medical help on a visit to NZ a doctor diagnosed me as having a bit of arthritis in my left hip. I was horrified when he told me there was no cure and producing a diagram of a hip replacement he advised just bear the pain as long as you can and then when you can’t cope any longer have a total hip replacement. Not for me I determined, if the medical profession doesn’t have a better solution then I will cure myself naturally I thought. So for the next 8 years I went on a healing quest. I think I must have tried everything under the sun, including many types of natural joint supplements to induce cartilage growth, Chinese herbs, Thai herbs, acupuncture; healer’s doing different massages and therapies from several countries, ayurvedic treatments in India. I even made a trip to a famous medium in Brazil and another to a doctor in Florida giving injections of natural herbs into the femur to kick start cartilage growth. Everything I tried I was positive that this would be the answer and some things may have helped slow degeneration and eased the pain, but the reality was that I was fast becoming a cripple. I tried all sorts of diets for long periods including vegan, fruitarian, raw foods, several juice fasts, and a wheat juice fast. In May of 2006 I was accepted to have hip replacement surgery in NZ after being on a 2 year waiting list. Feeling uncomfortable with the thought of having my femur unmercifully hacked off losing so much bone, and the long post operation recovery period I declined in the hope there was a better alternative out there somewhere. I then embarked on a 42 day do or die fast on a liquid supplement. I accomplished the fast feeling great but I hadn’t regenerated my hip with all my positive meditations and prayers. What to do now, I heard about urine therapy, it wasn’t so bad as the thought of it, what to lose, and then finally my prayers were answered, it was my time coming to quit suffering, a friend told me about someone who went to India and had a hip resurfacing operation and was walking around pain free in no time.
I subsequently searched hip resurfacing on internet and many sites came up explaining the advantages of hip resurfacing as opposed to hip replacement. Then I found the website of Dr.G. Balasubramanian MS DNB FRCS(ORTH) at the Ramakrishna Hospital Coimbatore. I read the testimonials of patients and they all spoke so highly of Dr.Balasubramanian, and his dedicated team and nursing staff. There was even one from a grateful fellow kiwi who was so happy with his stay at the hospital and I learnt Dr. Balasubramanian worked in hospitals in England many years and with the inventor of hip resurfacing. Thus, becoming somewhat impressed by his numerous credentials I decided to write to him and seek his advice and received a reply back the very next day. It still took me several months to make the trip but now 6 weeks after the surgery I am so happy I did. From my arrival I was taken care of, I was met at airport in Coimbatore and taken to a hotel to rest up for a night before being admitted next morning. They took x rays and did a full medical check up that first day and concluded my general health was very good and so they scheduled surgery for the next morning at 9 am on the 26th August. When Dr.Balasubramanian came to see me with my x rays he said this is very, very bad, how could you cope living in such pain and he expressed that it would be a challenge for him to do the surgery as it was one of the worst cases he had seen for the type of arthritis I had. My femur was half out of the socket and huge in size with so much unwanted bone growth and took 3 hours instead of the usual 2 hours to smooth away and do the resurfacing. Under the circumstances I was so thankful Dr.Balasubramanian with his years of experience performed the surgery and after he was confident it was a success. Today is living proof of that, as everyday I walk to the beach, go swimming and ride my motorbike around pain free. I also wonder now how I coped before. I have a new chance at life again and am writing this in gratitude for all the very professional and loving care I received from all the doctors and nurses at Ramakrishna hospital and with the hopes that if there is anyone out there suffering with arthritis pain like I did and having been guided to read this then there is no need to go on suffering any longer because help is there at a really affordable cost. I made deep friendship with the doctors and nurses and was sad when it came time to leave, but also excited to try out my new hip and I flew to Delhi on the 9th day after my operation. Dr.Balasubramanian booked my flight and I walked with the help of a stick and had no pain. I declined the use of a wheel chair offered to me by the airlines, which I was usually accustomed to taking whenever I could in airports to ease the pain of walking. Arriving in Delhi I took a taxi 3hrs to Vrindavan, the village of Lord Krishna, I arrived on the evening of Janmastami, the appearance day of Lord Krishna just in time for the festive celebrations. Such an auspicious beginning to a new hip and a new life as it was Sri Krishna who led me all along on this incredible journey.