New hip helps media professional with osteoarthritis get her career back on track

Keeping Up the Pace

A 31-year old set designer with osteoarthritis gets back in the act quickly with a hip replacement from the Inova Joint Replacement Center.

Dejon Gee is passionate about designing sets for television and film; she loves creating unique environments, shopping for props and delighting viewers with the finished product. But last fall, when Gee, 31, was working on the set for a daytime talk-show host in Chicago, she began to notice sharp pains in her left hip.

“Set design requires a lot of shopping and you’re always in a rush, always doing something that needs to be done yesterday,” says Gee. “Keeping up with that pace for 12 to 15 hours a day became unbearable.”

Gee knew the pain stemmed from a condition she had been diagnosed with at age 10 called slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE), causing her thigh bone to slip out of place. Multiple surgeries on her left hip fixed the problem, but over time she developed severe osteoarthritis. Now with her career on a fast track, Gee needed a hospital she could trust to get her back on her feet with as little downtime as possible.

Ready, Set, Action

Last May, Gee traveled to Inova Joint Replacement Center at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, where she met with orthopedic surgeon Andy Engh, MD. Dr. Engh and his team replaced the hardware in her left hip — a metal plate and five pins — with a brand new hip joint. He was also able to lengthen Gee’s left leg, allowing her to walk with greater stability.

“The fact that Ms. Gee had childhood hip disease and she had prior surgery with hardware in place, hers was not a routine hip replacement that we would do in a 65- or 70-year-old with arthritis,” according to Dr. Engh. “Recognizing those unique needs from the time she was in our office and all the way through her surgery, this is one thing Inova Mount Vernon Joint Replacement Center does better than other facilities.”

Having completed physical therapy, Gee looks forward to bowling, bicycling and, most of all, getting back to her fast-paced career.

“I can move in ways that I’ve never been able to do before,” says Gee. “I’m very thankful for everything that Dr. Engh and his staff were able to do. It was a more than wonderful experience. Dr. Engh is the salt of the earth; he’s amazing!”

Pain-Free at Any Age

While most people wait until their golden years to have a hip replacement, new research reveals that more adults younger than age 65 are having the procedure. A study presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2014 Annual Meeting shows that the number of adults ages 45–64 getting hip replacements has risen by 123 percent since 2000.

If you’re considering a hip replacement, your physician will base his or her recommendation on your level of pain and how your condition is affecting your quality of life. According to the AAOS, there is no age limitation for hip replacement surgery.

“When my patients come back one year after surgery, if they’re not having any pain and if they’re happy with the outcome and they have returned to work, then my expectation is that their hip should go 20 years and possibly more,” says Andy Engh, MD.

Joint Care

To learn more about joint replacement services at Inova Joint Replacement Center, visit inova.org/ijrc.