PATIENT STORIES Relentless Pain Relieved After Hip Replacement Surgery

For Jamie Herman—a wife, mom, "Nana," and Realtor in Benicia—every day is a good day just because she can do simple things that others take for granted: taking walks, riding a bike and getting down on the floor to play with her young grandson, Nicholas. Not long ago, these simple activities were virtually impossible for her because of relentless hip pain.

Dr. Schiff said it would make my life normal and pain-free again and it did.

"One morning I woke up and stepped out of bed and felt this pain in my hip—and thought maybe I had exercised too much," Herman says. But instead of going away, the pain lingered and worsened over the next two years. "I could barely move. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't walk. I was in pain all the time. It consumed my life," she says.

When her primary care doctor referred her to orthopedic surgeon David Schiff, M.D., at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo, it was a turning point.

"When I was in all that pain, my outlook on life was pretty dismal," she says. But Dr. Schiff "knows exactly what he's doing…and that gave me a sense of security." After trying non-surgical therapies, which did not relieve her pain, she took the next step: total hip replacement surgery.

"Dr. Schiff said it would make my life normal and pain-free again and it did," Herman says. "People ask me now, 'How's the pain?' and I have to explain to them: there is no pain. The pain I was feeling 24 hours a day was completely gone the minute I woke up from surgery. At my six-week check-up, I told Dr. Schiff I wanted to thank him for giving me my life back."

Herman says that having her hip replaced "has restored my outlook on life and given me the energy to enjoy the people I care deeply about."