Hip Replacement

Joe Paterno and two doctors agree that if Paterno has hip-replacement surgery the day after Saturday's regular-season finale, the Penn State football coach could recover in time for the Nittany Lions' likely Jan. 1 bowl game. "I'm going to be back," Paterno said yesterday during the weekly teleconference. "But how it's going to affect me? I don't have an MD after my name yet. Maybe when I retire I'll go back to medical school. " Two hip-replacement specialists, speaking in general medical terms, said Paterno likely would recover well.

Lower Merion police have lowered the boom on Bobby Rydell, the onetime teen idol whose 1969 Bentley wreaked a bit of havoc in Narberth last month. Rydell, 67, was charged with driving under the influence after tests determined his blood-alcohol level was more than double the legal limit when his car jumped a curb and swiped a decorative pole, shrubbery, and a landscape wall outside a yoga salon on Montgomery Avenue. No one was injured. Rydell told 6ABC the day after the accident that he had had a "couple of drinks at lunch.

More than 90 percent of hip-replacement surgeries succeed initially, but there is no guarantee an artificial hip will last indefinitely, according to the American Medical Association. But a New York orthopedic surgeon says Bo Jackson might be able to return to baseball as a designated hitter if he has modern surgery that does not rely on bone cement to hold a prosthesis in place. Jackson, the two-sport star who played football for the Los Angeles Raiders and baseball for the Chicago White Sox, decided yesterday to undergo hip- replacement surgery because irritation and inflammation of his hip joint have worsened since he was injured in January 1991 playing football.

Bo Jackson's agent said yesterday that hip-replacement surgery was among the options being considered, but that no course of medical treatment had been decided on for the hobbling designated hitter. "There's one thing that's an absolute certainty - that Bo will remain with the White Sox and continue to play baseball," the agent, Arn Tellem, said from Los Angeles. "The White Sox and Bo are looking for ways to preserve a long-term relationship. "The only thing ruled out is retirement.

If Jennifer Childs, 43, traveled back in time, her destination would be vaudeville. The actress, playwright, director, and cofounder of 1812 Productions is a history-of-comedy "nerd" whose holiday shows are Philadelphia classics. Her troupe is named for 1812 Pine St., where Childs lived in 1998 when it began. This holiday's show is a fresh spin on 1812's staple, This Is the Week That Is. Pint-sized in every way but talent - "Trust me, I know more short jokes than you do" - Childs is a Lutheran pastor's daughter.

Ask a surgeon - especially a bone man - precisely what he does and it becomes apparent that he's mostly a craftsman, a mechanic. "Yes, I'm a carpenter, stone mason and plasterer with a medical degree," orthopedic surgeon Dr. Marvin E. Steinberg says with a laugh. Hammers, saws, high-speed drills, chisels and screwdrivers are all tools of the trade in the hip replacement game. So it should be no big surprise that when Steinberg had an idea for a new surgical instrument, he visited hardware stores searching for something similar.

For Lou Maguire, the last straw came in May, when he tried to walk from a distant parking lot to the Spectrum to watch a playoff game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Chicago Bulls. Even with a cane, he could not ignore the agony in his hip. By the time he and his wife got to their seats, he was in tears. "I told my wife, 'I can't live this way,' " he said. And so it was that Maguire, 50, an educational researcher and one-time marathon runner from Churchville, Bucks County, entered an innovative program that physicians hope will mean fewer trips to the operating room - not to mention lower costs - for hip-replacement patients.

Elizabeth Taylor's body still isn't working right. Beset by years of physical problems, she has a serious limp because of her second hip replacement. Liz is planning to have another operation next month. Taylor told her doctor that one of her legs is now shorter than the other, placing a strain on her back and first hip replacement. "I will not be a cripple," Taylor told columnist Liz Smith. "I will not use crutches or a walker. I will get over this and get on with my life.

Seneca Covington, 38, says that when she's driving, she often ignores a "Do Not Enter" street sign to save time near her home on Calumet Street near Cresson. So when a 66-year-old school-crossing guard tried to stop her from bucking traffic at the intersection on Oct. 26, 1994, she was upset. Covington's car struck the guard's right hand. Then Covington drove off, said Assistant District Attorney David Augenbraun. The guard continued working. A few minutes later, Covington, a mother of two, came back to complain that the guard, Mary Pickersgill, had deliberately hit the car. When Pickersgill began to take down Covington's license plate number, she was pushed to the ground, the prosecutor said.

The fact is straightforward. To walk without a limp, to live without pain, Neil Lomax needs a hip replacement. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people have them and live perfectly normal lives. They walk around golf courses, around the block, down to the store. But Lomax, 30, is a two-time Pro Bowl quarterback. He doesn't want to walk around the block. He needs to evade 250-pound linemen and dance nimbly enough to wing his passes after stepping out of the protective pocket.

We hadn't had a vacation since my husband had a hip replacement in fall 2010. Everyone we know had been talking about cruise vacations, so we decided to follow the crowd. Cruise travel is perfect for senior citizens, especially a handicapped one. There's no need to trudge long and far, and it offers freedom from the chores at home. We went to a AAA travel agent and booked a trip in late September to New England/Canada on Caribbean Princess Cruise. It was quite exciting. The cruise was spacious, beautiful, and luxurious.

If Jennifer Childs, 43, traveled back in time, her destination would be vaudeville. The actress, playwright, director, and cofounder of 1812 Productions is a history-of-comedy "nerd" whose holiday shows are Philadelphia classics. Her troupe is named for 1812 Pine St., where Childs lived in 1998 when it began. This holiday's show is a fresh spin on 1812's staple, This Is the Week That Is. Pint-sized in every way but talent - "Trust me, I know more short jokes than you do" - Childs is a Lutheran pastor's daughter.

Never can say goodbye to Regis. When the Philbin nut steps away from his frothy chat show in a few weeks, it will be with a viselike grip on the Guinness World Record for most hours logged on U.S. television. He's passed 70,000, and counting. And don't for a minute think that dropping Live! with Regis and Kelly means that he's retiring. What's he going to do? Sit at home with Joy all day? Get a grip, will ya? The man is only 80 years old, for Pete's sake. He's just catching his second wind.

Thelma Causey walked out of the hospital Monday night, several hours after a ricocheting bullet struck her leg, without so much as a Tylenol from the doctors. She rode home in her own car, too, because she was afraid she would get charged for another ambulance ride. She stayed home Tuesday from her job checking in students at the West Philadelphia High School cafeteria, but she plans to go to work Wednesday "if my daughter don't raise too much Cain. " "Miss Thelma" is 86 years old, and being hit by a stray bullet doesn't appear to have slowed her one bit. Causey, watching television Monday night in her Kingsessing home, went outside for some fresh air during a commercial around 9:30 p.m. She saw a young man running across the street, but she never saw the gunman firing at him. "I heard, 'Pow!

Lower Merion police have lowered the boom on Bobby Rydell, the onetime teen idol whose 1969 Bentley wreaked a bit of havoc in Narberth last month. Rydell, 67, was charged with driving under the influence after tests determined his blood-alcohol level was more than double the legal limit when his car jumped a curb and swiped a decorative pole, shrubbery, and a landscape wall outside a yoga salon on Montgomery Avenue. No one was injured. Rydell told 6ABC the day after the accident that he had had a "couple of drinks at lunch.

Joe Paterno and two doctors agree that if Paterno has hip-replacement surgery the day after Saturday's regular-season finale, the Penn State football coach could recover in time for the Nittany Lions' likely Jan. 1 bowl game. "I'm going to be back," Paterno said yesterday during the weekly teleconference. "But how it's going to affect me? I don't have an MD after my name yet. Maybe when I retire I'll go back to medical school. " Two hip-replacement specialists, speaking in general medical terms, said Paterno likely would recover well.

Last of two parts. Fed up with the constant pain in her hips, Katrina McKenzie took her surgeon's advice and had them replaced with experimental implants. The 31-year-old from Galloway, N.J., who agreed to participate in a clinical study, knew there was a risk that her new hips could fail. But she didn't know that the manufacturer financing the study, Smith & Nephew, was also paying her surgeon tens of thousands of dollars a year as a consultant. In recent years, such payments to doctors from medical implant manufacturers and drug companies have become increasingly controversial.

Fed up with the constant pain in her hips, Katrina McKenzie took her surgeon's advice and had them replaced with experimental implants. The 31-year-old from Galloway, N.J., who agreed to participate in a clinical study, knew there was a risk that her new hips could fail. But she didn't know that the manufacturer financing the study, Smith & Nephew, was also paying her surgeon tens of thousands of dollars a year as a consultant. In recent years, such payments to doctors from medical implant manufacturers and drug companies have become increasingly controversial.

Five years ago, when young FBI Agent Bill Shute nicknamed veteran Jesse Coleman "The Legend," a few young agents mocked Shute as a brownnose. Today, few would challenge Coleman's bona fides. Though recently retired, Coleman fed Shute the key tip that last week helped catch a fugitive in the killing of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. Coleman, 55, has been at the center of the action for nearly three decades. He put away several of the city's most notorious drug dealers, worked undercover against Sicilian mobsters, and discovered evidence that triggered the City Hall corruption investigation.

WHILE THE war between the NFL and many of its retired players over the disability issue wages on, there is some fairly significant help on the way for uninsured ex-players. The league and the players union are working out the final details of a plan that would fund joint-replacement surgery for retired players who don't have medical insurance. "It's in the very, very near future," NFLPA president Troy Vincent said. "We met 3 weeks ago and we've identified 14 different hospitals [where the surgeries would be performed]