In the words of James T. Kirk: "Khaaaaaaaaaan!"
And I yell that at the top of my lungs , from the highest mountain, with the deepest admiration.
Because unlike the Khan in the Star Trek movie, THIS Khan RESCUED me from The Planet of Hip Pain, from which I thought I had been marooned for all eternity by Dr. Saffron at Stanford.
All sci-fi puns aside, I will give you my review in a nutshell and my long review.
In a nutshell: Dr. Shabi Khan is TERRIFIC, and DO NOT HESITATE to go to him. He fixed the torn cartilage in my hip and shaved down my bone spur one year ago. I have been fantastic ever since. Able to do everything I did before. Dr. Khan gave me my life back. If I ever have another hip, knee, or shoulder problem, I will definitely go to see him. I wish there were more Dr. Khans in this world. Has Dr. Saffron told you that he won't operate on you? Sheesh, FORGET HIM! Go see Dr. Khan. He will fix you!!!!
Long Review
One day, out of the blue, my groin/inner thigh began hurting. I thought I had somehow pulled a muscle. To make a long story short, an MRI eventually revealed that I had torn the cartilage (labrum) in my hip. It will not heal by itself; you need to have it fixed. My regular orthopedist told me that this is a very specialized arthroscopic operation, and only a few doctors in the Bay Area do it. He recommended Dr. Saffron at Stanford.
It took a month to get an appointment with Dr. Saffron. I fully expected him to tell me about the surgery he was going to do. Instead, he dropped a bomb on me. He told me that, based on the x-rays he'd done that day, I had too much arthritis in the hip to operate. "Save yourself the trouble," he told me, "and get a hip replacement instead." WHAT??!! I'm only 52 years old and you want to saw off my hip joint? As you can imagine, I was totally shocked and began sobbing right there in his office.
Who would do the replacement? He recommended Dr. Goodman. So I made an appt with Dr. Goodman. That took another month of waiting. When Dr. Goodman saw me and did a mobility test on me and looked at my MRIs and X-rays, he said, "What are you doing here?" I wasn't a candidate for a hip replacement. But nobody at Stanford would operate on my hip to fix the torn labrum, because they all go along with Dr. Saffron's opinion. (I liked Dr. Goodman, by the way. He seemed like a very good doctor and has a good reputation for hip replacements).
Anyway, that left me between a rock and a hard place. Here I was, at age 52, doomed to a life of pain and hardship until my hip got so screwed up that I would eventually need a replacement. And who knew how long that might take -- 10 years? Just go home and suffer. I had already done physical therapy and it was obvious to me that the only way I was going to get better was to have the the torn labrum fixed and the bone spur removed.
You can't imagine how depressed I got. Seriously, I had to get on an SSRI. I found Dr. Smollens here through Yelp and made an appt with him. He is a pain management doctor. Dr. Smollens was very compassionate and recommended Dr. Khan.
I had never heard of Dr. Khan. I had already seen Dr. Sampson in San Francisco, and he was willing to operate on me, but he doesn't take insurance and I couldn't afford his $35k fee. I didn't know who else around here did arthroscopic surgery on hips. I was looking specifically for a hip specialist, and Dr. Khan did shoulders, knees, and hips. But I figured that since I had to look outside of Stanford, I would give Dr. Khan a try, especially since he was covered by my insurance.
Within 5 minutes of the appointment with Dr. Khan I knew that I had found my surgeon. He was compassionate, knowledgeable, and told me that he does 2 to 4 hip scopes per week. He had been doing it for more than 10 years. That seemed like enough experience for me. Plus I just got a good feeling from him.
Two months later, I had the surgery. I have had a few surgeries in my life: foot, shoulder (calcium deposits), and sinus. All were miserable recoveries. I expected that recovering from hip surgery would be even worse. But in all honesty, it was the easiest recovery that I've ever had. I was only on crutches for 3 days! THREE DAYS! After that I was walking on my own. I didn't need to take narcotics. The pain was easily controlled with Advil and Tylenol in alternating doses.
I didn't need physical therapy afterward. I already knew the exercises and stretches from earlier in the year. I just carefully did them at home, slowly working up my endurance and flexibility.
Dr. Khan is great. His Surgery Center in Daly City is great. All around, it was a very positive experience. And what's more, other doctors go to him. My dermatologist told me that Dr. Khan was going to fix her shoulder. Sometimes he may seem rushed, but that's only because he's busy. He knows his stuff! So don't hesitate. If you've been given the run-around by Dr. Saffron, or can't afford Dr. Sampson, definitely see Dr. Khan. HE THE MAN!! read more