Gymnastic Coach Tumbles in Good Way
Quin S. spends his days tumbling and bouncing off trampolines, running a large gymnastics center for the Ecke YMCA in Carlsbad, California. He’s coached gymnastics for 30 years. The job requires demonstrating techniques, spotting gymnasts and running around after kids. He also surfs, runs, bikes and rock-climbs.
Quin has always been active and fit, but about ten years ago, Quin’s hip started to hurt. Doctors told him the problem was arthritis. He took medicine for the arthritis but it got progressively worse and limited his mobility, which was extremely frustrating to him because he was accustomed to being so active.
Eventually it was bad enough that it affected his quality of life – his ability to coach, walk his dogs or even just stand for any period of time. “I finally relented and scheduled a total hip replacement surgery.”
But Quin never made it to that surgery. Luckily, he spoke with one of his former gymnastic students, Eco-Challenge Champion Robin Benicasa, about his plans. She told him about a new procedure called Hip Resurfacing, which recently had been approved in the US.
Quin researched the procedure and says, “the more I read and the more I talked to people, the more I realized that’s what I wanted.”
His surgeon didn’t offer the procedure, so Quin found a surgeon who did. He had his hip resurfaced in June 2008 when he was 50.
“It has just been fantastic,” he says. “I went back to work after seven weeks, but I really wanted to go back even before that!”
Now a year out from the surgery, Quin runs several times a week, surfs everyday and rides his bike whenever he can.
Quin feels his surgery bought him back another five years of coaching.
“I really didn’t want to stop,” he says. “My activity is not as limited as it would have been with a traditional replacement. It was a quantum leap in recovery. I’m so glad I did it.”
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