Testimonials
I am a new person today because of Dr. Dore. My life changed after a mass on my right ovary which caused necrosis of the right hip and femur. The pain was like a lightning bolt hitting you. The horror stories of hip replacement and huge scars scared me even though I am a nurse. My experience with Dr. Dore was and is amazing with painless quick rehab and I am more active than ever. I thank God for him everyday!
-Cindy
I have been a patient of Dr. Dore's for over 3 years. He was highly recommended by someone who works in Celebration and had observed him in surgery. The person was very observant and felt that he would be a good choice for me.
I have not regretted my choice. I have found Dr.Dore to be patient with me; he listens and addresses my concerns. When I have needed to see him before my scheduled appointment, he has always accommodated me to see him.
Additionally, I live in an active adult retirement community where many of my neighbors are also patients of Dr. Dore. They appear to have recovered from surgery and have returned back to their routine in no time.
I would highly recommend Dr. Dore for anyone considering hip or knee surgery based on my recovery time and what I have observed to be my neighbor's recovery time.
-Dorothy Florence
The minute I met Dr. Homan I knew that I was in good hands. He was very interested in getting my professional boxing career back to where it was before my shoulder injury. After my surgery Dr. Homan personally called me at home to make sure my recovery process was going smoothly. I have since resumed my boxing career and have made a full recovery, thanks to the professionalism of Dr. Homan and his staff at Celebration Orthopedics.
-Jason “The Sensation” Gavern
I have Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since I was two years old. In my teenage years my arthritis got worse and I had to start using a scooter to get around due to the deformities of my hips and knees and the pain from walking. I was pretty much unable to walk from age twelve years old. When I was sixteen years old I met Dr. Dore and had my hips and knees replaced. I was able to walk again free from pain and better than I ever remembered. I was able to put away my scooter and walk across the stage to get my high school diploma. Since then I was able to go onto college and received my Master’s degree in Social Work. I also got married this year to a wonderful man and was able to have Dr. Dore there to see me walk down the aisle. The joint replacements have been an amazing blessing in my life and what I like to call “the miracle” I prayed for. Through this experience I was able to see the presence of Christ in the world and He worked through Dr. Dore, who is one of the most amazing men I have ever met.
-Christina Le Mieux Kuchman
Joe Cashwell, 43, is a big, strong guy with a muscular 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound frame. Demanding sports and outdoor activities have always been part of his life. Playing football, riding motorcycles and dirt bikes, and wrestling around with his two sons, ages 14 and 3, have kept him fit and active. So has his career as owner of two businesses—a construction business and home theater installation. In 2007, he started experiencing some unusual symptoms. At first they were fairly minor. Joe felt some discomfort and pain in his right hip if he rode his motorcycle for more than 90 minutes. Then he noticed he couldn’t sleep on his side because he couldn’t get his knees to touch. Chronic hip pain came next, including a stabbing pain that he would feel when he twisted his body. Able to chuckle about it now, Joe notes that when that sudden pain occurred, “I would be vocal!” Walking through the mall, he would sometimes let out a howl that would make heads turn. Joe knew it was time to seek medical help. His primary care physician suggested he see a specialist. That is how he came to know David Dore, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at Florida Hospital Celebration Health. After studying Joe’s X-rays, Dr. Dore told Joe that he had significant cartilage deterioration in his right hip. “My right hip was bone to bone,” Joe recalls. “I had worn through the cartilage on my hip from being very active my whole life.” That was the good news. The bad news was that the left hip was almost as worn as the right. Only surgery—or rather two separate surgeries—would restore the pain-free mobility Joe had been gradually losing. Dr. Dore suggested hip resurfacing, a less radical alternative to total hip replacement. Joe was depressed at first.
“The first thing that flew through my mind was that my life with my 14-year-old and my 3-year-old was over.” He assumed he would never be able to recover the same degree of mobility he had enjoyed, and that he would have to adjust to a reduced quality of life. But Joe wasn’t ready to let hip cartilage deterioration slow him down. As he learned more about the procedure and its excellent prognosis, Joe cheered up. Surgery on Joe’s right hip was scheduled for February 10. Prior to surgery, Joe attended a half-day training class that told him what to expect from the surgical experience and the post-surgical recovery period. He also learned how to perform the rehabilitative exercises he would need to do after the surgery. The instructors also encouraged him to practice the physical therapy in advance. Joe and the other class participants were given material that answered many of the most commonly asked joint resurfacing questions.
They also were given the cell phone number of the joint replacement care coordinator. Recovery from the hip resurfacing procedure is generally smooth, andCelebration’s rehab services help all patients progress as quickly as they can. Typically, patients return directly home within three days instead of transitioning to a rehab facility. Because of his good physical condition and his determination, the pace of Joe’s recovery was unusually fast. The morning after the procedure he was helped out of bed to sit in a recliner. He was given a walker and brought to a 300-foot oval corridor designed for rehabilitating hip surgery patients. By walking this corridor, he was ableto measure his progress in laps. Other physical therapy included ankle lifts, partial squats, and other range-ofmotion exercises. Joe’s first surgery took place on a Tuesday. After walking about 3,000 feet, he walked out of the hospital with a walker on Thursday morning. At home, he continued his rehab exercises twice a day, concentrating on learning how to get in and out of bed without assistance, while steadily increasing hiswalking. “Every day, I got noticeably better,” Joe says.
“The better I felt, the more motivated I was to continue working hard at my rehab.” Joe’s surgeon, Dr. Dore, performed the same hip resurfacing procedure on his other hip on June 2. By four weeks after the first surgery and three weeks after the second surgery, Joe was back at work, resuming most of his regular activities. At 14 weeks after his second surgery, he ran two miles. Both of his hips are now, as he puts it, “out of restriction.” Full contact sports are notrecommended, but he has resumed normal daily activities. “I am 100 percent as of right now.” Joe’s recovery was unusually fast. This was due in part to his excellent physical condition, as well as his dedication in attending the group training sessions both prior to and after his surgery. Joe praises Celebration Health and its stellar staff for their role in giving him his life back. “From probably the worst thingthat’s ever happened to me, it turned out to be one of the best experiences in my life,” says Joe. “And I have never met a group of people like this in my entire life.”
-Joe Cashwell
“Old Jane can get up and go now,” says Jane Shew, 81, with a laugh that warms the room with its vibrancy. The remarkable thing is that just one year ago she was a patient at Celebration Health’s Expedition: Joint Replacement Center, undergoing a bilateral knee replacement. She had reached the point where walking even a short distance as incredibly painful and almost impossible. Today, Shew walks at least one mile every day in her neighborhood and often exercises at her local Curves or the YMCA Silver Sneakers Program. You wouldn’t know that only one year has passed since she found herself without a leg to stand on, literally, and decided to undergo knee replacement surgery on both knees at the same time. “You’ve got to have faith in your doctor and in somebody higher,” Shew says from the Orlando home that she shares with her husband, Fred, 81, reflecting on her decision to replace both knees at once. “I knew I was in good health and I knew that I was a determined person, and I just decided that I could do this!”
-Jane Shew
I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease at L4/L5 of the Lumbar Spine in June of 1997. Over the years the lower back pain grew steadily worse to the point that my husband asked me how much longer before he'd be pushing me around in a wheelchair. That got me thinking that IF the medical technology improved to the point that I could possibly have any type of minimally invasive back surgery, that I'd research it. I'd heard about too many back surgeries that went wrong and felt as long as I could keep taking pain pills to cope with the pain, I'd continue on.
In January 2001 I underwent DRS System treatment for disc decompression 4 times a week for 6 weeks at the Orlando Pain & Medical Rehabilitation Center in Altamonte Springs, FL. My back pain subsided for several years but in June 2006, I found myself having spine adjustments with a Chiropractor. When I realized they only helped temporarily and I was spending a lot of money, I bought an Inversion Table. Again, this provided only temporary relief.
In 2008, I received information in the mail from Florida Hospital at Celebration Health introducing Dr. Faissal Zahrawi, Director of their Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Institute. He was performing minimally invasive spinal fusion surgeries. I scheduled an appointment with him. He told me all my trips to the Chiropractor and my use of the Inversion Table would not heal my back. Then he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "I will heal your back". September 2008 I had a lower back MRJ and October 2008 Dr. Zahrawi performed Lumbar Fusion Surgery on L-4 & L-5 Degenerative Disks.
1 year and 9 months later and I am more active now than I was before I had the back surgery. I exercise daily before I get ready for work (from 7 - 7:30 AM) to a show called "Total Body Sculpt with Gilad" on the FIT TV channel. I've lost 20 pounds and can chase after and pick up my grandkids without even thinking that 2 years ago my back was riddled with pain.
With the help of God, Dr. "Z" truly did heal my back, he's my HERO, I will NEVER forget what an amazing surgeon he is and I will be forever grateful to him! Thank you for allowing me the privilege of offering my testimony.
-Carol A. Denrnan
At the end of my initial consult with Dr. Zahrawi he looked at me and said the words all patients want to hear, "I will take away your pain and make you better". These encouraging words along with the accolades of many residents of my 55 and older community here in Solivita convinced me that I had found the doctor who would repair the damage to my lower back and alleviate the pain of sciatica and the agony of limping that had gotten progressively worse over the prior 18 months.
I first damaged my disk in 1995 and steroid injections over the years were enough to eliminate the pain. Back surgery was always to be the last process and was to be held off as long as possible.
Surgery was a defrnite need by December, 2009 and I had a consult with another surgeon who did not give me the confidence I needed to work with him. From the first minute I met Dr. Z I knew that he was the surgeon I needed to make me whole again.
Four disk fusion surgery was performed on January 27 and I went home on January 29 and straight to bed. I awoke in the morning to hear my neighbors making breakfast and I came out on a walker fiom the bedroom. By noon I put the walker aside and never used it again in the house. By noon I realized that all of mypain was gone and that the sciatica I had lived with for months was a thing of the past.
I may not be the norm for patient recovery when I tell you that in the six months since surgery I have not had one minute ofpain-ever! I stopped using pain medication four days after surgery and never took another pill. I was given the go ahead to drive two weeks after surgery and returned to my normal life much faster than I expected.
A great surgeon is the first step to being able to recover. The rest is up to the patient. This patient did the walking and stair climbing ordered up by his doctor. This patient longed to go back to gym class and yoga class and I was able to do this after only 10 weeks.
Dr. Zahwari promised to take away my pain and make me better. He did that and it is the greatest gift a doctor can give a patient.
-Steve Mattis