Steve Carell has a new hip after surgery
Steve Carell has undergone hip replacement surgery to correct an old ice hockey injury.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin star injured himself 12 years ago while playing the sport, but was advised by a doctor to wait to have the surgery and instead treat the injury with painful twice-yearly medical shots.
He finally scheduled the operation for October (13), but the 51
year old refused to do any research beforehand because he was
afraid he would not go through with the procedure.
Carell tells late night host David Letterman, "I thought, if I
watch this (research videos), if I actually know what's going to
happen to my body, I'm not going to do this. I just found a good
doctor and went ahead with it... Because essentially what they are
doing is dislocating your hip, they're cutting it out and they're
putting a different one in. So it's fairly traumatic to your
body."
Once the surgery was scheduled, Carell did not know what to expect
on the day and he was surprised by the preparation procedures.
He explains, "So I showed up to the hospital the morning of and
again, I knew nothing. A woman... showed up and said she was going
to shave my groin...
"I had no idea how big the incision was. The doctor came in and we
talked about anaesthesia, because I could have had local. You can
do general or local and you sort of in a foggy state, as they put
it, and I asked the doctor what would he suggest and he said, 'You
don't want any memory of this at all.' So I opted for general. They
also asked at that point, which was about 30 minutes before the
operation, 'Now what would you like it made out of?' Like I was
picking out the interior of a car... so I was picking this
substance that was going to be in my body for the rest of my
life.... I opted for the ceramic."
Despite his fears about the procedure, Carell explains the surgery
went well and he is even planning to return to hockey next year
(14): "Since then, it (his hip) has been fantastic. I am going to
start (hockey) in the new year."