Any San Francisco Bay Area ...

Hi Everyone, First, I want to thank Pat for conceiving, running, and maintaining this site, and everyone who has contributed. It has been a god-send to me. After dealing with doctors and surgeons who don't know or don't want to talk about HR, I felt it's time to get MAD. I'm hoping some of you can give me a push in the right direction. I have a workers comp claim. Two docs have told me I need a hip replacement. ( one in network, one out of network). After hours of educating myself on hip resurfacing, I asked if I'm a candidate. Of course they said they don't do it, and implied THR is better…..I'm not convinced. I live in San Francisco. It seems from the doctor info on the site, I don't have much of a choice of experienced HR docs in the city, except for Peter Callander (75 HR's), John Lannin/James Hartford (110 HR's), Bob Gilbert (81 HR's), and Tom Vail (180 HR's). QUESTION #1: is there anyone in the San Francisco Bay area who has had a HR done with any one of these docs? Could you tell me your experience? Question #2: My attorney told me workers comp may not let me go out of network to have surgery without appealing to a judge to do so. I want to make the case I am a candidate for HR rather than THR, and that possibly the above mentioned docs are the ones I want to use. (Yes, I am in the process of contacting them for a consultation). So is anyone experienced in navigating a workers comp claim for a HR that would share their experience? I hope that pretty soon I can share my story with everyone, including how the navigate the workers comp factory. Thanks, Wandralee