FIrst Up

Getting a hip replacement is not my idea of a walk in the park ... if I could indeed walk in the park. I'm a 53 year old woman, a relatively recent first-time bride (2005), and a former athlete (fencing, dancing, skiing, etc.).

Over the past five or so years, however, my right hip has become increasingly recalcitrant about letting me do what I want. First, high heels left the shoe repertoire. Then I started listing to the right when going up and down stairs. Then I started having to pull myself up stairs. Then came the limping, especially when I stood up from sitting for a time. And sitting for a time's impossible to avoid, as I write for a living.

So, in 2007, I hauled myself off to a doc. The diagnosis: not bursitis, which could have been handled by a nice injection, but degenerative osteoarthritis. I was given about two years before I'd need my hip replaced. However ... the doc would not do surgery unless I lost quite a bit of weight. Can't exercise, can't lose weight, can't have surgery, pain continues, etc. Can you say Catch-22?

A year ago, the husband and I left New York for Chicago. My hip got progressively worse. Taking a walk of more than five blocks was agony. Going to a museum to look at paintings was excruciating. Stairs became one step at a time. And forget shopping. I almost was tempted to use one of those little spazmobiles, but I've not gone there yet. (No, I'm not being un-PC - a good friend with lifelong cerebral palsy came up with that terminology.)

So, off to the doc I went again. Thank goodness, docs in Chicago aren't bigoted about doing hip replacement surgery on heavy people. Still, I didn't feel ready. So I kept requesting stronger and stronger painkillers.

Each time I'd get a new painkiller, I'd think, "Yay! I can DO stuff again!", and would head out on long walks, etc. But that would only last about a week or two. Then I'd be back in deep pain mode again.

I'm not willing to go on things like Vicodin, as I like having my brain lucid and rational. And at this point, I've only got one more level upward to go on my current painkiller (Ultram) before I'll have to go the Vicodin route.

I'm also in another strange Catch-22 place. My health coverage runs out at the end of February 2010. If I don't do it now, and health reform does not go through, my hip problems will wind up in that no-man's land called "pre-existing condition." Which means, short of winning the lottery (or a nice book contract), I'll be doomed to immobility, and a quality of life that's about 1.5 on a scale of 10. Thank goodness we have a nice apartment, a good marriage, and basically, a nice life. But quality of 1.5 is no life, really.

So ... I've bitten the bullet. The hip replacement operation is scheduled for Dec. 2. That should give me enough time to have the physical therapy I'll need to get back to normal. In the meantime, I'm reading as much as I can about hip replacement, and am compiling a list of questions to ask the hospital people tomorrow, when I go for pre-intake.

The big fears are that my mobility will be permanently compromised. I'd like to do Pilates and yoga again, I want to ski, I want to be able to wander a museum for a few hours, and I want to be able to take loooong walks (I've been especially peeved that I haven't been able to take a nice walk along Lake Michigan).

From everything I've read, however, the mobility compromises are temporary. I should be able to do everything again in about a year or two.

So ... onward and upward. I'll check in after tomorrow's appointments.