72 hours post surgery

I found this Web site Feb. 12, 2018, the day before I went in for total hip replacement surgery. But there’s even more to it than that. This would be my second hip surgery in six months. On May 8 I tripped on the sidewalk, stumbled and landed directly on the concrete with him left hip. It was a hard fall, but I was able to get up and walk the final mile of a six-mile run back to my house. I grabbed crutches (from a heel bone spur surgery a year prior), and two days later was using a cane. However, that Friday my leg felt tired and sore, and I went to Urgent Care to get an x-ray. Guess what? The urgent care didn’t have the right equipment. And the muscles in my upper leg seized, sending it into convulsions. Urgent Care folks had no clue what to do, gave me a muscle relaxer and suggested I get taken to ER. At that point I could barely drag my leg behind me. ER thought I had torn my abductor or maybe had a hernia. Both came back negative. They asked if I thought I’d broke my leg. I’ve been through bike crashes; I thought I knew if I’d broken something.

I figured I’d torn a couple muscles and–through massage and chiro–would recover. But two months later I still couldn’t put weight on it, and finally x-rayed it to find I’d fractured my hip. On August 9 I went through hip repair surgery, with five screws and a plate. My surgeon warned me there was a chance of the ball joint bone dying, but he thought the bones were very strong. On Thanksgiving I walked a 5K, and I thought I was back.

But by mid-December my leg started feeling weak, and by late January I was back on a cane. On Feb. 4 I went back to ER and found the ball joint bone was dying. On Feb. 13 I got a brand new ceramic-on-poly non-cement hip joint. I also had the old hardware removed, so for the next three weeks I have to be careful of putting full weight on the leg because I have five holes in the femur where screws use to be.

So there’s my story. I’m laying on the couch, avoiding flexing my hip more than 90 degrees, not crossing my legs and not turning my bad leg’s foot inside the knee. I’ve run nine marathons and three half-Ironmans. I’m not sure what the final goal will be, but I know I want to run again just so my final run is not the one where I fell and fractured my hip.

Thank you, everyone, for being out here. This Web site definitely gives me hope that I can run again.