Hey all. I’m your standard once in awhile contributor. I’m notoriously overwhelmed with too much stuff to do– The Husband (author Weston Ochse) is deployed, my Dad had a stroke last October, I have three Great Danes (two of which are aging), and I work full time *and* still try to write fiction in my “spare” time while taking care of three houses (ours, the old one we haven’t been able to sell, and my Dad’s). What’s relevant here is that I had a hip replacement in June of 2012; my right hip had bugged me since I was a child, when I would occasionally get out of bed and literally collapse when I tried to take a step on the right side. I would “walk it out” (translation: lurch around) and ultimately be fine. It would go away for years, then come back. Then go away. As I got older the going away periods got shorter.
One day in mid-summer 2011 I wore green high heels to work, took a forward step, got a shot in the hip (which had been hurting more frequently), and this time it never went away. I had reached the point where I completely ran out of cartilage on that side. Apparently I had a genetic abnormality where my hip socket was smaller than normal (so same amount of pressure over a smaller area). In the course of the next year and the medical insurance controlling how fast I could get treatment, the top of the femur not only rubbed bone on bone but pushed upward about a half inch or so; I even had a last-ditch effort in the form of a fluoroscopic cortisone shot so I could enjoy a trip to Spain before my surgery (didn’t work and I broke down and bought a cane in Valencia, because I could hardly walk at all). The surgery went fine, my pain was awful because nothing (including all the Oxy, Percocet, etc.) stopped the pain. Then everything became a hundred times worse because I developed severe anemia. Long story short, ditch the whine, … (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)