Finally, There’s a Light at the End of the Tunnel

After months/years of putting off my visit to the doctor because of COVID and or other responsibilities that I felt were more important than sore hips, knees, and wrists, I decided in January 2024 that I would do something about it. In fact, if you look back, you’ll see it was one of my New Year’s Resolutions.

As often happens, life intervened. We went on a Caribbean cruise, and sadly my mother passed away shortly after our return. I didn’t handle it well and got depressed. I tried to deal with it by losing myself in my writing, but my body wouldn’t let me off the hook that easily. The pain got worse, and in May, I finally dragged myself to the doctor’s office. He ordered a whole lot of X-rays. When I saw him afterwards, he put me on medication for high blood pressure and told me that, while arthritis permeated my entire body, the right side worse than the left, it looked as if I would need hip replacement surgery. He recommended me to an orthopedic surgeon who forwarded the request to the hospital’s Joint Assessment Clinic. Knowing that these things take time, I settled down to wait for a call.

Since the pain and the problem weren’t going magically disappear, I did what I could to make life easier for myself. A couple of years ago, I’d added a second railing to my stairs–our home is a split level so you have to use stairs to go up or down. There’s no way around that. I took the bull by the horns and redid my bathroom to accommodate a walk-in tub, which has been a godsend. I then purchased slip-on shoes with a sturdy no-slip sole, sandals that tied around the ankle and kept my foot in place, and rubber-soled slippers. My greatest fear was falling since that was what led to my father’s death in 2019.

I got my father’s walker out of storage and cleaned it up. Since July, I have used a combination of a cane and a walker to get around–the cane for short distances, the walker for longer ones and uphill walking. Canes are useful, but when the hip starts to ache from standing, you’ve got to sit. Plus, there are times when I feel as if the knees or the hip are going to stop supporting me. It’s scary, but it is what it is.

When I got the call for the clinic visit, I was thrilled. I fully expected to be told that the hip wasn’t that bad and that I would need to be reassessed every six-months or so, but I hoped they could at least give me something to help manage the pain. So, mask in place because we are doing that here again, and using my walker, I registered at the hospitat desk and then went up to the third floor for the assessment.

The young physiotherapist was great. She was friendly and welcoming. The first thing she did was weigh me and take my height. As some of you know, I’ve worked very hard since COVID to lose the weight I’d gained. At one point, I was managing 10,000 steps a day. Needless to say, that went by the wayside when the pain in my hips and knees grew worse. Twisting the knee a couple of years ago was the beginning of the end.

The good news is that I have managed to keep off the weight I lost and even lose a few more pounds. The bad news is that I’ve shrunk. I was 60.05 inches tall, 5′.05″. I am now, 57 inches tall, or 4’9″, which means that at 160 lbs, I am still grossly overweight. It’s been hard losing what I have, so I don’t hold out much hope of ever losing enough to hit the 85.5 – 115.5 lbs range the chart recommends for my height and small-boned body frame. I may have weighed that when I was a preteen, but that was more than 60 years ago. As an aside, any of my friends who decided to go on a strict diet and lose a whole lot of weight ended up looking older than dirt. All of them died within a year of getting down to their so-called ideal weight. I weighed 140 lbs when I got married 53 years ago. So, with that in mind, I’ll try to lose another 10 lbs, but the way I see it, I just have to stop shrinking.

The physiotherapist then did an assessment on my knees and hips, asked a ton of questions and put me through a few mobility exercises before finally showing me my x-rays and explaining them to me. In short, the knees have moderate cartilage loss. If they bother me more, she suggested I might want to try cortisone shots–they’ll be my last resort. Similarly, my left hip has mild to moderate cartilage loss, but the bigger problem on that side right now is sciatica. Stretching, heat/cold, and exercise will help that. I’m on it. I purchased an ergonomic cushion for my desk chair which seems to be helping and keeping my hips bent at the required 90 degree angle.

Then, she explained the right hip. The cartilage is gone. It’s bone on bone which is what’s causing the pain. Cortisone won’t help, and so, I will be getting a total right hip replacement. She went through all the possible complications, explained everything to me, but while I may be a little chunky, my BMI is within acceptable range for the surgery. The procedure takes about two hours and is done as Day Surgery, which means I won’t have to spend the night in the hospital unless there are complications. To me, that’s hard to believe. When my father had his hip replaced, he was in for more than a week, and when my mother had hers, she was in for 4 or 5 days. Do you see a pattern here? It seems I got the unlucky gene.

Before they the surgery, they will ensure that I have everything in place at home to help me. After the surgery, they will get me up walking, show me how to get in and out of bed safely. Prior to discharge, they’ll make sure I can manage the stairs and arrange for ongoing physio. Essentially, other than not bending for any reason, not crossing my legs, and keeping my leg staight, it shouldn’t be too bad. I won’t be able to drive for six weeks, but I don’t do all that much driving now. I have a taller toilet, sturdy railings, and a walk-in tub. The best part is that the waiting list is only seven months, and since I live in Canada, it’s all covered by my health insurance. So, I have seven months to strengthen my core, and doing everything I can to make sure I’m in the best shape that I can be for life with that new hip.

Will it be easy? Probably not, and I can be quite stubborn and set in my ways, but in a year’s time, I should be right as rain. Getting old sucks, but it’s a privilege denied to many. I’ll grin and bear it.

One last piece of advice. Don’t ignore those aches and pains. Get your vaccines and do whatever you can to stay on this side of the grass. People are counting on you to be in their lives.
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