Too young for dodgy hips!
My last blog told how I had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of both hips and that due to my young age (yes, the doctor did say young so no laughing please) I was being sent to see a consultant. Well, I went to see the consultant two weeks later and to say I came out of the hospital in a state of shock is a bit of an understatement.
As I was sat down with the consultant as he looked at my x-rays I could tell things were heading in a rather ominous direction. This was confirmed when he said “Hmm, I’ve had a look at them – they’re not good”. Not a good start.
‘They’re knackered’
After a quick check of my hip movement he adopted the expression of what I can only compare to a builder preparing to give you a quote to repair a botched DIY job and saying “Oh, this is going to hurt.” The consultant’s actual words were “they’re knackered aren’t they”. Now I am no medical expert, but I don’t believe that “knackered” is an official clinical term, but it certainly got the message across.
Following another chat and another x-ray on my left hip (apparently there is something odd going on in that one) the Consultant gave me the option of either putting up with the pain or surgery. I nervously asked his opinion and he said that he normally would not recommend surgery to somebody of my age as the replacement hips have a life span of around 20 years, so a repeat operation would be likely (providing I last that long obviously). However, due to the state of my x-rays he said that if we didn’t do something now with both hips I could perceivably be in a wheelchair in a couple of years. This really hit me hard and I have to admit that I struggled to control my emotions.
I know that being told you need hip replacement surgery isn’t the end of the world but it’s a strange feeling being told that you need to have parts of your body chopped off replaced with bits of metal, ceramic or whatever it is they use. I don’t know if it is ego, pride or some other macho emotion that doesn’t want me to admit that my body, or at least parts of it are failing me far too early in life.
Chronic Pain is a strange thing
It took me about a week to get my head around the fact that I need to go through with this and during that first week I was telling myself – “Am I really that bad?”, “can I not just put up with the pain?”, “If I keep doing my exercises will things not improve?” Chronic pain is a strange thing. It is not a sharp debilitating pain, it is just there, all the time, to varying degrees depending on what you are doing at the time and it almost begins to feel normal to you.
I have realised that I am almost constantly thinking about my hips and have been for a long time. Every time I stand up, sit down, walk, drive, roll over in bed or try to bend over my hips are at the forefront of my mind – this is not normal. Then I would have the consultants threat of a wheelchair ringing in my ears and I realise that I have many years ahead of me (hopefully) and my hip joints are only going to get worse.
May the fourth be with you!
I have also been told many positive stories about hip replacements and how they have transformed the lives of people like me, so it has to be the best, if not only option.
As a result, I am booked in for my first hip replacement on Star Wars day, so barring cancellations, it will be farewell left hip and bring on robo hip no.1, May the fourth be with me!
In my first blog I said that I wanted to improve my mobility so that I could enjoy life with my family without my hips shouting “whoa there fella – do you really think you should be doing this”. It looks like the road I am now travelling on is going to be a lot tougher than I first imagined, certainly in the short term while I recover from the ops, but I am even more determined to achieve my aim.
The one silver lining out of all this is that I am now actually getting a modicum of sympathy from my wonderful wife, Jill. Now that I have medical evidence that I am not just whinging on and being a complete wuss, she actually almost feels sorry for me. I know she will do all she can with her knowledge and experience of the body to get me into shape after my ops, and with Gordon’s physiotherapy help I know that I have every chance of realising my initial ambitions.
Perhaps I can reignite that dream of the lead in Swan Lake after all.
Stephen
PS
We are going to track Stephen’s journey from the Tin-man to Mr Mobile.
Joint replacements are very common, so it will be good for others who are having to go down the same route to see the progress and challenges. We’ll also be writing an recovery and rehabilitation program alongside top physiotherapist Gordon Ellis.