Saturday, December 26, 2009

It's Been a While

Hard to believe my last post was June 29th, 2008...17 days after Jack was born. He's know 18 months old. Kaylin is 3 years and change.

Facebook kind of took over the updates, news, drivel, etc, etc, ad nauseum. However, I thought I'd use the family blog to chronicle my Total Hip Replacement (THR).

In the early 90s, I woke up one morning after lifting weights (yes, I know, it's quite obvious that I regularly hit the weights), I could barely walk. My right hip was so stiff that it took great effort and a few minutes just to straighten it out. The pain was pretty intense as well.

A trip to the doctor, and a tell-tale X-ray, revealed that I had Perthes Syndrome as a child...around 5 or 6 years old. Even I could see the difference between the right and left hip. Oddly enough, I had no history of hip or knee pain, and no irregular gait. However, my right leg did appear and feel shorter than the left.

Perthes Syndrome affects the growth and development of the ball of the femur. You can check out Wikipedia for additional information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legg–CalvĂ©–Perthes_syndrome.

Thus began almost 20 years of daily, but not constant, pain. At times the pain was merely annoying. But usually it was fairly intense. Over the years I've lost almost all the left and right rotation and am quickly losing movement forward and backward. It's getting harder and harder to put on my own socks. The long term prognosis was quite simple. At some point I was guaranteed to have my hip replaced. The goal was to put it off as long as possible for two reasons:
  • With each passing year, the technology improves.
  • If I get it done too young, I'll have to get it done again

Well, "as long as possible" is January 18, 2010...and I will probably have to have it done again in 20 years (plus or minus 5 years).

More to come...time to get ready for the 3rd and final Christmas celebration of 2009.