Hip Hop Horray - The decision process

I can't believe how work and life has kept me from writing in my Blog. But...now...now I need to remain focused and stay "sane"! What better way than to document my journey in hip replacement!?!?!?? When I had my left knee replaced blogging was the best way for me to keep myself "in line" and hopefully to help others facing injuries or surgery.

And so it begins......

As a reminder, I had suffered from anorexia in my early 20's. This is a condition/disease that never "truly leaves"; there is always a devil around that can raise it's ugly head, especially when there are significant changes in life. At the time of my knee replacement I was a runner and also taught high intensity exercise classes. I did not want to give that devil a chance to make an entrance into my life. Writing the blog "kept me honest"! It allowed me to think and to act in healthy ways. It also taught me MANY lessons.

I learned that "less is more"; that I can maintain my fitness without exhausting myself. I learned that if I want to be active for the long term I needed to modify my exercise program, to fuel correctly and to recover. These are lessons that I sometimes struggle to keep in practice; however I do believe that changes I remain true to have help me to put off this upcoming surgery for a few years.

Following my knee replacement I continued to have pain in the quad and glute area. My surgeon took x-rays and found that I have narrowing of the joint space in the left hip (same side as knee replacement). Further evaluation indicated that the hip was beyond repair but not bad enough for replacement.

At that time, physical therapy, cortisone injection and modifications in exercising calmed the hip down. The pain was bearable and the mobility was decent. I was grateful for this.

Following the knee replacement, pathology indicated the probability that I have rheumatoid arthritis. A lot of testing and due to not having the RA factor in my blood, the doctor diagnosed me with Undifferentiated Connective Tissue disease.

Fast forward to December 2017. I was in significant pain all over, but specifically in my hands, hips and right knee. A visit to my new Rheumatologist and the diagnosis was changed to seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. For those of you that know me...I was hesitant (even to today) to take aggressive measures for treatment. I wanted to be sure this diagnosis was valid. I did accept moderate treatment measures for RA and for a period of time this was kept bearable.

I began to have terrible pain in my right hip and x-rays indicated lessening of joint space. A cortisone injection showed a labrum tear. Again, the injection made life bearable, however it also showed me that the left hip was beginning too decline.

Unfortunately, the right knee also showed signs of trouble. In March 2018, I had arthroscopic surgery for clean up. Buying time...buying time!

As time went on, the left hip became increasingly worse. I had another cortisone injection in January 2020 and realized immediately that there was no relief. I believe that the classes I taught helped with mobility and decreasing inflammation; especially Stretch, Core and More and very, if any, limited running. My surgeon said "call me when you are ready".

Well,,,you have to wait 3 months following injection to have surgery and in April we were in the depth of COVID-19. I immediately saw and felt the negative effect of not teaching class and having the gym closed therefore not having less impact cardio equipment. It was awful. I was miserable. I could not sleep (still can't).

In July, my Rheumatologist suggested that I change my treatment to a biologic. He stated that my joints should not be in the condition that they are for any other reason than RA. He knows that I struggle with my diagnosis due to not having the RA factor and asked that I take time to consider this. He reported that the biologic would not fix the current damage however it would slow progression of additional damage.

I took his advice to heart and let him know that I would be meeting with Dr. Sherman to discuss left hip replacement. Five days later I was in Dr. Sherman's office looking at new x-rays of both hips. In minutes we agreed - replacement.

And here we are.......

Much more to come.