Moving On

So it's 8 months since my last post.  (I'm not really a diarist...)  I have a new hip and it's working great.  I'm back at yoga and working full time.  And now we're thinking of moving to Austin.  We went there 2 weeks ago, looked at houses, didn't find anything but narrowed down neighborhoods.  Which, being us, we keep second guessing.  (We do have a good realtor, and Russell.  They both keep us on track.)

Getting my Texas license is turning out to be a major pain in the ass.  Since I held a license there a long time ago, their rule is that I have to renew it.  But their therapeutics law came into effect after New York's, so I did all the class work before their deadline.  In order to practice as a therapeutic optometrist (which in my mind means practice at all), I have to take a 100 hour course.  Insanity!  So I'm going to try and make a case for licensure by endorsement.  We'll see what happens.  Fortunately, I have a friend on the board.

Many mixed feelings about leaving.  We'll have to get out of our comfortable rut and make an effort to make new friends.  So for practice, we went to Temple Friday night and hung out after, and I've scheduled a dinner party at the end of the month.

I'm also going to see a therapist.

The Best of It by Kay Ryan

However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it doesn’t matter that
our acre’s down to
a square foot. As
though our garden
could be one bean
and we’d rejoice if
it flourishes, as
though one bean
could nourish us.

Time For A New Hip

About 4 years ago, my right hip stopped working.  Seriously, you know how if you sit crossed legged on the floor, your knees are about the same distance from the floor?  Well, that used to be true for me. And then it wasn't.  No matter how much stretching I did, I couldn't budge that knee.  An x-ray showed moderate to severe arthritis in my right hip.  "You need a hip replacement," said the doctor I would not refer anyone to ever.  I said, "Let's try physical therapy first."  So I did, and it worked well.  That was three years ago.  Since then, I've had to modify my activity a bit (no more jumping forward or through in yoga; no more pulling my right leg over my shoulder,) but nothing I couldn't deal with.  Yes, I had occasional pain, but really, who doesn't?  It wasn't anything I couldn't live with.  Then on July 1st last year, my friend and co-worker Ali got married.  I danced at her wedding.  A lot.  Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Cotton Eyed Joe--you name it, I was up on the dance floor.  I had a blast.  And the next day I couldn't walk.  And the day after that and the day after that.  We went on vacation with my family and I was grateful that the house had an elevator in it.  I got better slowly, and then Harry and I went to Seattle and Vancouver in September.  After one day of walking, I could not get out of bed.  So I went back to physical therapy, but I was already doing most of the exercises, and the stretching and mobilizing the therapist did made the pain worse. 

I asked around and was referred to a surgeon in the city.  A son of friends of mine is an orthopedic surgery resident at NYU, and he recommended a surgeon who uses a new approach to surgery that results in a faster recovery.  Here's his website in case you're thinking of doing this: Dr. Davidovitch, NYU, Hospital for Joint Disease  We met with him on the 8th, and decided to go ahead and do the surgery.  The earliest they could schedule the surgery was May 9th, but then it turned out that they had a cancellation for February 13th, so that's my new date--a little over 2 weeks from now.  I always said that 13 was my lucky number.