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.