I Will Not Be a Statistic

Hip Stories

I never should have done a Google search on broken hips. Apparently it is one of the more difficult injuries to recover totally from.

Actually, I can understand why. Aside from the fact that the broken bone is huge, the hip itself is an important weight bearing joint. My hip joint is not damaged, just the bone going into the socket, so that's a big plus. But still there are lots of muscles and ligaments all involved in the recovery.

As well, most broken hips are in elderly people who tend to be less active. While I am just crossing to the side of "elderly" (65) I have been very active all my life and intend to stay so. It would be easy to just sit around now and rest my leg, avoiding the pain of moving around. And sometimes, I do just that. The injury and surgery took a lot out of me and I am still more tired than I would normally be.

But, I will not sit around without exercising my leg. I have physical therapy three times a week and in between I do most of the exercises at home. I also walk quite a bit--around here now using only one crutch--and I do some of the chores that don't require heavy lifting. I am doing the late night feed for the Boys every night. I put out the peanuts and bird seed for the wild critters. And I am also feeding the two stray kitties who have shown up. (More on them later--one a gray adult and the other a kitten)

I have a walk down the driveway every day to get my mail. I have gone to church for choir practice and the Sunday service. I have been grocery shopping several times, although I have ridden around the store in one of those electric carts for long shopping missions. But, I can push a regular shopping cart to the car afterwards to unload my purchases. Then, I unload the car at home and carry the groceries in.

From what I have read, swimming, or at least water exercises will be great for my recovery. I do want a clearance from my surgeon first to be sure I can immerse my leg in water--assurance that the incisions are healed enough.

I think one little problem I have at the moment is that my muscles, tendons and ligaments were so compromised before my hipbone collapses that they were all strained before the repair surgery. They do need a little extra time to heal from that trauma.

But recover they will, and recover I will.

Hopefully, I will be able to ride Chance again. The vet is coming on Thursday, as you know, to do an ultrasound to find out what is wrong with him. I am hoping both he and I will be on a matching recovery trajectory.

Tucker stands in the wings, a project for another day. And, of course, there is Toby.

I have a lot to look forward to and I think I'll just skip the Google searches for now.