Strangely, I feel vindicated
By sylvie | June 15, 2010
One thing I was always grateful to my parents for was the fact that, in spite of the fact that I developed rhumatoid arthritis at only 11 years of age, they never treated me like a delicate flower in need of protection. They treated me as normally as possible and because of that, my illness was never central to my life. Of course, it helped that I had a mild case and so could pass for normally abled most of my life. In addition, my parents looked down on anyone who used their illness to elicit pity so I have always tended to not mention my arthritis to people.
When my left hip got worse a couple of years ago, I started using a cane to walk but I felt like a fraud, maybe because I could usually walk without a cane, though going up and down stairs hurt and became more and more of a problem. With time, though, I’ve found that it’s become harder and harder to walk for long periods of time. And still I felt like a fraud.
Over a year ago, I decided it was time to see if I could get a new hip. So I asked for an appointment with an orthopedist. This morning, I finally saw one at the Hull hospital. They took new x-rays of my hip and the doctor showed them to me. It was quite fascinating. Apparently, I have no cartilage left in the joint, and there are all sorts of deterioration in the hip area. Even though I knew already that my hip must be in pretty bad shape, having a doctor tell me in detail the problems made me feel as though I had been right all along to use a cane. How very strange.
We had a long conversation about the various hip replacement technologies, with the doctor listing the pros and cons of all the choices: plastic on metal, metal on metal, ceramic on ceramic, plastic on ceramic. The doctor suggested that my best bet was the ceramic on ceramic choice, as it is known that it can last up to 25 years. This means that I would be pain-free until 75. After that, I’ll probably end up in a wheelchair, but that’s okay.
So I signed up for the operation. There’s a 3 to 6 month wait, but I don’t mind. To be honest, I was convinced he was going to tell me I should wait another 10 years.
Topics: Personal |
June 20th, 2010 at 15:33
My father has got a hip replacement ceramic/ceramic 30 years ago. It was the really beginning of this kind of operation. They did not know how long it would last. Today, they are still surprised that it is still working so well. So you may still be walking at 80 and counting…
Good luck