Remember when.....(this is kind of long, I have a lot to say)

Do you guys remember how this journey all began? I am sure that my fan base does remember(but here is a recap just in case) that about 4 months ago I went to see my Rheumatologist Dr. James (who I love to death), and had a major emotional break down, risked my life taking x-rays, and came to the conclusion that I needed to have bilateral hip replacement, a surgery usually reserved for people over the age of 65. Since then I have heard a million ok maybe only 999,000 hip replacement stories, had several oh bless your heart and you are so young moments. This week has had no shortage of stories. I went back for my 4 month check up with Dr. James this week and got a few stories from her. I also had an oh bless your heart moment at school with my kiddos this week. Are you tired of reading yet? Well you may want to get comfortable and grab a cup of hot chocolate I have lots to say today.

Let's start with the oh bless you heart moment at school. I love my kiddos. I told my 4th hour class on Monday that I was leaving them for 4 weeks to have hip replacement surgery. They the next day I was letting them know that I had the afore mentioned DR. appointment on wednesday. One of the kids said is then when you are leaving us? I told them no it was only a one day vacation and a kiddo who was absent on monday wanted to be filled in on the situation. So I explained it to them again. The kids had an oh bless your heart moment which was touching immediately followed by a typical high school response to any situation. They asked are you going to have some good pain killers. Oh well I love them anyway. One of the kids said his aunt was having hip replacement and he came back after school and told me good luck with my surgery. Have I mentioned I love my kiddos. It touched my heart and almost brought me to tears to see that kind of compassion in a high schooler.

The next day I went to see Dr. James. I was determined not to cry but she told me she was so proud of me for making the decision to have hip replacement. I lost it. We discussed my medicine schedule for the surgery and she gave me a prescription for Celebrex to take while I am off my Naproxen so I won't be in pain. I was kind of worried about that so that made me feel better. She then told me that the first few days I may be mad at her for convincing me to do this but about day 7 I would be feeling pretty good. She continued on to tell me a story about an 86 year old patient who had hip replacement last year. She said he went in for hip replacement and made it through surgery and rehab (oops I forgot we call that Physical therapy so people don't think I am in drug rehab). He got an infection in the new hip joint and was in the hospital and had a month recovery from the infection. She saw him later and said please don't be mad at me. He said are you kidding that was the best month of my life even with an infection. So I guess it is all going to be ok.

Look you survived you made it through. I know it was a long but thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed your hot chocolate while reading. My surgery is 4 weeks from yesterday. It is getting really close. I am ready just to have it all over. Start those prayers for me and for my mom(who is doubling as my nurse) who is going to live with me for 6 weeks while I recover. Pray that I am a good patient so my nurse will come back in June when I have the other one replaced.

Fortune Cookie wisdom: Warning this is not a hip replacement story.

So if you are reading my blog just to hear hip replacement stories and random encouragement about the millions or what seems like millions of people who have a hip replacement story this blog story is not for you. So Thursday night Edie and I went to get chinese food at our favorite chinese buffet. Yes that is right they know our drink order and one of the waitress said "long time no see" to me when I went to the buffet. As you and any other person is who is a frequent partaker of chinese food knows the fortune cookie is the best part of the meal. At the Aloha Garden the back of the fortune cookie contains learn chinese as well as your lotto numbers for the week. So Edie and I have made it a tradition to not only read the fortune but also learn chinese along the way. (note we always make sure the chinese workers are no where near our table when we read the learn chinese part) Another side note I am always looking for my fortune to say "You will marry a rich man" It hasn't happened yet but I think sometimes I am getting closer to that fortune. So thursday I open my fortune cookie and turn over to the learn chinese side first. Guess what my learn chinese was? still single (not married) as if you wouldn't know what still single meant. How did the cookie know? You usually get things like "Where are you going?" , "how are you doing", "What's happening?" not still single. I was mad. I threw the fortune on the table and started laughing. Oh well. The actual fortune said "Don't miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" Edie said that was my hip replacement. I think it was marrying a rich man. You decide. Have a great day. Hip repacement stories to return soon.

Coming out of the woodworks or would that be the ceramic works.

Guess what faithful readers? The hip replacement stories are starting to come out of the woodworks again. Yes that is right. After a short dry spell and a few blonde moments and Coach K we are back with more local successes to hip replacement. On a side note before I forget I visited with my long term sub this week and everything is set up for her to take over. Ok so here we go with 3 that is right 3 stories in 1. My mom went to eat last saturday and saw a local guy who had hip replacement about a month or maybe a little longer ago out eating. This is the guy that when my mom told me he was having hip replacement I said "Mom you will have to let me know how that goes" Well a few days later my mom said bad bad news. The guy had heart trouble while in the hospital recovering from hip replacement. The good news is now a month or so later he is not only recovered from heart issues but out and about. My mom said he was getting around pretty well. Then my mom went to eat at Clantons in V-town and saw good ole Charkey. What kind of name is that? My question was did they misspell it on the birth certificate. But the story is not really about the guy's name anyway. He came in on crutches. My mom said someone asked what he had done and he told them he had hip replacement. Are you still with me? 2 out of 3. Then my aunt's mother in law called this week and said her niece was scheduled to have hip replacement in November but her doctor performed the surgery on his day off because she in so much pain. She went in at 7:00 and came out of surgery and was in a room by 10:00. Not bad turn around for having to saw off your bone. I don't really know many details about any of these three but I do know this, their stories all came in this week. And the good news is 2 out of 3 of them were out eating. I like to go out to eat so glad to know you get your appetite back after hip replacement. Have a great day and we are about 6 weeks away from my own success stories.

In Good Company

After the initial shock of having hip replacement and getting the word out to the whole world. Ok maybe just half the world but it felt like telling everyone, the stories have kind of slowed down. I guess I am in what is known in the flight world as a holding pattern. I am just waiting to have surgery. Anyway I found out this week thanks to the miracle of TV and the internet that I am in good company with this hip replacement thing. Coach K the coach of the mens olympic basketball game and a famous college basketball coach is now the paid endorser for Depuy orthopedics. You know why he is the paid endorser for the company. That's right (I am convinced I have the smartest readers in the world) he had hip replacement surgery. If you want to read his story it is on www.depuyusa.com. Here is the readers digest version for those of you who don't want to go to another site. He had arithritis and he had bad hips. He got to the point where he had to coach his team from a chair because his hips were so bad. He put off surgery for a year and then after surgery said it was the best thing that ever happened to him.
So maybe they will let me be the paid endorser for hip replacement surgery too. And by the way I drove past the sign mentioned in the last post and it really does have that big gap causing it to read "New Owners hip". Have a great day.

New Owners hip

So I definitely had a blonde moment. Ok Let's face it, it wasn't the first one I had today and probably won't be the last one either. Anyway I was on my way home from school. There was a train on the track so I took the a different route to avoid the train. I was thinking about my hip replacement surgery because we have been working on getting me a long term sub who actually knows math for the time I am gone. As I drove down the road I passed a storage place (you know the place you rent a storage unit). On the sign it said, "New Owners hip". I thought why do I care about the owner's hip anyway. Then it hit me that it wasn't that the owner had a new hip it was under new ownership there was just a huge, and I am talking huge gap between owners and hip. I was really glad no one was in the car with me when I had this moment or it could have been embarassing (not like posting it on my blog for millions or my five faithful readers is not embarassing). I hadn't had a hip replacement story in a while so this was the latest in the adventure. We are on the countdown. About 3 months until surgery. Have a great day and I hope this gave you a small laugh. Remember if you have an encouraging hip replacement story feel free to share it with me.

Everybody has a story.....

Have you ever seen Steve Hartman and his everybody has a story segement on CBS news. Well that is kind of how I feel when talking to people about hip replacement. Everyone has a story and here is the latest. My mom went to the bloodmobile on Friday because she is our giver. Jeremy my bro has been known to give also but mom usually represents the McClain clan. Dad was told to not come back because he passed out and due to my disease I have bad blood. Anyway while she was giving blood she was talking about my hip replacement and one of the nurses who works the bloodmobile came over. She said her daughter, who is 39, only 10 years older than me, had recently had hip replacement. So maybe it isn't so uncommon in younger folks like myself. She said her daughter had it done like on a monday and spent 2 days in the hospital then by Friday was able to go to her sons baseball game. I know there is still a lot of recovery after the actual procedure but to feel good enough to go places is encouragement. Again God brings encouragement in the weirdest ways. And just like Steve Hartman I am beginning to believe that everybody has a story. If you have a story you would like to share feel free to post in my comments or send me an email. Who knows yours might be the next one I post.

Have you ever noticed....

Have you ever noticed that when you have a major medical diagnosis or are having a major medical procedure in my case hip replacement, everyone you encounter has had or knows someone who has had the procedure or illness. Well last night I happened to be watching David Letterman and one of the stage guys(ok he was probably more like a producer because he was dressed in a suit) had just returned from surgery. I bet you can't guess what kind of surgery he had. That's right he had a hip replacement. Isn't that wierd? He said he had hip replacement 2 weeks ago and was up walking with a cane. In fact he was standing on the side of the stage last night. That was really encouraging to me who is facing major hip surgery. You just never know where encouragement is going to come from. So next time you have something like that happen watch and see how many people have a story about whatever is ailing you and remember it might come from some really unusual source like late night TV.