Does this hurt?

Yeah! You're killin' me! One of an orthopedic surgeon's tests is to bend your leg into strange contortions and ask if it hurts. Duh... One of the many things done to me last year. I had been diagnosed with moderate osteoarthritis in my right hip in the fall of 2009. My general practitioner indicated exercise and pain killers. I started walking 6 klm every morning, whether hot and sunny, or bitterly cold. By April of 2010 the arthritis in my hip had become severe. After a year of walking, diligently to stay strong, my journeys were put on hold.

Osteoarthritis is another way of saying that the cartilage in my hip, that which separates the major load bearing bones, was wearing thin. Once severe it was bone on bone and quite painful. Meanwhile my wife and I had moved from the Greater Toronto Area to Niagara Falls, Ontario. With many boxes still looking to be emptied my surgery was scheduled for September 1st, 2010.

Hip surgery is somewhat invasive, to say the least, and after five days in the hospital I was released on my own recognizance... not quite, I had lots of help. Weeks of physio-therapy later and I was able to re-start my early morning 6 klm walks. However, that only lasted so long. I eventually had to stop because my left knee was giving me problems. Something was causing pain, so back to my trusted specialist to see what was wrong. Sure enough, this time it was a torn, or as he put it, shredded, meniscus. That's the curved cartilage that separates the major bones meeting in the knee.

My next surgery, not so invasive this time, will be this Thursday, October 27th, 2011. It would appear that an imbalance caused by a disruption on one side of my body, confused the other side of my body, or as some would say, "these problems come in pairs". I have full confidence in my surgeon, he's great and the hospital staff is quite wary of him because he is so meticulous. I have no worries, but the anesthetic injected into my spine is no joy.

My complaint is that these issues have shaken up our lives, both financially and emotionally. I left my job in 2009 because I could no longer manage stairs coupled with the stress of the particular job, and after the move, my job prospects in Niagara Falls, a depressed area, were dismal. I am still not working, mostly because I am, stubbornly, intent on finding something in information management. I feel if I drastically change my direction, I'll be a different person and never work in software again.