I am a runner. I ran track and cross country as a teenager, but only ran sporadically throughout my 20s and early 30s. In my late 30s, I wanted something to get me back into shape, something just for me now that my kids were a little more self-sufficient. And in the back of my mind, I had a goal to run a full marathon someday, even though I'd never run more than about 6-8 miles at a time even as a teenager. So, I did all that. I built up mileage slowly and only had one minor injury in about 6 years of running. I didn't take more than a week off running whether work was insane, I was traveling, sick, or anything else. I would run on vacations, I learned to run in sub-freezing temps. I ran 2 full marathons, about 10 half marathons, and countless 10ks and 5ks. I convinced my son to train for and run several 5ks with me. We got a dog soon after I really got into running, and she was my constant running partner, willing to go up to 10 miles with me. For one of my marathons, I trained with Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. That was especially fitting because my husband Darrell had recovered from Hodgkin's Lymphoma early in our marriage.
I guess all this makes it easy to assume the running caused my hip osteoarthritis. But when I first began seeing my orthopedic doctor in July, 2015, his first words to me were, "Bad genetics, huh?" followed soon after by the then shocking news that I would need hip replacement surgery by age 50. If I really think back now, there were some subtle signs that my left hip was causing me problems now and then years before. I like to think I have a high pain tolerance, as long distance runners typically do. Running did not cause my osteoarthritis. Running gave me 6+ years of better health, stamina, and a sense of accomplishment than I'd really ever had before. But yes, running did accelerate the damage to my hip joints, especially when I kept running (with the doctor's ok) even after diagnosis.
In 2015, my running was already starting to suffer. I had gone from 9-10 minute mile half marathons previously to being lucky to run 11-12 minute miles. But what does a runner do when she is told her running days are likely numbered? She of course schedules a bucket list running item, which in my case was the Disney Coast to Coast challenge where you run a half marathon in the same calendar year in both Disneyland and Disney World. In February 2016, I completed the Disney Princess challenge (adding a 10k the day before the half marathon) with my non-runner but Disney loving, senior in high school daughter and with my running and best local friend who I had done one leg of the coast to coast with a few years before. Then on Labor Day weekend, I completed the Dumbo Double Dare (again adding a 10k the day before the half marathon) with the same friend and our teen/preteen sons. By that weekend, I was really just able to walk, typically with a limp, and even then, the last mile of that last half marathon was really tough to complete. But I did it. To round out the year, I even somehow managed to convince Darrell to walk a half marathon with me, the Indy 500 mini-marathon in May, 2016. If it came down to giving up running, I at least went out in style and by completing events with each of my kids and hubby.
I'm a firm believer that God only gives us the challenges we can bear, even if things seem nearly impossible at the time. So, when things get tough, I tend to just try harder and pray (although admittedly I sometimes get the order wrong, because I think sometimes God is trying to tell me I need to go to him rather than toughing it out on my own). The saner thing to do would likely have been to get surgery scheduled for early fall. But, I had plans to see my daughter, now a college freshman in West Virginia University's color guard section of the marching band, perform at both a football game in October and then march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November. Plus, I had also had steroid injections in August, and my surgeon stressed that he could not perform surgery within three months of those injections. I also planned to work right up until the day before surgery and only take two weeks off completely. All this while limping worse and worse... and worse, and experiencing more and more pain.
Somehow, someway, and with a lot of support from Darrell and prayers from family and friends, I made it through to the day of surgery...
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