The Hip Replacement - 7

The 6-week progress appointment with my excellent surgeon was brief.  I walked into the consulting room without aids and raised both hands and thumbs.  "You've passed," he said, "no need to ask how you are feeling."  There was one thing that slightly worried me, however, and that was a tightness in the muscles when first standing up.  This had me limping the first 2 or 3 steps before the tension disappeared.  The surgeon offered me another x-ray, just to make sure, which I accepted.  The x-ray, completed in less than 30 minutes confirmed that all was well.  "Its a beautiful job," he mused, would you like to remind yourself how it was before?"  We looked at the before and after, shook  hands, and that was that.

Now just 10 weeks since the operation I have been walking just about every day and gradually increasing the distance and duration.  Today was over 5 miles and the tension when rising from my chair is gradually fading.  I am rejoicing in the restored mobility and overwhelmingly thankful for my new lease of life.  Its difficult to be restrained and not to sound off, for example, in brief appendices to Christmas Cards about how good I am feeling.  That is, how good I felt until I began to receive cards, as usual at this time of year, from my old friends.

The inflow of Christmas news brought with it an above average notification of tales of affliction and misfortune.  Heroic colleagues, remembered from flying training, school friends and business partners - none, it seems have been exempt from the ravages of illness and incapacity or even the attention of the grim reaper himself. It has been very sobering so to everyone I say, "I'm sorry if my new lease of life does not correspond to your recent experience but be assured it has made me treasure my good fortune all the more."