TrowelTalk: Wear and Tear
After years of suffering with arthritis and loss of cartilage in my right hip, I’ve recently undergone a procedure known as “hip resurfacing”.
So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!
After years of suffering with arthritis and loss of cartilage in my right hip, I’ve recently undergone a procedure known as “hip resurfacing”. The process is similar to a total hip replacement, but instead of cutting off the top of the femur bone and inserting a spike down your leg, they clear away the damaged bits from ball and socket and cover them with a titanium and chrome cap and receiver, very much like capping a tooth.
As I write this, I’m almost 4 weeks post-surgery and while I have many weeks of rehabilitation in front of me before I can walk without a limp, I’m doing great. The hip pain that caused me to eat Tylenol and Advil like candy and that caused many a sleepless night is gone, totally gone.
So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!
I started plastering in my early teens, and jumping off of scaffolding and flat tops was as natural as doing a back flip off a diving board. I thought nothing at all of jumping off of a saw horse and landing hard on my right leg dozens of times a day, despite very good advice to be more cautious that was offered by seasoned veterans. Some of us younger guys even dared each other to jump from the second story into a sand pile, and of course I could never turn down a dare…
Plastering and drywall are physically hard jobs and we need to work smart if we’re going to last. What have you learned the hard way since those foolish younger days?
So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!
After years of suffering with arthritis and loss of cartilage in my right hip, I’ve recently undergone a procedure known as “hip resurfacing”. The process is similar to a total hip replacement, but instead of cutting off the top of the femur bone and inserting a spike down your leg, they clear away the damaged bits from ball and socket and cover them with a titanium and chrome cap and receiver, very much like capping a tooth.
As I write this, I’m almost 4 weeks post-surgery and while I have many weeks of rehabilitation in front of me before I can walk without a limp, I’m doing great. The hip pain that caused me to eat Tylenol and Advil like candy and that caused many a sleepless night is gone, totally gone.
So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!
I started plastering in my early teens, and jumping off of scaffolding and flat tops was as natural as doing a back flip off a diving board. I thought nothing at all of jumping off of a saw horse and landing hard on my right leg dozens of times a day, despite very good advice to be more cautious that was offered by seasoned veterans. Some of us younger guys even dared each other to jump from the second story into a sand pile, and of course I could never turn down a dare…
Plastering and drywall are physically hard jobs and we need to work smart if we’re going to last. What have you learned the hard way since those foolish younger days?
